Fight on the train
The second year would begin the day after tomorrow, and the two sisters packed their things for school together.
On September 1, Mr Evans drove them to the station. Lily and Petunia got into his car, along with Snape, who had once again been forced to come along.
Petunia caught sight of Snape and instinctively frowned. Seeing that her sister was about to get close to a Slytherin again, she was displeased and decided to pretend she hadn't seen him.
After boarding the Hogwarts Express, Snape headed straight for his disreputable friends. Lily parted ways with Petunia and went down the corridor to find Mary, Marlene and the others; they had arranged to meet in a compartment long ago. Before she had gone far, Mary waved enthusiastically at her from a compartment.
"Lily, come in!" "Long time no see, Lily. You got even prettier over the summer." Mary smiled and shifted over, with Alice and Dorcas sitting across from her. Lily took a seat beside Mary.
"Where's Marlene?"
"Don't even ask. Her grandfather insisted she go meet the Pure-blood young masters and misses from all the different families. She couldn't get away at all." Dorcas broke off a piece of Chocolate Frog and shared it with everyone.
"Couldn't she refuse?" Mary asked curiously.
"Probably not. Her grandfather is especially old-fashioned." Afraid it was rude to pass judgment on an elder, Alice quickly revised her wording. "I saw him come to pick her up at the platform before the holidays. He looked like a very serious man."
"Poor thing. Let's observe three seconds of silence for her." Dorcas pressed her palms together and pretended to pray.
The girls soon changed the subject and chatted about the fun things they'd done over the summer. "By the way, did any of you travel over the holidays? My mum took me to France."
At the other end of the train, the four Marauders had gathered together and were planning to play pranks all the way down the train. "James, are we really going to cause trouble the whole way?" Peter was a little nervous.
"Be brave, Peter. We're punishing evil and promoting good!" Sirius patted him on the shoulder and put an arm around Lupin, intending to make trouble from the front of the train to the back.
In a nearby Slytherin compartment, Avery's gaze swept over the four of them, and he let out a sneer. He turned to Mulciber and Snape and muttered mockingly, "Look at those four brainless Gryffindors. They're always going on about courage above all else. They're just reckless and stupid."
Sirius and James glared fiercely at him when they heard him. "Oh, the Pure-blood traitor dares to glare at me? I'm terrified." Avery and Mulciber chimed in together. "Hanging around with Mudbloods and half-breeds every day, you've picked up the stench of the lower classes, haven't you, Severus?"
Mulciber folded his arms and watched, delighted to see Sirius get angry and lose control enough to attack. "Say that again if you've got the guts?" Sirius whipped out his wand, fury surging.
"The Pure-blood traitor wants to fight us too?"
"Watch your mouth. If you dare spew any more shit, I'll give it a good wash for you." James couldn't stand seeing his friend bullied and immediately stepped forward.
At the same time, Sirius fired off an offensive jinx. Snape raised his wand too. His grudge against the four Marauders ran even deeper than Avery and the others', and now that he had a legitimate chance to teach them a lesson, he wasn't going to let it slip by.
James fired a Rictusempra first, followed immediately by a Leg-Locker Curse aimed straight at Avery. Snape's spellwork was no less accomplished; several Densaugeo spells came flying straight at James, and he precisely blocked every one of them back.
James silently cursed the damned Snivellus for getting in the way. Lupin and Peter dodged and threw in attacks of their own, working with James and Sirius at the front to strike their opponents from both sides.
No one knew who first abandoned his wand and charged in with his fists. Avery's left eye instantly swelled up. He covered it and swung his fists wildly in retaliation, hitting anyone who came near. Sirius tripped Mulciber with a Trip Jinx, then landed a left hook squarely in his face.
"Are you blind? Open your eyes before you fight! Even if you've got slit eyes, you can't keep them shut and swing wildly the whole time!"
"My eyes have been open the whole time!" Unwilling to give up, Avery lunged forward and pinned Sirius firmly to the floor. He cast all Pure-blood etiquette and school rules to the back of his mind; all he could think about was teaching this "Pure-blood traitor" a lesson. "Remus, help me get him off! He's so heavy I can hardly breathe, and he's choking me out!" Pinned down, Sirius couldn't move.
Lupin and Peter found courage from somewhere and kicked Avery hard from either side, finally pulling him off Sirius. Meanwhile, James and Snape were wrestling each other. Those two were the very definition of using a public dispute to settle a private grudge. Snape thought Potter was an egomaniac who buzzed around Lily every day like an annoying fly, while James thought the gloomy, greasy bat Snape had no right to be friends with Lily. The way Snape looked at Lily disgusted James and made him feel that the person he liked had been offended.
"Stop it, all of you! Stop fighting!" Several Prefects had received word from students and hurried to the back of the train.
"Merlin, what on earth are you doing?" The Gryffindor Prefect looked at the gold-and-red robes scattered across the floor and immediately felt a headache coming on. A group fight on the first day of school was bound to cost House Points.
He recognized the famous four Marauders at a glance. The three Slytherins opposite them had come off worse, and for some reason the thought At least Gryffindor has the upper hand popped into his head. He quickly suppressed the thought he shouldn't have had. Just imagining Professor McGonagall's expression when she found out made him feel that their House Points would plummet straight into the negatives.
"Once we arrive, all of you come with me to the office to see the professor."
The Slytherin Prefect, Rosier, left them with those words and turned away. He couldn't bear to look. How did Slytherin have idiots like these? Fighting in private was one thing, but they'd gone and done it out in the open. Idiots, every one of them.
Coming to his senses, Snape regained his composure and felt he must have been mad to fight with those stupid lions. It seemed that after being harassed by Potter and the others so much, he'd caught their brainlessness too.
In the neighboring compartment, Lily faintly heard the sounds of arguing and fighting outside. "Did you hear something just now?"
"Maybe a few Gryffindors are playing some new prank. Those boys are always like that." Mary didn't take it to heart and casually changed the subject. "Where were we?"
Lily didn't ask any more questions. Once they reached Hogwarts, everything would become clear.