(Written in collaboration with CharlotteV & Literally)
The previous night, Lily had made sure she had everything. She was going through her checklists thoroughly. She even went from the bottom up a few times to clarify. Lily even had her mother double check that she had everything in her luggage. Sighing with relief, Lily was finally done and she had sat down to enjoy a game of wizard chess against her father. Lily had learned to play wizard chess from her uncle Ron quite awhile ago. Her and Hugo played all the time.
"You beat me again." Harry said with a chuckle. Lily was excited to have beat father, but she usually did. It was a lot more entertaining to play against Uncle Ron, as he was much better at the game.
"I think we should put it to rest for tonight Lil." He said to her as a suggestion. The only reaction he got from her was a frown, and when she looked at her father to meet his gaze she gave him the puppy dog eyes.
"Are you going to let a little girl beat you?" She asked in a mocking voice.
Harry chuckled, and shook his head.
"No, I'm simply putting you on pause until Christmas. Maybe practice so I can give you more of a challenge. It's eleven Lil, you should go to bed." Lily groaned at the sound of being told to go to bed. She started to pack the game up and eventually went off to her room.
It was around one am that Lily ahd finally fallen asleep. Her dreams were mediocre that night. The usual dreams that came up, such as Hogwarts and what have you. Sometimes she'd have the nightmare of her parents telling her that they were expecting again. Lily liked being the youngest and the thought of younger siblings was weird now that she was fourteen.
None the less, Lily had hoped to sleep in a little bit as she had packed last night. For what didn't seem like long, soon she was startled by her door being kicked open. Sitting up abruptly she rubbed her eyes looking around. Soon enough her room was filled with these stupid figurine things that James had bought. Lily swore she was going to break each and every single one of them.
Lily quickly grabbed her bath robe and threw it on as she got out of bed. Her red hair was a mess as she forgot to put it up before bed the night prior. She tried the door, and as she suspected, locked. What a twit.
"James!" Lily hollered out obviously angry. She rummaged through the front pocket of her luggage and found her wand.
"Arresto momentum." Lily said to the things flying in her room to slow them down, so they'd be less of a burden. Slowly Lily picked them out of the air and broke them in half.
"Alohomora." Lily said and pointed her wand at the lock and the door unlocked.
"Bloody hell James." She grumbled and picked them up and walked into the hall. She already seen Albus' door open and the bathroom door was open.
It seemed as if Albus had kicked the door open, as now her father was up there holding Albus back. With Lily's tiny frame she could tell that she could get into the bathroom with the little stupid figurines.
Lily ran into the bathroom, opened the curtain a little and threw in his 'toys'.
"Piss off James, if I find anymore, I'm burning them." Lily snapped storming out of the bathroom, as she did she turned on the tap and flushed the toilet to make sure the water got extra hot for him and with that she stormed back to her room and slammed her door shut to get ready for the day.
"I'll have a bit of fun when I break his neck," Albus growled, making another lunge for it. Before he could manage though, he saw a flash of red hair, and realized his sister had slipped between him and the now opened bathroom door. Harry didn't dare let him go, obviously more preoccupied with the child more prone to violence, and Albus gave up his struggle to try and see what his little sister was up to.
The shower curtain was pulled back just enough for her to throw something in, she snapped out a threat, and then she turned on her heels. Before she made her very angry exit, she flushed the toilet. Albus snorted so hard it almost hurt, while his father heaved a sigh and finally let his son go; Lily really could be quite vicious when she wanted to.
"He should really know better than to pull pranks on us in the morning, Dad," Albus pointed out, then patted his father on the shoulder.
"Come on, let's go get breakfast."James burst into laughter again as he heard Albus raging down the hallway. He flipped the shower back off and jumped into the tub (the more easily defensible position) as his brother kicked in the door. He was really regretting forgetting his wand in his room, but Albus was equally as likely to deck him as he was to hex him. Luckily, his father appeared and wrestled Albus away. He was just about to stick his head out the door when Lily darted into the bathroom.
"Piss off James," she snarled.
"If I find anymore, I'm burning them." She turned on her heel and stalked from the room, though not before she turned on the tap, spraying him with water. James sputtered and wiped his face. Suddenly, he heard the sound of the toilet flushing and the water was suddenly scalding. He yelped and tumbled from the tub.
"Christ, Lily, what are you trying to do, cook me?" he shouted. He clutched his chest dramatically and wheezed for a few seconds. He opened his eyes to see his father watching him with a frown. He grinned.
"Morning, Dad," he said sunnily. Harry just shook his head, and closed the door calling for Ginny to put on the kettle.
The rest of the ride to Kings Station was a long one, filled with bickering between the three children.
~~~~~
Upon arriving at the station and getting her stuff out of the car, Lily was walking with her mom. They had been talking back and forth about the upcoming school year and different classes she'd have to take. They ended their conversation with an embrace. Lily let go and turned around to get in line for the train.
She was about to walk in, but Albus was standing in the way. He had just stopped was even moving. Lily groaned under her breath and she saw an opening to get up into the train. She swiftly moved over to the entrance and put her luggage in, in front of her as she got on behind it. Feeling confident in her ability, she soo felt a taller body smack into her back side.
"Bloody hell, watch where you're going Alby!" Lily snapped.
Albus had to admit, it was his fault, he hadn't been paying attention. He was looking for a certain blonde haired boy that usually towered over the crowd, so it was really his fault that he slammed into his sister. Except last he'd checked, she'd been
behind him. "Well maybe you shouldn't just stop in front of people, Lily," Albus shot back.
The blame could easily be her fault, but he wasn't moving in the first place either.
"Maybe, if you hadn't stopped first looking for lover boy, this wouldn't have happened." She shot back slowly moving forward, as the people in front of her had got jammed up.
"You imply that this is my fault, just like the incident with the toilet seat a month ago!" Albus opened his mouth to snap off something about Scorpius, but he didn't really want to prove her right, so he didn't bother. The fucking toilet seat incident though.
"That wasn't my fault either! You should have looked! Honestly, in our family, do you really not consider glancing at things before you decide it's safe to put your arse on it?""I didn't ask to be born female, Albus." She said grumbling a little bit. Of course it had to be her fault for everything. That was how it worked living in the world of Albus Potter. Nothing was ever his fault. They walked a bit farther into the train and were now in the corridor.
"Not only the toilet seat, but you cheated at wizard chess! There's no way you could have beaten me otherwise. That's my thing."Albus narrowed his eyes at his sisters back and had half the mind to tell her that she should be grateful he even bothered to put the seat up in the first place, instead of pissing all over it, but they were starting to get wary looks so he kept his mouth shut. Proper training from behind home all summer.
Albus snorted and rolled his eyes at her next form of complaint.
"I didn't cheat," he ground out. But of course he cheated. Fairly well, if he did say so himself.
"But if I had, it was only because some redheaded little prat named Lily Potter ate all the chocolate biscuits. That were mine, by the way."When they kept walking down the corridor, she looked through some of the compartments to see if she could find the Longbottom twins. She stopped in her tracks when he mentioned the chocolate biscuits and she looked over her shoulder shooting daggers at him.
"Bloody hell Alby! They're just biscuits! Besides the fact, mum said I could have them, you're just being a gannet!""By the way, I'm sitting with Francis and Alice this year." She said matter of factly and kept strolling down the corridor. It only made sense that she did. Albus would just pick on Francis the whole time, at least Lily was friends with the guy.
"Besides the fact, you have your blond boy toy to share a compartment with.""Yeah, MY biscuits!" Albus shot back, almost running into his sister again because of the way she stopped to glare at him. It was annoying as hell. Her statement caught him off guard for a moment, but then he shook his head and growled out,
"No you bloody well aren't! They're my friends and I'm going to sit with them! Also, don't call Scorpius that, it's rude." Albus actually thought it was hilarious, but words like 'boy toy' did tend to make Malfoy crass.
"I'll buy you new ones, they're just biscuits!" Lily snapped at Albus shaking her head as they continued on. She growled back at him,
"Alby! They're just as much my friends as they are yours! You aren't even friends with Francis! Stop being a twit about it!" Lily was getting agitated. All summer the two hadn't argued once, because their parents would give them flak for it. Besides that, the little stunts James had pulled made it so Lily hadn't slept the amount she had wanted to, speaking of the devil. Lily saw him and she shook her head.
"That bloody moron, I'm going to get him back." She grumbled.
Albus wanted to yell at her that it wasn't even about the biscuits, but then...he didn't realize what else he was actually upset about. Except that he was tired...and they'd both been holding all this shit in from day one. They each hated getting talked to by their parents. He made an offended noise when she snapped at him.
"Excuse me, I am so friends with Francis!" Maybe his definition of 'friends' was a little off but...
Before he could keep arguing, Lily's tone changed and he arched an eyebrow, leaning over her a bit to catch sight of their brother. Albus hadn't even noticed him going off on his own, too caught up in his tryst with Lily.
"Let me know when you make your move," Albus mumbled.
"I'd love to help out."It had seemed that the two Potter children had calmed down some. They were both tired, and they had both held in so much since the start of summer. Heaven forbid they couldn't fight in front of some of their cousins either because they were nosey and told their parents all the time.
"Will do. We need to teach the prat a lesson. A good one at that. Temporary truce until justice is served?" Lily offered sticking her hand out to her brother to confirm their truce.
Albus honestly couldn't remember the last time he'd agreed with Lily over something, at least honestly. He knew how sharp her mind was, though, and he could already imagine the scheme they'd come up with to get back at James. So, eventually, he lifted his hand and took hers.
"Truce. Go sit with the Longbottom's. Tell Alice hi for me, 'ight?" he smiled a little, then nodded past her shoulder.
"I see my blond boy toy anyway."For once, Lily smiled in a conversation with Albus. It was rare to say the least. Unless they were both laughing at James. Only thing they really could agree on. She chuckled a bit at Albus using the term she had used for Malfoy previously.
"Don't have too much fun now." Lily said with a wink and she went further down the corridor and finally found the compartment Alice and Francis were in. When she entered she heard Francis speak and she smirked.
"And the devil shall arrive." Lily said with a smile as she came into the compartment and put her luggage up and away right before she plopped down next to Alice.
"Alby says, hi." She said directed to Alice.