A/N: Yes! Another l/j fic! Joy!!! I didn't do a sequel to Revenge because I was afraid of disappointing you guys :( Sequels are rarely, if ever, better than the originals. This one is going to be totally different from Revenge, so it's worth reading!! You'll notice I start at King's Cross Station . . . you guys all know how it goes, right? The letter, Diagon Alley, bla, bla. :) I feel they wouldn't add anything to this fic so chose to leave it out :) anyway, enjoy and REVIEW!

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Lily Evans stood alone at King's Cross Station, trying to figure out, with a slightly mounting panic, exactly how to get to platform 9 ¾.  She didn't let it show, of course.  Only fools let their feelings show. 

Lily was a tall girl, with long red hair cascading down her back in smooth waves.  She was slim, just short of skinny, and had pale, milky white skin.  Most striking, though, were her intense green eyes.  When those riveted themselves on you, you felt as though every secret you had ever tried to hide was being ripped out.

Lily, after another minute of coolly searching the crowds for a clue, finally noticed another boy, about her age, who appeared to be a wizard.  He had disheveled hair and brown eyes, and was rather skinny.  His clothes appeared to have patches of mud on the hems.  Most ungainly.  Lily walked over to him and stopped about seven feet to his left to watch what he would do next.

The boy gestured to his friend – a tall, black-haired boy with a smile and a twinkle in his eye – and laughed loudly every so often.  Lily sniffed.  Honestly, what were they talking about that could possibly be so . . . entertaining?  She continued watching out of the corner of her eye - afraid that if she looked away, she would miss some wizard trick - all while pretending to know exactly where she was and what she was doing here.

Finally, after several more minutes of raucous laughter from the two, a dark-haired man – Lily assumed he was the first boy's father – came up to them and leaned over to say something.  The other two nodded, still grinning – from a pathetic joke, most likely - and trotted off towards the rail between platform nine and ten.  Lily watched them intently.  They continued to talk to each other, even as they lugged their chests toward the gates.  What were they doing?  In a few seconds, they would crash into that wall and . . .

Lily blinked.  Did she miss something?  One minute they had been there and the next . . . gone.  Well, she thought to herself after a second, regaining her queenly composure. It can't be that difficult if those two lunkheads can do it.

Squaring her shoulders slightly and lifting her chin, she walked confidently towards the exact spot the other two boys had.  She could not help but feel foolish.

I am going to run into the wall.  I am going to run into the barrier, and all these fools around me are going to point and laugh.  I am going to make a fool of myself.  Why am I doing this? I am going to . . .

 har

She was so caught up in the horrible things that were inevitably going to happen to her that she didn't notice she had already stepped though the partition.

I cannot believe I am doing this!  Walking through a wall, of all things!  Why, if Mother were here, she'd tell me . . .

Lily was about to recite to herself the "proper etiquette of a well-groomed young lady" that her mother had hammered into her head when her somewhat glazed eyes noticed a change in her surroundings.

Everywhere around her, people bustled about importantly, mostly children and teenagers lugging large chests and luggage onto a gigantic blood-red steam engine with a sign over it reading Hogwarts Express, Eleven o'clock.  And there, just betting on the train, were the two boys.

Splendid, Lily thought, trying very hard to convince herself she hadn't been afraid.  She checked the lock on her chest of clothes and made sure her magical animal was all right.

Lady, as she'd been named, was a pearly white owl with the largest eyes imaginable.  She was small, barely the size of Lily's forearm, but almost snobbish in appearance.  Her yellow beak hooked upwards (A/N: does that make sense?) in a manner that made it look as though she was looking down on everything, and her curved talons were delicately placed around the branch she was perched on.  All in all, the sleek owl was a mirror image of Lily.

The steam engine hissed loudly, and Lily quickly picked up Lady's ivory cage and hauled her heavy trunk towards the train.  Hogwarts was going to be superb.

                                                                        ***

James Potter still smiled at his friend Sirius' Black earlier joke.  Brain goop and mouse whiskers, indeed!

The boy in question was still chattering on, though by now James had tuned him out.  They walked the length of the train until they found an empty compartment, at the end.

James heaved his luggage into the corner of the compartment and plopped himself down into a seat.  Sirius, amazingly enough, had not stopped talking.

"What'd you suppose it'll be like, Hogwarts?  I've heard it's huge!  So big even Dumbleore – that's the headmaster, I've heard – doesn't know everything about it!  Isn't that amazing?  I wonder if they'll teach smell potions and itch charms?  Probably not; I've heard they're really strict.  Stupid gits.  I've heard the potions master chops up kids he doesn't like and chucks hem into soup!  Do you think it's true James? Do you? James!"

James woke with a start from his daydream.  It had been so wonderful, too!  There were flowers and trees . . . and silence.

Sirius opened his mouth again - probably to ask what could possibly be more important than his brain less chatter – and snapped it shut at the entrance of two other boys.

The first was very average.  Medium size, medium weight, medium height . . . a very average boy indeed.  He looked slightly wary, as though half-expecting a creature to leap out of a crack, and his eyes were haggard.  He greeted Sirius and James with a smile, though, showing off pearly whites.  James thought they looked rather . . . well, sharp.

"Hullo!  I'm Remus Lupin.  I don't really know anyone here, and most of the compartments were full, so . . ." He ended with a questioning look.

Sirius grinned.

"Please!  Make yourself comfortable, mate!  The more the merrier!" he said in an attempted Australian accent.

"Who's your friend?" James asked curiously while gesturing to the seat beside him.

"My . . . Oh!  This is Peter Pettigrew.  I met him outside."

The boy that squeezed past Remus could not have been more different.  He barely came up to Remus' shoulder, but he was at least twice as wide.  A mop of plain brown hair looked glued to his pudgy head.  He smiled shyly, wringing his hands a little, but his beady eyes were piercing. 

Sirius, of course, didn't notice.

"Oy!  Another one!  What'd you eat for breakfast, flab?"

Sirius sometimes did not notice how stinging his "innocent remarks" were.  Peter smiled and laughed a little at the "joke," but his eyes flashed dangerously.  Sirius spread his arms apart.

"Velcom, my vriends.  Please.  Make yourveles at home!" He said with evil smile.

Peter and Remus obliged willingly, and soon the four were engrossed in an animated conversation.

                                                                         ***

Lily growled as the people in the tenth compartment told her that, "This compartment's full.  Why don't you look somewhere else?"  Lily almost snarled to herself.  No.  Must be calm.  What would her mother say if she learned Lily was visibly angry at others?  The very thought made Lily shiver daintily.

After a couple more "full" compartments, she reached the last one.  At this point, she was not in a good mood.  She could hear a person shout that the train was leaving in one minute.  She shoved the door open slightly harder than she had meant to.

Four faces looked at her in surprise.  Two of them were the boys she had seen.  The one with the twinkling eyes grinned insolently at her.

"Well, well, fair maiden!  So kind of you to join our humble compartment!"  He stood up and swept her a mock bow, while the three others stifled laughs.

"The other ones are full.  I'm afraid I'll have to stay in this one, as much as that revulses me," she said in her frostiest tone.

She tried to push her trunk into the corner of the compartment, but found it was too heavy.  Fuming silently, she pushed harder.

"Let me help you with that," the tall dark-haired boy said.

Lily looked at him sideways, then stepped aside from her chest of clothes.  Perhaps there was some gallantry left in the world.

The boy braced his hands on the chest and shoved it forward.  Lily could not understand why he was grinning.  There really was nothing amusing about this!

The trunk gave a small groan, then lurched forward.  The tall boy's foot, somehow, shot out and caught hers.  Shrieking, she fell backwards, windmilling her arms in a vain attempt to gain the balance, without success.  She hit the floor with a loud thump, exposing layers of petticoats underneath her frilly dress.

The two dark-haired boys laughed uproariously, slapping each other on the back.  The blond-haired one (A/N: I'm not sure what color Remus' hair is, and I don't feel like checking) hid a grin behind his hand, and the pudgy child's eyes gleamed maliciously.

Lily was outraged.  She stood up as fast as possible and dusted herself up.  She raised her chin.

"Well I never!  You inconsiderate, idiotic, tapioca-brained, stupid gits!  I would never, in all my born days, have expected to be so thoroughly humiliated!  I am outraged, why . . ."

"Spare us your sniveling!  Who are you, anyway?  I'm James Potter, this is Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew," the boy who had pushed her over said.

Lily's eyes bulged indignantly.  Sniveling?  Sniveling?  The nerve!

"I," she said coldly, "am Lily Evans.  And I wish you nothing gut ill in this school year."

Sirius doubled over in his seat, repeating, in between laughs, "I wish you nothing but ill!"" in a high-pitched voice, while the others giggled in turn.

Lily tried her best to ignore them, and sat down in the seat farthest from the boys, arranging her skirts.  Perhaps this school year would not be quite as good as she had planned it.                    

***

A/N: Isn't Lily a priss???? Mwahaha!  Don't worry, maybe she'll get better at Hogwarts! I don't know whether or not Peter was fat, but he is in this story so you'll have to live with it :) Please review!  It would make my day!