UN
the arrival!
THE TRAIN WHISTLE blew as students crowded Platform 9 3/4 before the upcoming school year. For Lily Edwards, the day was starting out perfectly. Her fingers tingled with excitement at the prospect of 7th year, however, the small twinge in her heart reminded her that this was the end.
But, with the cloudy haze of seventh year and excitement and nervous for her future prospects as a healer, she wished her father, Gael Edwards goodbye. His husband and her papa, Pierre, was not present for a multitude of reasons ( involving his dislike of large crowds and sensitive sinuses ), but mainly because, as a family they weren't ready for the larger world to find out that she had two dads instead of one.
It also helped that Pierre was opening a new bakery in the United States and was pulled away due to the finalization of the building and decoration ( he was very particular about these things ). And wherever Pierre went, Gael was soon to follow like sunshine after the rain, so Gael would be boarding a train to London Heathrow and flying to New York City shortly after bidding his daughter farewell.
She had already spotted the unruly black curls of a certain Henry Stints, her suspicions confirming themselves as she saw his green scarf and scary mother. Henry Stints, a half-blood Slytherin, was the literal definition of a chaotic gay.
He had never told his mother, naturally, but like every mother, she knew, but like every proper pureblooded woman, she elected to ignore it. Georgiana Stints, his mother, was very strict and very very scary. She had married below what her parents deemed to be acceptable for love and paid the price for it as he left her soon after Henry was born.
Although with a tragic past, Henry was anything but, lighting up the room with his joyous smile. He was honest, spontaneous and the type to stick around for a while. He was Lily's first friend in the wizarding world. He showed her all that he could within the walls of the school, and she would always hold him in the highest esteem for his kindness.
Gathering her things, she prepared herself to board the train and find Henry to say hello. She kissed her dad on the cheek, promising to be safe and making him promise the same and hoisted her baggage onto the train with the help of a train hand.
She rushed through the corridor, trying to find the compartment containing her friends and after running into several younger students, she found them. Sitting nearest to the window on the left side was Ruby MacMillan, a year younger and a fellow Ravenclaw.
Ruby was wise beyond her years, but didn't enjoy studying so much. And, for the past year and a half, she'd been dating a Hufflepuff named Charlie Oswald, who was as sweet as ginger biscuits and they were happy. Everyone knew that behind her pleasant disposition, Ruby only cared about five things in life: her friends, her family, Charlie, Care of Magical Creatures ( she dreamed of becoming a Magizoologist ) and liquorice snap candies ( without which you could never find her ).
Next to her was said boyfriend, Charlie, someone whom Lily had gotten to know a little, but not much. She did know, however, that he followed Ruby around like a love-sick puppy and that he had a keen interest in spell making, a talent he often used in Defense Against the Dark Arts.
Next to Charlie was Benjamin Thomas, quidditch commentator extraordinaire. Although he had an interest in Quidditch, he never made the cut for the team and gave up trying out in 4th year. Benjamin, or Ben, as they called him, was the son of Dean Thomas — a very successful auror, and a Gryffindor.
Ben was the life of the party anywhere he went and one of the brightest kids in their year. You could only find Ben in one of two places: the library studying or by the black lake, conversing with the merpeople, a talent he inherited from his biological mother. Although, late at night, he could also be found sneaking down to the kitchens for late night cinnamon hot chocolate and conversation with the house elves.
Following in the tradition of magical twins, Ben and Nyah, his twin sister, could easily be compared to Fred and George Weasley. With Ben's brains and Nyah's ability to talk them out of detention, they were the pranksters of the school — only second to James Potter's group.
Across from Ben sat Nyah, also a Gryffindor, who was a world class keeper and set to be recruited for the Holyhead Harpies, like Ginny Potter, after her graduation. Although not particularly interested in classes as her future was already set for her in terms of Quidditch, she did have a particular talent for Divination. The top student in that class, Nyah decided in second year ( over a breakfast of french toast, naturally ) that if quidditch didn't work out, she would become a muggle fortune teller and lavish in fame for her accurate predictions. Like her brother, she had boundless energy and a flair for the dramatics, but she was always there for you when you needed her most.
To the right of her was Estelle Nguyen, one of the most interesting people, Lily claims, that she's ever met. Her favorite hobbies included Herbology, cooking, grooming her owl, Aang, and reading Sylvia Plath. All she wanted to do though is travel the world, see everything and experience as many cultures as she could. Estelle, or Stell, was a fellow muggleborn and prided herself with being the only witch in her family, though she made sure to never rub it in the face of her little sister.
In 3rd year, she came out to her friends as bisexual ( after which they promptly showered her with hugs because they knew she had been struggling with telling people for a while ) and the summer after told her parents. Her family was quite accepting and it allowed for Estelle to become closer to her little sister, Jenny. They were notorious for their matching personalities and the storm they created whenever left alone together.
Next to Estelle sat Henry Stints and next to him sat Lily Luna Potter. This was not surprising. After she had come to Hogwarts, Lily practically adopted Lily Luna and insisted that she sit with her friends in case Lily Luna couldn't find her own. This happened after Lily was assigned to tutor Lily Luna in charms the year previous — such a fortunate assignment as they both found lifelong friends.
So there they were, a happy bunch of kids, some awaiting the start of their last school year, others just the start of another one. Lily heaved her trunk up onto the racks, with the help of Henry, and sat down with a groan.
"Lunes I can't believe that your brother is Head Boy, please tell me that he isn't," Lily grumbled.
If Lily Luna had, in fact, not been playing a joke on Lily and James Sirius Potter was Head Boy instead of Lorcan Scamander, then that discarded all of her goals for the upcoming year. Originally planning on sharing the burden of leading the student body, she had now resigned herself to the reality that she might be doing the work of two instead of one.
"I'm afraid so, he wouldn't shut up about it over the summer and he knows that you're Head Girl. You're the most logical option," she replied with a grimace, feeling bad for Lily as James didn't have a good track record with responsibility.
"I appreciate it," Lily said kindly. "Considering Potter is Head Boy, I'll have to lead the meeting by myself and Merlin knows how long that will take, so tell me briefly about all of you holidays!"
If there was one thing that Lily hated about the summer holidays, it was that it became significantly harder for her to see her friends. They lived all across Scotland, Ireland and England and even with apparition ( which she was completely comfortable using yet ), it was still challenging across long distances.
Naturally, Henry was the first to speak up: "my mum got another boyfriend — number 19 I think. He wasn't half bad though — he bought me a Queen shirt and poster for my birthday, which was nice of him."
Like all sane people on the planet, Henry had a huge crush on Roger Taylor. The rest of the compartment nodded in agreement, as a gift relating to Roger Taylor was always a good one.
Nyah spoke up next. "Oh you know, the usual: sleep, sleep more, eat, come up with quidditch plays for Potter, practice as a seeker, eat more, owl you guys. We went on a small holiday to Plymouth which was so much fun!"
The last comment earned support from everyone as well because with the scorching summer temperatures, any mention of a beach escape was envied and applauded.
"We all know that you and Potter come up with those plays together, you've just been outlining them because you were asleep half of the time you claimed to be working. As for my summer, I helped Ny practice for quidditch, we worked out new pranks for this year-" Ben teased.
"That's right I forgot, we have some really good ones planned-!" Nyah interrupted.
"As I was saying," Ben yelled over Nyah's interruption. "We worked out new pranks for this year that are going to make sure we leave with a bang and I got a job working at Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes which means I got free stuff to work with this year! Also, we started planning our birthday party."
He shot a pointed glare at Nyah and then proceeded to waggle his eyebrows at the prospect of free stuff to prank with. However, the highlight of his statement was, of course, the Thomas twin's birthday party. Being twins, Gryffindors and the children of two war heroes — they were automatically popular and that made their birthday part one of the parties of the year.
"Well we can't wait! It'll be your last one, so I'm sure it'll be amazing!" Ruby exclaimed. "As for my summer, Charlie and I's families travelled together in Italy. They let us stay alone together in a villa for a couple of nights and it was so romantic!" she exclaimed, causing the boy next to her to go red as Lily Luna's hair.
"That sounds so sweet Charlie!" Lily cooed as the others either gagged or agreed with Lily.
"I played with Jenny a lot," Estelle said with a smile. "We made a ton of friendship bracelets for our cousins and Coco was so excited all summer, so lots of walks were necessary. We also took a trip to Germany in the middle because Jenny was begging to after learning about it in school. Oh! And my mum taught me to cook some more family recipes and I got really into Rupi Kaur. The Sun and Her Flowers is a masterpiece."
Estelle then turned to Lily Luna Potter and motioned for her to speak.
"Teddy went on holiday with Vic and so everyone came around a lot to see him and stuff, so I got teased a lot. However, James took up most of the summer with his double posting as Head Boy and Quidditch Captain. My dad was really proud of him," she said, looking at the older students with a tilt of her head and a smile. "But overall it was pretty good."
"That sounds amazing and with the reminder that it's your brother and not Lorcan, I should probably go and brief the prefects because Merlin knows if your brother will even show up. Charlie, Stell and Ny that means you lot as well," Lily said with a sad smile.
Lily Luna grimaced at the all too true reality that was her brother. As much as she loved him and as much as he was a different person with her, she couldn't ignore what he was like to others, especially Lily Edwards.
After grabbing something from her trunk and heading down the corridor, followed by Nyah Estelle and Charlie, Lily reached the prefect's cabin and was shocked to see James Potter already standing there, flirting with a 6th year Slytherin prefect. Albus Potter sat a few seats away with a disgusted look on his face.
Nyah, Estelle and Charlie found their seats with other housemates, but not sitting down without comforting squeezes on the shoulder from both girls. Once everyone was settled, Lily cleared her throat, gaining the attention of the compartment.
"Hello everyone! I'm your Head Girl, Lily Edwards, and this-" Lily said cordially.
"-is James Sirius Potter, though you all already knew that. Head Boy and Gryffindor quidditch captain," James interrupted.
"Thank you, Potter, for ... that. If you have any questions please come to me, as our lovely Head Boy will probably direct you to me anyway," she said sending a sarcastic smile towards James, who rolled his eyes in response.
"That's just because you're perfect Lil. And because perfection should be with perfection, do you want to go to Hogsmeade with me? We could get butterbeer, get to know each other, maybe I could find out what brand of under-" James replied cheekily.
"Starting early are we? We haven't even gotten to Hogwarts yet," a Ravenclaw prefect commented.
The Ravenclaws, in particular, were used to James' antics in order to gain Lily's attention, as they shared a common room with her. Such stunts included covering the common room walls with pictures of Lily ( which was creepy and not one of James' finest plans ) or writing in blue fire ( that ended up setting a sofa and two chairs aflame ) 'will you go out with me Lily Edwards - j.s.p.' which she prompted put out and then yelled at him for. In a fit of embarassment, she stressed baked and ended up making conciliatory cakes for all those afflicted.
"I wouldn't go out with your arrogant arse even if you were the last boy on the planet. Because let's face it, you're not a man," Lily retorted, glaring at him and he smirked mischievously at her, however, the small burn earning laughter from everyone in the compartment.
"Whatever you say princess," he sighed as he draped an arm around her shoulder, which she quickly shrugged off and slapped away.
"Now, I'm sure you all want to know who you'll be partnered with for rounds and what times you'll be performing them-" Lily continued authoritatively.
"We already had to assign rounds? I thought we were doing that at the castle," James asked with a slightly confused tone.
"No Potter, you'd know that Head Boy and Head Girl assign patrolling on the train ride over so they can start that night. But seeing as you've never been a prefect nor shown a shred of responsibility once in your life, I've done it," Lily replied with a sarcastic smile.
She reached into her bag and pulled out the assignments from a manila folder. Each piece of parchment contained rounds, routes and partners to each of the prefects in the compartment. She had a smile on her face as she distributed the schedules.
"If you lose it, please come see me, I have backups," Lily announced.
"That's my best friend!" Nyah whooped, proud of her friend's responsibility.
"You're amazing, you know that," James said, staring wide eyed.
"Thanks Ny," Lily said as she sent Nyah a wink. "Everyone please make sure that no first years get lost. Also, on your assignments is the password to enter your dorms, when you enter for the first time, please remember to say it loudly and clearly. We don't need first, or hell, even fourth years standing outside of their common rooms at an ungodly hour in the night because they don't remember the password."
"Can we go back to our friends now?" a Gryffindor prefect asked.
"Yes, when we are close to the castle, Georgia and Ishana, please go around and make sure that every starts to change into their robes. This year will be great and thank you for bearing with me," she said with a smile.
Everyone started to file out, some of the boys clapping James on the shoulder, sending comments like "better luck next time" or "one day mate" as they left. Soon it was just Lily and James, standing in the compartment. Lily was flicking through her backup prefect schedules and James was staring at her, searching for something to say.
"What?" she asked shortly.
"What do you mean 'what'?" he asked, meeting her eyes as she looked up.
"You've been staring at me for a little bit now which means you either are having a seizure or are going to ask me out again, so please, which is it," she deadpanned, giving him a bored stare.
"Neither actually, unless if you do -" James asked with a note of hope in his voice.
"No," Lily interrupted shortly.
"Alright, well what I wanted to say was that I do want to help you with all of these Head Boy duties and I realized that in order for that to work out, we have to at least be civil towards each other. So what I'm proposing is that if I stop asking you out everyday, maybe you could not make your words drip with disdain every time you talk to me?" he asked as he fiddled with his hands.
"Oh ... sure ... that was really mature, Potter," she stuttered with shock.
There was no way that he thought of that on his own, Lily Luna or Rose surely told him to say that.
"Deal?" he asked, holding out his hand for her to shake, the other scratching the back of his neck.
"Deal," she replied, shaking his hand and heading out of the compartment without another word.