Because We Are Made Of Dreams

A Brand New Year

Clara sighed deeply. Of course, her father was an Auror, and so of course he was a bit paranoid sometimes, but this time it was too much.

"Dad, I"m just going to King"s Cross, not on a battlefield."

"With everything that is going on these days, I"m not letting you out of my sight until you"re onboard the Hogwarts Express."

She couldn"t blame him for being worried. She was scared by the news of the dark wizards too, striking here and there, always making more victims. She could hardly get mad at her father for being willing to protect his only child when she had helped her best friend Lily to protect her parents" house. Lily was a muggle-born, and she didn"t want to depart for Hogwarts with her parents unprotected magically. Clara"s father was right, and she knew it.

"All right then, come on."

They crossed the charmed wall and arrived right on platform nine and three-quarters. Clara couldn"t help herself at being mesmerized by the beauty of the train, though it was already her sixth year in the school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. A flash of red appeared in the crowd and she hurried in the direction of her friends. She hugged Lily, Alice and Marlene, her fellow Gryffindors.

"How are you Alice?" Clara asked, noticing her friend"s perfect tan.

"I"m great, Cannes is wonderful! And Frank was such a sweetheart all along. I"ll tell you everything, don"t worry."

Just then, Frank Longbottom appeared on the platform and Alice hurried towards her boyfriend. They had lost her for the rest of the day, and they knew it.

In the distance, the girls heard loud laughs, and they didn"t even wonder to whom they could belong. Soon, the four Marauders appeared, walking casually towards the train. Lily turned her back to them, making Marlene and Clara laugh.

"You"re conscious that with your hair, they will recognise anyway, facing them or not?" asked Marlene, still laughing at her ginger friend.

"I know that, thanks!" the redhead answered. " But maybe if he sees I"m talking with you, and that I"m busy, he won"t try to talk to me."

"Lils, it"s James Potter we"re talking about," Clara reminded her."This guy has virtually no limits."

"My life sucks," Lily sighed.

"Maybe you"re in luck today; he"s not coming our way."

"Thank Merlin!"

"Oops, in fact he is."

"f**k!"

Indeed, a second later, James and his gang were standing next to them, greeting them warmly.

"Hey girls! How are you?" James asked cheerfully.

"Fine, you?" answered Marlene, still unable not to smile.

"I"m very well, thanks. You"re alright Evans?"

Lily turned a disdainful look towards him.

"I was, before you came around, Potter."

"Ouch, so soon in the year, and we"re already like this?"

Lily blushed and felt immediately guilty.

"I"m sorry. I didn"t want to be mean. I"m fine, thank you."

"It"s alright Evans, don"t get so upset about me. I think I can survive to one more harsh answer from you. I was about to ask the usual question, but I guess your previous answer will imply a no."

Lily clenched her fists and her face turned even redder.

"Potter!"

"Okay, okay, I"m leaving you alone."

The boys turned away, Sirius, Remus and Peter laughing softly at their friend as they were heading towards the train. Clara and Marlene fought the urge to laugh too. Lily and Marlene walked towards the train as Clara said goodbye to her father.

"You do be careful!" he admonished his daughter. "And don"t forget to write!"

"I will be careful and I won"t forget to write, I promise dad, don"t worry. I love you."

She hugged him tight and took her trunk.

"I love you too darling. Take care."

"You too."

She joined her friends and they had just got onboard when the doors closed and the train started his long journey towards Hogwarts.

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"f**k!"

"f**k!"

"Let"s face it Lily, we"re doomed!"

"Clara, I think this is worse than doom..."

All the compartments were completely full, except... the one occupied by the Marauders. Brilliant... Marlene had abandoned them, joining some of her seventh-year friends, and Alice was busy with Frank, probably snogging in a dark corner of the train. Which left the two witches in this desperate situation.

"Come on Lily, it"s not like we have a choice. All the compartments are full, and we can"t stay here in the corridor for the whole trip. So let"s go."

Before Lily could argue, Clara strode to the boys" compartment and opened the door.

"Hey guys! Sorry, but all the others compartments are full. Can we sit with you?"

"Sure," the four boys shrugged.

Lily finally entered, and James sat straighter. Sirius rolled his eyes, amused.

"Well, you couldn"t stay away from me any longer, could you? You were missing me too much already," James said to her.

She glowered at him, sitting opposite Clara.

"Potter, don"t start!"

"As you wish," James shrugged.

The two girls took their Daily Prophet from their bags and unfolded them. Clara went straight to the crossword, biting the end of her quill, while Lily started to read the first articles.

"Hippogriff," said Sirius next to Clara, indicating a column of her crossword.

"Thanks," she answered absentmindedly, completing the blanks.

"Quaffle," he indicated again.

She completed the right squares.

"It"s really nice of you to help, but could you let me think a bit longer before answering all the riddles for me?"

She didn"t intend to be mean, and she was smiling, amused, when she looked at him in the eyes. He smiled back at her.

"Sure."

"Oh, God..." Lily gasped suddenly.

Clara turned her attention to her. The redhead girl had put a hand on her mouth and was intensely reading the article of the Prophet.

"Lily, you"re alright?" asked Remus, worried.

Of the four boys, he was the only one Lily was close to. They were both Gryffindor prefects after all, and Remus was definitely the more mature of the lot. But Lily wasn"t listening and she didn"t answer. Clara sat next to her and started to read too. An entire family had disappeared two nights before. Voldemort"s Death Eaters" work without doubt, though they were not clearly mentioned. Clara"s eyes grew wide when she read the names.

"Merlin!" she gasped.

The two girls looked at each other. They knew them, though they were not close. They lived not far from Clara"s house, and in the countryside, all the families of wizards knew each other, even if they weren"t friends. It was always useful to know where they could go if they needed anything. But Clara would never go to them for Floo Powder again, she knew it. Her father was an Auror after all, and she actually hoped that they were already dead, and not being tortured in a deserted house.

"Girls, what"s wrong?" asked James.

The four boys were staring at them now, their brows furrowed in worry and interrogation. The girls passed them their newspapers.

"They lived not far from my house. I knew them quite well," Clara added.

Sirius looked up at her. She looked on the verge of tears, but her jaws were set, and he knew somehow that she wouldn"t cry.

"I"m sorry," he said earnestly.

He really looked sorry for her neighbours, and she thanked him with a nod. He took one last glance at her before reading the end of the article. James"s fists were clenched on the paper, and he looked extremely focused. Lily had never seen him so serious. The boys gave the papers back to the two girls, and Clara took back her seat opposite Lily, between Sirius and the door.

"Your father is going to be mad," Lily told her friend.

"And he will be right to be so. For once, I can"t say he"s just being paranoid."

"Your father is an Auror, isn"t he?" asked Remus.

Clara nodded.

"He must see hard things," said Peter.

"Yeah."

"I guess he doesn"t talk about his job a lot, does he?"

Clara smiled and shook her head.

"Actually, I"d like to be an Auror myself, so my dad tells me everything. He desperately tries to make me change my mind, but it"s not working very well."

She and Lily let out a laugh and the boys smiled too.

"More seriously, I think it helps him to talk about it. So..."

"Does he work on Voldemort too?" asked Sirius.

"All the Aurors are working on it."

"And?" James encouraged her.

"And her dad and she have helped me putting defensive charms all over my parents" house, if you see my point..." answered Lily sadly.

"Encouraging", Peter mumbled under his breath.

Lily looked down at her hands. Her parents were muggles, and so they were among the most probable targets.

"Well, with defensive charms summoned by an Auror, your house is probably the safest place in Britain after Hogwarts," said James gently.

Lily looked right into his hazel eyes. His expression was gentle and sincere, and he gave her an encouraging smile. She smiled back at him.

"You"re right."

Suddenly, the door opened and they all jumped, startled. A sixth-year Ravenclaw boy appeared on the threshold. He was tall, with carefully brushed brown hair. His electric blue eyes flashed against his tanned face.

"Hey Lils! I was going to the prefects" meeting, come with me?" the boy asked cheerfully.

Lily blushed slightly, but enough for James to notice, and he felt an unbearable, but familiar pain in his chest, the same pain he felt every time another boy talked to her, or she got mad at him, or she pushed him away. The same pain he had been feeling since first year and that he had learned to hide so well behind jokes and shrugs.

"Sure!" she answered, rising from her seat.

A second later she was gone, smiling brightly. Clara shook her head and smiled as she closed the door again.

"I thought the prefects" meeting was only in half an hour," said James after a look at his watch.

Remus shrugged.

"They"re friends, they must want to talk for a while before the meeting."

Clara hadn"t stopped smiling.

"Alright Clearwater," said James, turning on his seat to face her, "tell us everything."

"There"s nothing to tell Potter," she answered.

"Come on. What"s going on between the two of them?"

She stared at her crossword again, amused.

"For now, nothing."

"And, in a near future?"

"Who knows about Cupid"s plans really..."

She smiled harder, looking up at him, but her smile disappeared as she met his hazel gaze. His global expression was neutral, and she had to admit he had made an excellent job at hiding what he was feeling, but his eyes couldn"t lie, and they revealed how hurt he was.

Sirius took a game of exploding snaps from his bag and turned to his best friend.

"Do you want to try to take your revenge from yesterday when, I remind you, I literally humiliated you, mate?"

James turned his attention back to his friend, and he smiled, the malicious and joyful Potter back. Clara looked at Sirius and couldn"t restrain a small smile. Sure, they were immature, and stupid, and prats most of the time, but they had always been there for each other, and even Clara couldn"t deny that.

"Prepare yourself to be destroyed Sirius. I"m winning today."

Sirius let out a loud laugh, that sounded strangely like a bark to Clara, before turning his attention towards her.

"You wanna play too?"

"Sure," she answered in a shrug.

What the hell was happening to her? Here she was, travelling with the Marauders, talking to them, laughing with them, playing Exploding Snap with them! And as Sirius made an over-exaggerated frightened face as a card exploded, making everyone laugh, she couldn"t deny that she was actually enjoying herself, a lot.

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In the prefects" meeting room, Lily and Liam Timmins were talking about what they had done during summer. She laughed hard as he told her a funny story which involved him and a Quaffle ( that I"m not going to tell here because really, the poor boy was ridiculous ). But he didn"t care if he sounded completely stupid. Lily"s laugh was so beautiful, it was worth it. He looked at her intensely, as she was wiping her tears away from her eyes, her stomach hurting from laughing so hard.

"You really are beautiful, Lily."

She suddenly stopped laughing and looked at him straight in the eyes. He was really gorgeous himself right now. And he was funny, and he was a Ravenclaw, which meant that he was undoubtedly clever. She felt herself blushing. He moved up his hand and chased a lock of her ginger hair behind her ears. She couldn"t say anything anymore, but she didn"t push him away when he caressed her cheek, nor when he took her face in his hand and started to pull her closer to him. She didn"t resist, and let him guide her face closer to his. Their lips finally touched shyly and she closed her eyes as their kiss deepened. Soon she was pressed against him as he was kissing her hard on the lips. It felt so good...

The door opened and they pulled away as fast as they could. It was Remus. Lily sighed in relief, she knew he wouldn"t say anything to anyone. Remus after all knew better than anyone else how to keep secrets.

"Oops, sorry guys."

He walked into the room, revealing James on the threshold behind him. Lily looked up at him, but he simply nodded towards her and Liam before talking to Remus again, in a perfectly normal tone.

"See you later mate!"

"See you James!"

James turned his back to the room and strode towards the toilets. He put his hands on the sink, his eyes closed, his head low. It was so hard for him to breathe right now... He had to calm down, to relax. James tried to inhale deeply, but he simply choked instead. The pain in his chest had never been so strong. He felt tears flowing down his cheeks, and anger rose inside of him. Anger against Liam for kissing Lily, anger against Lily for kissing this i***t, and anger against himself for feeling this way. He fiercely wiped away the tears on his cheeks and forced himself to calm down. He couldn"t continue to live this way. He had done everything he could think of, he had tried everything really, to convince her to give him a chance, but she didn"t want to. She hated him, end of story. And as he looked into his reflection and witnessed how miserable a simple kiss could make him feel, he made an important decision. Without a doubt, the most important decision he had ever taken in his life. He was giving up on Lily. He was going to stop losing his energy trying to impress her, to convince her. No more tricks, no more begging, nothing. He was a Gryffindor for Merlin"s sake, and he was going to be strong from now on. She was moving on with her life as if he didn"t even exist, and he was going to act just the same. He was finally ready to turn the page. Lily Evans belonged to the past, and nothing more.

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When Remus re-entered the compartment, the train had almost reached Hogwarts, and he found his three friends deep in conversation, whilst Clara, with wide eyes, looked amazed, trying hard not to laugh.

"Maybe we could do a dragon again," proposed Peter.

"Do I really need to remind you how it ended last year? The whole Hufflepuff table took fire!" reminded Remus, sitting down.

He didn"t even have to ask what his friends were talking about. As usual in the train to Hogwarts, they were planning their little fireworks show for the welcoming feast.

"Moony"s right, no dragons," said Sirius wisely.

"You guys are mad," Clara stated finally.

"It"s tradition Clara," answered James sternly." Every single time since second year, we have prepared a firework for the welcoming feast. And don"t try to deny it, it"s always brilliant!"

"Except when you accidentally set fire to a table," she replied.

James opened his mouth to answer, but stopped dead and waved his finger, narrowing his eyes.

"Okay, you"ve got a point," he finally answered with a smile. "But we aren"t gonna burn anything this year, promise."

Lily entered the compartment, a large and dreamy smile on her face.

"I"ll tell you later," she answered to Clara"s interrogative look.

Her friend nodded and they both focused back on the conversation of the Marauders. When Lily finally realised what they were talking about, she frowned.

"You"re not going to burn anything again, are you?"

"Merlin, we missed one finale. One. Over four years of entertainment, you only remember the one which ended in a tiny accident," sighed Sirius.

"One tiny accident that almost burnt the entire Hufflepuff table!"

"Perhaps, but you can"t deny that our dragon was really awesome," Remus defended.

The other three nodded, and the girls couldn"t help but laugh.

"True, it was beautiful," agreed Clara.

"Finally, you"re making sense,"laughed Sirius.

His laugh really did sound like a bark, it was quite strange. Still, it was pleasant and enough to make the others laugh too.

The train arrived at Hogsmeade and they all stood up, picking up their stuff. James and Sirius helped the girls with their trunks.

"Thanks," said Clara, surprised when Sirius put down her trunk next to her on the station platform.

""Welcome!" he replied in a warm smile.

These boys really were surprisingly nice this year. Maybe they had finally matured a bit...

They were separated in the carriages, the Marauders waiting for Remus to have finished guiding the younger students as Lily was supposed to take care of them at their arrival to the castle, so the girls found Marlene and Alice, and they all got into one of the first carriages.

"All right, what the hell is that thing upon your face? Why are you grinning like mad?" asked Marlene to Lily.

The redhead blushed.

"Liam", she answered shyly.

The other three girls clapped and jumped on their seats excitedly.

"I knew he was crazy about you!" Alice exploded. "How? When? What?"

"On the train. We talked about the holidays, and he made me laugh and..."

"And?!" asked the three girls in unison, suspended to her words.

"He told me I was beautiful..."

Her three friends sighed dreamily.

"And he kissed me!"

They cried, jumping on their seats again.

"That"s wonderful Lils!" Clara congratulated her.

"Yeah..."

Lily"s dreamy smile was back on her face, and something told Clara that it would not leave it for a while.

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"So, are you going to talk about it?" asked Remus, turning to James.

"Talk about what?" asked Sirius.

They climbed into the last carriage.

"Liam kissed Lily on the train," answered Remus.

"Oh..."

Sirius looked carefully at James. After more than five years of the whole Lily Evans-melodrama, he was expecting the worst, but instead of being upset, James simply shrugged.

"There"s nothing more to say, really."

"Are you alright?" asked Peter.

"I will be. I realised something on the train. She really, earnestly, doesn"t give a damn about me, and she never will. And I"m tired of being the only one who cares. So I"ve made a decision, I"m gonna stop caring about her. I"ll move on. Lily is the past, and I"m turning myself towards the future."

"Wow..." Remus managed to finally articulate. "You sure?"

"Yep! I"m going to enjoy myself too this year. I"m not going to try anything to get to her anymore, and I"ll just be myself, without caring about what she thinks of me."

Sirius patted his friend"s shoulder.

"Good decision, mate."

"Thanks Pads."

"Yeah, it"s great Prongs," Remus added.

James nodded as they got out of the carriage and strode towards the Great Hall.

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All the first years were sorted into one of the four houses, and after the ceremony, as McGonagall was taking the Sorting Hat away and Dumbledore was waiting for her to sit down in order to make his usual welcoming speech, the four Marauders took their wands, keeping them hidden under the table, and shared a look full of mischief. They all started to whisper softly.

As Dumbledore was rising from his chair and the whole Hall was silent, an explosion echoed through the Great Hall. Everyone looked up at the enchanted ceiling. The night was clear and stars were shining bright upon the carved stone roof. A few seconds later, a second star exploded, freeing sparks of gold and red. Then a third exploded, and a fourth, always at closer intervals of time, and soon the whole ceiling was resonating with detonations and covered by gold and red. The sparks suddenly seemed to gather in the middle of the Hall, forming a ball of fire and light, before two wings seemed to open, revealing a gigantic phoenix. The entire Hall was in awe in front of the graceful creature that started to fly around the room, leaving exploding sparks of all shades of bright colours in its trail. After several circles above the table, going ever closer to the students, until the tallest had to bend to avoid the huge burning bird, it let out a melodious cry, before heading back towards the ceiling. It exploded as it collapsed against the stones and a rain of sparkles fell gently on the tables, green and silver above the Slytherins, blue and white above the Ravenclaws, yellow and orange above the Hufflepuffs, and finally golden and red above the Gryffindors. The ceiling reformed slowly, covered by stars again, which formed the words "The Marauders" as a signature of the four boys, before taking back their usual place in the magical sky. The entire hall exploded with laughter and acclamations. Of course, everyone knew who the Marauders were, and the older students were already informing the ignorant first years, but the boys didn"t fear detentions really, not when even Dumbledore and McGonagall were clapping and smiling at them. And even if they were indeed punished, it was worth it.

"Well..." said Dumbledore, rising once more, as silence covered the Hall again. "I guess words are quite useless after such an astonishing show. I don"t know about you, but it made me famished! So go on, dig in!"

And so the feast began.

As they were entering the common room after the magnificent feast, talking about the next prank they had to organise, Clara walked past the four boys.

"The fireworks were particularly good this year," she said softly to Sirius, almost whispering, before heading to the girls" staircase, laughing. She turned back before climbing the stairs, and Sirius winked at her, smiling, which made her laugh even harder. Her laugh was pure and contagious. She wasn"t as boring as he had imagined. He had always considered that she was probably as serious and uptight as Lily, which meant too much serious and uptight for him. But she had been a laugh during their journey to Hogwarts, and she seemed to be less serious than her best friend. She seemed to have a good sense of humour. Maybe he would try to talk to her more this year...