The next morning I awoke slightly confused as to where I was, then the past two days came rushing back. I smiled happily, humming to myself as I climbed out of bed, showered, and got dressed. As I went to get Ashley, after getting dressed in the bathroom directly after my shower, I saw that her bed was made and she was nowhere to be seen. So I rushed down to the common room, thinking that she might be down there waiting. After I looked around and decided that she was not, I noticed James was waiting by the portrait hole. I assumed that he was waiting for one of the other boys, but as I approached to leave for breakfast, he turned to me and said, “My mum told your parents that I would take care of you while we are at Hogwarts. So I felt like fulfilling my duties this morning.” I simply ignored him. I didn’t want to talk to him; it was early in the morning. I continued on my way out the portrait hole.
Once I reached the landing for the stairs to the sixth floor, I turned around and was just a little surprised that he was right behind me, following me. When I stopped, he stopped, looking mischievously innocent.
“Ok, you go ahead and follow me, just don’t get in my way,” I told him grumpily, turning and continuing my journey to the Great Hall. Once again, I reached the Great Hall to find Ashley had beaten me to breakfast.
“How do you do it?” I asked her, amazed.
“Do what?” she asked right back, hardly glancing up from her schedule.
“Get to breakfast before me? I thought I was an early riser, and I know you’re still asleep when I go into the shower, and I hear other people get into the other showers,” I said as I sat heavily in the seat beside her and helped myself to breakfast.
“Oh, that’s easy. I take my showers in the evening, so you may get up before me, but I leave before you.”
“Oh,” I said, “Well then what time do you get to breakfast?”
“Oh, seven thirty to eight, depending on how sleepy I am.” I decided to take a page out of Ashley’s book and I got out my schedule. It still wasn’t fixed in my head yet and I couldn’t remember what classes I had today. “Huh, it looks like we have Herbology, then: Oh my gosh! Flying lessons! Moreover, after that we have a break, and lunch. After lunch we have Charms, and then finally we have History of Magic.”
“Wow, Lily. You seemed surprised that we have flying lessons,” James said in his haughty tone from next to me, where he had sat after following me into the Hall.
“Well sorry, Mr. Know-It-All. If you’ve forgotten, I didn’t know about magic my whole life! In fact, I haven’t even known about it a whole year, so get used to the fact that I may be lacking in this area of expertise, or at least for the next few months or so,” I nearly yelled. Several of the older students were looking at us, and muttering under their breath about how they had never been that obnoxious. James just looked at me abashed and continued eating his breakfast.
I hurriedly finished my breakfast and tried to leave James, “Potter” as I’ve been coming to think of him He doesn’t deserve me to call him by his first name, behind. As I reached the Green Houses, one of the professors I had seen at the head table, but had not yet met, was walking around the green houses towards Green House Number One. Noticing I was the only one at the class so far, I turned to the professor, and introduced myself, “Hello Professor-” but I stopped not knowing her name.
“Professor Sprout, dear.”
“Well, hello, Professor Sprout, I’m Lily Evans. I’m one of the new first years, I have your class next and since no one else is here yet, I just thought I would introduce my self!”
“I love your name, dear. I don’t feel so odd being the only one named after a plant! Well, at least my last name.”
“You should meet my sister some time, because she’s also named after a flower: Petunia.” For a second it sounded so right, and then I was pulled back to reality by the memories of my sister’s harsh words. “I’m sorry, never mind on meeting my sister. I’m from a Muggle family, and my sister, the day I got my letter, denounced me,” I said in a calm voice, but I was in tears and Professor Sprout had grabbed me into a hug. I was a little taken aback as well as ashamed, not knowing this woman and crying in front of her, but her arms around me felt comforting as only a mothers’ arms would.
“You must really love your sister, my dear, don’t you?”
I simply nodded. “Why don’t you come and have some nice herbal tea and sandwiches with me during lunch?” she asked kindly.
“Alright, thank you, Professor,” I got out in a hoarse whisper, for once she had pulled me into her embrace I had started sobbing.
Just then, the rest of the class came slowly walking down the hill, so I entered the green house that Professor Sprout had opened. I got out my parchment, quill, and inkpot and was ready to start taking a plethora of notes from this kind professor. I kept my head bowed, so as not to draw any attention to the fact that I was homesick and desperately missed the company of my only sister. Ashley walked over to me and got out her notes. When she looked back up at me, apparently to greet me, she seemed to suddenly realize that my face was red and blotchy and her jaw dropped slightly. “Lily, what happened? Are you alright?” she asked worriedly.
“I’m fine. I’ll tell you about it later.” I sniffed, rubbed my hands against my eyes and cheeks, effectively dismissing the question for now.
Professor Sprout’s class was interesting, to say the least. She took us through a tour of the greenhouses, specifically ordering us to stay out of the upper-level greenhouses due to the vicious and often poisonous plants. We would be getting to those in our O.W.L. & N.E.W.T. years.
She really knew her material and covered a lot of valuable information for future plant owners. Our first actual lesson was care and maintenance of plants, magical and not. I took over a page of notes and could see Ashley’s parchment was as covered as my own.
At the end of the lesson, as the class was leaving, Professor Sprout reminded me of our lunch.
“I won’t forget! I promise!” I replied with a smile as I ran out of the building. Unsurprisingly enough, Potter was waiting for me just up the hill.
“What do you want now?” I asked him, not at all trying to hide my sarcasm or frustration. He seemed like such a tag along lately and it was getting on my nerves.
“We have flying lessons next!” he said happily, not taking the hint that I wanted to be alone. I was homesick, I just wanted some time to myself to get over it, but he didn’t understand my tone of voice. Did I have to spell it out for him?
My heart lightened just a little at the thought of soaring through the sky. When I was a child, I would always dream of flying like the children in Peter Pan, but I schooled my features, not wanting to give him the pleasure of knowing he had made me feel a little better. “Yes, so what? You still didn’t answer my question.”
“Oh…I was just wondering if I could walk you there,” he said, sounding a little disappointed.
I let out a sigh; I am not going to be able to get rid of him today, am I? I thought to myself while aloud I said, “Yes, I’ll walk with you.” He suddenly grabbed me by the hand and pulled me across the grounds. He stopped suddenly, causing me to run into him and I glared. It took a moment for me to realize where we were. I looked around and was rendered speechless. I had never seen a stadium, if you would call it that, so large.
“What is this place?” I asked in awe of the sight before me. The grass on the ground was green, spongy, and unblemished. It felt like a gymnastics mat below my feet. At the end of each side of the field were tall poles with golden hoops on the top, making me think of the wands Petunia and I used to use to blow bubbles with when we were little. The stands were terrifyingly high off the ground and wooden, giving them a rickety look. I wondered how the stands supported the entire population of the school without breaking.
“It is the Quidditch Pitch,” he said proudly.
“What’s Quidditch?”
He looked at me amazed as if suddenly realizing that I had not been a part of this world since birth. “It’s only the most popular sport in the whole entire magical world…” He went on to explain the rules, positions, and point system. In the end I was sure I wanted to play this game, it just sounded so, well, fun. “Oh and did I mention that there are house teams?” he said in the end in an off hand voice.
“Really? Like we can play?” I asked in disbelief, feeling the excitement welling up inside me. “I want to join the team!”
“So do I, but we can’t for two reasons. One, no first years can have a broom, thus they cannot be on the team, and well, they won’t make the team. Two, there are no positions currently open on the team.”
“Oh well then by next year I plan to learn to fly, pass first year, practice, and then try out.”
“Good luck,” James chuckled, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his slacks. The grin on his face told me he planned to do the exact thing I was.
As we walked onto the Quidditch pitch, I looked around, even more stunned than before. There were probably enough seats in the pitch to seat the entire student body and half their parents. The stands were beautiful, striped with a red and gold section, a blue and bronze section, a yellow and black section, and a green and silver section, each representing one of the four houses. When I finally came back to myself, out of my dazed and awed expression, other people were arriving. Once all the students were there, a middle-aged witch with short, graying hair and bright yellow eyes came out onto the pitch.
“Hello, class I’m Madam Hooch. Please walk up to a broom lying on the ground. Once everyone is in position put your hand directly over your broom and say, ‘Up!’ Once your broom flies into your hand, mount, and I shall come around and check you grip and position. You don’t want to be slipping off your broom now do you?” she asked in a matter of fact voice.
I stepped up to my broom and looked around. When everyone else was at his or her broom, I put my hand above my own and said, “Up!” To my surprise, it flew gently into my hand and I closed my fingers around it and straddled it as I used to do as a little kid with Mum’s kitchen broom. I smiled to myself at this small reference to home. Once everyone else was on his or her broom, Madam Hooch came around to help us adjust our grip so we would not slip off the end of the broom. She and James seemed to have an easy camaraderie and nothing was corrected with his form. When she got to me, she smiled and asked, “And how long have you been flying, dear?”
“I’ve never flown. Why?”
“Because your grip is perfect and so is your position. Your form is as natural as any student that grew up in a magical household.”
I turned beet red at the compliment. “Thank you!” She moved on to the next person. Once she had gone around to everyone, she turned back to the class and said, “Ok, on my whistle I want every one to push lightly off the ground and hover and when you hear my whistle again, lean forward and land again.”
I heard the piercing peep of her whistle so I lightly pushed off, I shall never forget that moment, one second I was just standing on the ground and the next I was flying! All too soon I heard that whistle again. I leaned forward and the broom gently sank to the ground. We continued exercises like that for the rest of class until many of the Muggleborns, unlike me, who was wishing to soar around the pitch, were comfortable being a few feet from the ground. Professor Hooch dismissed us with a promise that if everyone was comfortable on his or her broom by the next lesson, we could begin the lesson on flying around the pitch. I couldn’t wait!
As I headed back across the grounds for lunch, I remembered my tea date with Professor Sprout so I headed back to the green houses. Once I arrived, I saw that she was waiting outside for me.
“Well, you sure do look a lot better than this morning,” she said happily.
“Yes, well, I just had my first flying lesson and Madam Hooch said I was a natural!”
“That’s good, dear. I was thinking the greenhouses were a bit crowded for our tea so I thought we would have it outside. It’s such a lovely day. Look around and pick a spot on the grounds.”
“How about we go over to one of the trees by the lake?” I asked, pointing to a spot beside the calm body of water where a small group of trees were standing.
“That’s perfect!”
We headed over to the lake and picked a tree so big that it would give off shade all day long. As I looked around, I realized she had not brought anything with her.
“Ummm…Professor, what about the tea? Should we go get some?”
“No, no, don’t be silly! We’re not witches for nothing.” She pulled out her wand and gave it a little flick, and suddenly there was tea and cakes and a few sandwiches on plates. I looked from the food, then to her in wonder. I can definitely get used to this!
“Dig in, dear! The plates will refill themselves.” I couldn’t hold it in any more. I was dying to ask how she could create food out of thin air. “How did you do that, and will you show me?”
Professor Sprout just chuckled and said, “I went to the kitchen earlier and asked the elves to make tea for us, and that I would summon it. I just used a summoning charm. I could show you, but why take the fun away from Filius? It’s something you learn in your fourth year Charms.”
“Who is Filius?”
“Sorry, dear. Filius is Professor Flitwick.”
“Oh, I have him next period. After that I have History of Magic.”
“You’ll enjoy them, I’m sure.” She paused. “So do you want to tell me about your family?”
In truth, I did not, but I knew that I needed to so I launched into the story of me. I told her how I’m the youngest with an older sister. She always picked on me, but it was only a little sibling rivalry. I explained to Professor Sprout how when I received my letter before Hogwarts, Petunia started yelling at me and calling me names until finally one day she told me that I wasn’t any relative of hers at all. As if I was just a distant cousin she could easily dismiss. By that time, I was crying, but I continued. “She refused to see me off at King’s Cross and I’m afraid she’ll never speak to me again!”
I took a long sip of my tea, the warmth filling the icy cold that had consumed me during my story. I wiped the tears from my eyes, and then looked up at the kindly professor who knew I just needed an ear, rather than advice.
“Thank you, Professor, for listening to me,” I said after we had sat for a few minutes in silence.
“You’re welcome, Lily. You should hurry up to the castle now. You don’t want to be late to Charms.
“Goodbye!” I called, darting towards the castle, my heart feeling so much lighter than before. I even felt better than after the flying lesson.
Lily and James, A Love Unfolding by lupinslover
Chapter Notes: Yeah so this is part 2 of the original chapter 3....umm hope you like it....and Disclamer - most characters and the setting are JK's