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Semele Perdita

Chapter One: Life or Something Like It

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[ Lily ]

It must have been the longest day of my life.

To everyone around me, it looked like the start of any other year at Hogwarts. Like nothing had changed. In their eyes, change was something that could only happen in large amounts. How wrong they were.

For me, this change happened so subtly that one would not notice even if they had been watching. This was the first year my parents did not come with me to the train station. Why? They were dead; killed on their way home from a joint business endeavor. Their train derailed and flipped over, taking the lives of thirty-two people.

I looked around the station with my peers all bidding their own parents a goodbye. A smile tugged at my lips, despite my situation. The numbness of my parents' death was still in full swing and I was well informed by many sources that the shock would eventually wear off. How would they know? They weren't the ones who lost my parents, they only knew of what they had experienced when they lost their own parents. Mine were different; they had to be.

With a sigh, I boarded the train and took to holing myself in the nearest empty compartment. People could find me if they really wanted to speak with me.

Of course, my friend, Meara, found me first. She had no traces of pity in her eyes like everyone else who knew did; there was some foreign touch of sympathy but no pity. Her perceptiveness on what people needed was always astounding to me.

"Lily," she inclined her dark blonde head in a form of greeting. "How are you doing?" Her gray eyes slid across my face in their usual examination and her mouth curved in some sort of strange approval. She was already decked out partially in her uniform, her dark blue tie looped around her neck carelessly.

"If you want me to say, 'Oh I'm fine, everything's great. How about you, Meara?' Please, the door is right behind you," I answered without looking up from the book I had pulled out.

"Why on earth would you say that? Unless you were daft of course, but then that might explain some things, considering," Meara said, with a cat like smile that was as obvious as ever as she raised an eyebrow in a mocking gesture at me.

"Ha," I resisted the urge to glare at my companion. Meara was slightly off in the aspect of banter. 'Off ' meaning, she could never resist the urge to underline her words with some sort of inside humor, funny only to herself.

However, this was how many of my housemates were. Guarded, sarcastic, and a good portion of them were chronic bookworms. Intelligent as the poor things were, they lacked the common sense for anything and were constantly overanalyzing things.

Yes, I do pity some of the people in my house. I wonder constantly what would happen if they actually took their noses out of their thick, dusty books and actually lived a normal life. This, of course, will never happen. I, Lily Evans, inhabitant of Ravenclaw House for the past five years (going on six), have been assured of this repeatedly. Some things will never change.

We both sat in silence for the majority of the train ride, as we usually do, exchanging dialogue only when needed. We shared a bond that confused many people. They couldn't see why Meara and I were friends, neither could I at times. It was just a natural occurrence. We didn't sit around each other's beds and giggle over cute boys like the others girls our age. We had an understanding and a silent trust in each other that was a comfort to both of us.

As the annoyingly familiar voice drifted across the entire train announcing that we would be arriving shortly, I realized I had to start getting ready. I hadn't changed into my uniform yet. Rolling my eyes, I quickly rummaged through the disarray of my trunk and found my clothes. I pulled them on and was smoothing my skirt as the conductor announced that everyone needed to take their seats and would everyone please refrain from exiting the train immediately when it stopped.

I plunked down in my seat with a sigh and grabbed my tie, which was lying carelessly across my trunk's lid. I circled around my neck, tied it in a sloppy knot, and slipped my jumper over my blouse. Shaking my hair free, I grabbed a hair tie and pulled it back into a neater bun, while attempting to pin my Prefect badge on my jumper.

I succeeded only in pricking my finger and getting a heap of red curls in my face. Meara, with an amused expression, crossed over the small space and fastened the pin easily on my top and handed me the dropped hair tie. She chuckled lightly at me and her liquid eyes danced with amusement.

"Let's go, Lils, before you kill yourself," Meara chided.

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[ James ]

Looking over the banister rail, I felt a grin steal upon my face as I watched them coming up the hall.

As usual, the Ravenclaws were punctual in everything they did, even leading their precious little newbies up to their commons. Their Prefect, Lily Evans, was currently explaining exactly what being in her house meant and what was expected of them.

Maybe this new batch of first years wouldn't all be incurable know-it-alls like the rest of their house. Of course, that would never happen. Hoping for something like that though was almost futile. Ravenclaws were born and bred to be know-it-alls.

Seeing as they were nearing the place where I was posted, I ducked out of sight but not before flicking my wand inconspicuously at the ceiling. I allowed my smile to become even wider at the faint sounds of sloshing from up above my head.

Risking a glance across the expansive hallway, I caught one of my best mate's eyes and nodded. It was time to have some fun.

From the four points in the hallway in which we were stationed, we all lifted our wands up and pointed at the floating cups we had placed there earlier. Hopefully, the water had filled all of them by now.

"Ibi Aspergere!" I muttered at the cups nearest to me. In slow motion, they capsized and turned their contents onto the hallway's inhabitants, namely the Ravenclaw first years and Lily Evans.

The water that filled the cups mixed with the multi-colored instant hair dye that we had put in them earlier was sure to cause chaos as soon as they realized what was happening, but I didn't stick around to find out.

After all, I would hear about it soon enough. Right now, I had to catch up with the rest of the group.

Sirius, Remus, and Peter had been my best mates and partners in crime since our first year. We bonded on the spot when we first met each other. We are inseparable and constantly in trouble.

I am closest to Sirius, simply because we are the most like each other and at the same time easily the most diverse in our little group. Sirius is always the one that plans our little escapades in hot water. Remus is usually the one to polish these plans and come up with ingenious ways to get out of the hot water that Sirius had placed us in. Peter usually sneaks around and makes sure the coast is clear and is always involved in the actual setting up of the plan. I am the one who makes sure everything runs smoothly and when something does go wrong to evacuate the troops.

We have called ourselves the Marauders for almost as long as I could remember. The group had started with only Sirius and me but was quickly expanded to include Remus and Peter.

Anyways, the four of us met up in the hallway that led to the Gryffindor common room and dormitories, all out of breath.

Remus was the first to break our silent panting and smiling. "She is going to kill us," he said simply. He didn't have to elaborate who 'she' was. We all knew. Lily Evans was indeed going to kill us. It wasn't hard for anyone to figure out that we were the ones to do this to her and her new housemates. Lily had not parted at the end of 5th year on good terms with us and was due for something to happen to her. We had planned this hair dye thing all summer and if I do say so myself, it was rather brilliant.

"Ah, but was it worth it, Moony, my pal?" Sirius choked out. He was stumbling on his words because he was shaking with silent laughter the whole time.

"Yes, it was, I only wish we could have seen her face when she realizes her hair is turning blue," Remus replied with a far-off smile.

"You think she'll tell McGonagall?" Peter asked timidly.

"No doubt about that one, but, really, a week's worth of detentions is worth seeing Evans with blue hair!" I laughed at the question.

This comment, of course, caused all of us to crack up in laughter once more. We all smiled and caught each other's eyes as we heard footsteps on their way up the hall. Obviously, our own first years were coming to join Gryffindor's ranks.

Suddenly a thought occurred to me. Remus was a Prefect this year and, besides him already being in trouble for skipping out on his job that still meant meetings and duties. How were we supposed to do anything with a chosen 'responsible' Prefect in the Marauder group?

Apparently though, Remus seemed to have already thought this problem through.

"Don't worry about this,” he said, gesturing towards his Prefect badge. He had obviously read the questions on my face. “Prefect meetings are once every month and I only have to patrol occasionally. It's not like I'd punish you guys anyways, James."

I smiled at Remus and gave a nod of appreciation. I knew that he would never put us in detention, but it was nice to hear he wouldn't be getting all uptight on us either.

"Now then, let's go and see what our wonderful housemates did over the summer," Sirius broke the silence. He was the only one of us really and truly excited to return to school, I think. He had been restless all summer and was ready for a wider variety of company I expected. Sirius was jigging down the hallway in front of us, but stopped abruptly when he reached the Fat Lady's portrait, the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. "Er--Moony, what's our password again?"

Remus sighed as they approached the painting of the Fat Lady. We always forgot the password even if he had told us only five minutes ago.

"Clara Stella," he answered and the portrait swung open without protest.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Peter asked, as he wrinkled his chubby nose in confusion and the portrait swung open.

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Okay here's some names and their meanings that have been mentioned in this chapter:
Semele Perdita: no pronunciation available: Latin "The Once Lost"
Meara : MEER-uh : Irish "merry"
that's the weird names/spells or words in this chapter, you've seen the rest of 'em before!

Spells and Their Meanings:
Ibi Aspergere : no pronunciation available : Latin "Splash in That Place" or "Splash Over There"