the marauders- an inseparable bond

[10] goodbyes

"L-lily... we were just having a laugh..." Snape was backing away shamefully from a screaming Lily Evans in the entrance hall.
"A LAUGH? YOU THINK THAT THAT'S FUNNY, DO YOU?"
"N-no, we got a bit carried away..."
"A BIT?"
"I didn't mean f-for her to get seriously hurt..."
"I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN! YOU. MAKE. ME. SICK."

Snape recoiled at the insult. A memory flashed through his mind, of when she had said those words before. To James Potter. He felt like a dagger had been stabbed into his chest. He looked up to answer, but she had already gone.

***
Lily was avoiding Snape. Of course this meant all of the following: Snape was extremely sad, Lily secretly partially missed him but was disgusted with him at the same time and James Potter was extremely happy and called out offers of dates with himself to Lily twice as often as he usually did. The OWL examinations came and went, all three of these students doing well, maybe more so Snape and Lily than James. Lily had been doing a remarkably good job of not speaking to or noticing Severus, but there was one problem: the end of the school year was rapidly approaching. When they went home, she knew she would be lonely, since all her school friends lived far away and Petunia no longer liked her. She could cope with the loneliness, but she knew Severus would come knocking on her door and her parents would urge her to talk to him. They can't make me, she thought firmly, I'll spend all summer studying so that next year I'll be really good in classes. Maybe I could even convince Petunia to be my friend again.

Lily enjoyed the train ride home, having a good time with her friends. Towards the end, there was a knock on their compartment door. Mary, her friend closest to the sliding door, opened it. It was James Potter. Upon seeing him, the girls in the compartment other than Lily giggled and looked at her.

"Um... I was wondering if I could talk to you, Evans." he said, scratching the back of his neck.
"We're talking." she responded coolly. He blushed very faintly.
"I meant, uh, alone."
One of her friends tried to lightly shove her to her feet, but instead of complying, she spoke again:
"Why's that?"
His pastel pink blush became more pronounced and he ran his fingers through his hair to make it messy, something Lily hated.
"Um... nevermind. Have a good summer, Evans,"
And he left quite awkwardly.

"LILY!" screeched Camilla, who she had become good friends with, "Why didn't you go talk to him?"
Lily shrugged it off.
"Because he'd probably try and kiss me or something stupid like that."
By the look on her friend's faces, they didn't think that was stupid at all.
"Most girls would love to have Potter interested in them Lil," said Amy, another friend, "He's so cute."
"And good at Quidditch!" piped up Mary, "Why don't you go out with him?"
"Because he's so self-conceited! He thinks he's so great, and you saw how he rumples up his hair so girls will look at him. So what if he's good at Quidditch if his personality sucks?"
"It's your choice." said Camilla.

When they arrived at platform 9 3/4, the four boys wrapped into a group hug.
"I'm going to miss you guys so much." Remus said.
"Not as much as we'll miss you, Moony." said Sirius, and glancing over to see his parents weren't looking, pressed his lips to Lupin's for a short moment.
"I'll invite you all to come stay towards the end of the summer." said James.
There was a look of gratefulness on the other three's faces. James knew that he was the only one not dreading going home. Sirius would be going back to his dark-minded parents he could not stand, Remus would have to suffer his transformations alone, and Peter would have to face the neighbourhood bullies. In a sense, the marauders needed each other. Parents were starting to call, so they squeezed together for one last hug.
"You're going to be my best friends till the day I die." said James.
"We should coordinate our deaths, so we don't have to live without each other." grinned Sirius.
"SIRIUS ORION BLACK!"
A shadow of misery flickered over Padfoot's face, and he said:
"Bye, then." then strolled over to his mother, who was yelling.
The others broke apart, missing each other already. It was going to be a long summer.