Disclaimer: As much as I would love it to be, close to none of the characters found here are mine. They all belong to JK Rowling. SO thank her for the wonderful stories she writes, and the wonderfulk fanfics it gives us an oppurtunity to write!
King’s Cross train station was rather crowded for a Monday morning. At 10:30am people were already hurrying back and forth. Important looking men boarded trains and shouted to one another where they would meet for lunch. Families consisting of a young mother and her children would loudly get on a train yelling over one another “But I don’t want to!” “I already explained to you Billy, school starts soon.” “MMMMMOOOOMMMMMMYYYYYYYY, I’m tired!” “Susan we just got here” “But - -” “But - -” “No buts, children, we’re going shopping for school clothes whether you like it or not.”
Walking slowly among the rushing people was 11-year-old Lily Evans. She was tall for her age, with bright green eyes, and long red braids that were currently wet at the bottom, where she was sucking on them nervously. Her green eyes full of anticipation and worry; she stopped walking and swung her big suitcase and covered birdcage around in front of her. She had stopped in front of the barrier dividing platforms 9 and 10. No she stood glancing anxiously, first at the sign pointing to platform 10, and then at the sign opposite the barrier pointing to platform 9. She looked back down at the slip of paper in her right hand. “Platform 9 ¾, is this some kind of joke, there is no platform 9 and ¾,” she muttered to herself. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm herself. “You can do this. It can’t be that hard,” she told herself, “simply don’t give up hope.”
“Mum! I’m so excited for flying lessons this year! Thanks so much for the new Shooting Star you got me!” said a voice somewhere behind Lily.
Lily opened her eyes. “Flying lessons?” she asked herself, “I wonder . . .” She whipped around to face the speaker who was walking briskly in her direction. The only people anywhere next to her, were a young boy and what appeared to be his mother. However, there was no doubt in Lily’s mind that they were part of the magical community, and so with no hesitation at all Lily approached them.
“Good morning!” she said walking up to them and smiling warmly at the pair. After an uncomfortable silence, in which the boy turned a dull red and looked away, and the woman looked with a puzzled expression on her face, from Lily to her son and back. Lily decided to take the next step. “I’m Lily Evans,” she informed them, “I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation and I was wondering if you could help me?”
“Off course dear, but let me introduce us first. I am Katherine Potter, and this is my son James.” said the woman, smiling a bright smile that left her hazel eyes twinkling. “Now, what may we do for you? Or are you simply having trouble getting onto the platform?” guessed the woman shrewdly.
“That’s it exactly. You see it’s my first time going to . . . Hogwarts,” Lily glanced down at her right hand again to make sure she got the name right, “and I’m not sure how to get on the platform.”
“I can help you get there!” said the boy suddenly, contributing to the conversation for the first time and smiling brightly, “Mum can I show her?” he asked, his hazel eyes, already so similar to his mothers, glowing with warmth.
“Of course James, however I need to talk to you for a second,” replied Katherine, “I’m sure Lily wouldn’t mind if I stole you away from her for a minute or so.”
“Oh, no of course not,” replied Lily hurriedly, happy that she had found help, “I’ll wait for you here.”
Katherine and James stepped aside, and Lily turned back to her trunk. She slowly opened the closed cage that stood on top and fed the owl contained inside some treats from her pocket. Lily’s owl, Athena, was Lily’s birthday present this year. While shopping in Diagon Alley with her parents, Lily had spotted Athena in the window of a shop, and immediately wanted her. Her parents had gone back to the store after Lily had gone to bed on the eve of her birthday and purchased the owl. In the morning Lily had woken up to a large Horn Owl nibbling on the curtains in the Leaky Cauldron room they were staying at.
“Of course I’ll be fine Mom, don’t worry,” said James as he walked back to where Lily was standing.
Lily turned around to see Katherine Potter standing and twirling her slightly graying brown hair nervously and peering closely at her son.
“I promise I’ll be fine! Go, and say hello to Dad for me!” added James when he noticed his mother’s worried look.
“All right darling. Lily, I’m terribly sorry, dear, but I must leave. My husband is coming in from a long journey shortly and I must be there to greet him. James knows how to get on the platform. He’ll help you with anything you need. It was a pleasure meeting you, and I hope to see you soon. Know that our house is always open to you!”
“Thank you very much for the offer Mrs. Potter,” said Lily politely, “I hope I see you soon,” before Lily was done talking Mrs. Potter had nodded, glanced around carefully and turned gracefully on her toe and disappeared.
“Well we better get going,” said James walking forward, not realizing that Lily was still standing behind him staring at the place where his mother had just Disapparated, “The train leaves soon and we still need to get our luggage on, and find a --” James stopped talking and glanced behind him with a confused expression. “Now why have you stopped, haven’t you ever seen anyone Disapparate before? Or have you been Stunned?” asked James nervously, quickly returning to where Lily was standing dumbstruck.
“ I . . . She . . . God . . . Wh . . . Wha . . . What just happened? Where did she go? She was here a second ago!” said Lily in a rush starting to walk around the spot Mrs. Potter had been standing in as if searching for a trapdoor.
“Stop!” shouted James, after Lily crouched down to the ground and started peering at it, “Mom Disapparated, its where you turn quickly on the spot and reappear in another spot, you only learn how to do it when your 16 but I’ve seen Mum and Dad do it all the time. Doesn’t your family do that, or do the prefer Floo powder?” asked James bewildered at the puzzled expression on Lily’s face, “They don’t fly on a carpet do they?”
“What are you talking about? My parents drive a car! They are not witches nor wizards, we thought this was some type of joke until we reached Diagon Alley,” said Lily exasperatedly.
“Oh, so you’re Muggleborn,” said James with understanding, “Well that explains a lot. Why didn’t you say so. But we really have get going! The train leaves very soon. I’ll explain everything you want on the train. Now the way you get on the platform is by running straight through the middle of the barrier dividing platforms 9 and 10.”
“Have you gone mad?” said Lily vehemently, “I’ll kill myself, and Athena!”
“No you wont. Lily calm down, you have to trust me. Things are going to start getting weird from now on. Hogwarts is almost completely magical, so just trust me that you will be fine. Are you ready?” James asked. After Lily nodded curtly he continued, “Ok prepare all your stuff, its best to take the platform at a running start if its your first time, brace your cart and run down the middle. Ill come right behind you in case there are problems.” James placed a hand on Lily’s shoulder, squeezed it momentarily, then lined her up with the barrier. “On the count of three you go. One . . . two . . . THREE!”
Up the aisle ran Lily full out, her small feet slapping the gravel. Right behind her jogged James, completely at ease with the fact that he was coming full throttle at a solid brick wall. Suddenly Lily disappeared right in front of James’ eyes as she melded then went through the wall. Seconds later James did the same, coming to rest on the other side of the portal in front of a large scarlet steam engine.
“Oh my god James! We’re here!” shouted Lily, spinning around and hugging him tightly around the shoulders, “Let’s get on, where should I put my luggage?” she asked ignoring the slight blush creeping up James’ cheeks.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t little James Potter, who thinks he can ride a broom,” said a male voice behind them. Walking towards them was another young boy, although this one taller than both James and Lily, with long black hair falling straight into his clear blue eyes, “We’ll see who gets onto the house team first shall we?”
“Hello Sirius,” said James giving him a friendly, before turning back to Lily, “Sirius this is Lily Evans, she’s a new students to Hogwarts too, but she’s Muggleborn.”
Lily had stuck out her hand to shake hands with Sirius but instead he took her hand gently and placed a delicate kiss on the top of it. “Well it’s a pleasure to meet you,” said Sirius charmingly as Lily regained possession of her hand completely unfazed by his flirtatious manner, “By the way, I’ve got a compartment where I’ve already set up, there’s a couple of people in there but we have room for you two.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you too,” said Lily, “do you guys really fly on brooms?” she said as they started walking up the trains steps.
“Have you never flown? And you don’t know about Quidditch?” asked Sirius in horror as Lily nodded, “Well we’ll have to remedy that on the train ride wont we.”
They entered the compartment and Lily saw three other people there, a young boy with light brown hair and gray eyes sitting alone in a corner looking rather sick, a girl with black straight hair and striking purple eyes. In the middle of the compartment standing and chatting to the boy in the corner was a petite girl with bright pink hair and shining blue eyes. As she heard the sound of the door opening, she turned around quickly and started talking.
“Hi! I’m Hymn Bones. Actually that’s short for Polyhymnia, but nooooooooone calls me that. And it’s a pleasure to meet you. This here is Aurora Keyes, my new friend, and over there is Remus Lupin. Why don’t you sit down? By the way I’m so excited to go flying! My parents are rather uptight and would only let me play Quidditch if my cousin Arthur was there,” said Hymn speaking quickly and as if every sentence was the most exciting news in the world.
After the basic introductions were made, everybody settled down. Lily landed with James on one side, the window to the other and Hymn across from her. After the rest of the group found out that Lily knew nothing about Quidditch the conversations sped up. By the time the train arrived at the station, Lily was an expert on Quidditch as well as on her three new friends’ histories.
James comes from a pure blood family that is rumored to have come from Godric Griffindor, but the rumors have never been proven. He is related to Sirius Black who’s uncle married James’ second cousin. Sirius himself also comes from a pureblood family but while James’ family were Aurors and helped fight Dark Wizards, Sirius’ family were the Dark Wizards. Sirius was considered the black sheep of the family and was even considering running away. Remus Lupin was a mixed blood wizard. His mom is a muggle, while his dad is a wizard; they had met and fallen in love, and raised Remus far away from wizarding society in a small village in Southern England.
Hymn, was a pureblood wizard, who was very close to her parents. She has an older sister who is unfortunately a Squib, and was deathly jealous of Hymn. Aurora’s dad is a Muggle, but her mom was a witch who died when Aurora was young. Aurora was raised by her Muggle father, and so could connect to Lily’s feelings easily. However, unlike Lily, Aurora, did not have the avid interest in Quidditch. She was more interested in the spells they would get to do at school, and spent the better part of the trip in deep conversation with Remus.
Once the train arrived at the station the group got out together and boarded the same boat. With a rather large wizard names Hagrid leading the boats from the front, Lily had plenty of time to look around and continue talking with her friends. Suddenly the boats swung around the corner and she was awarded her first glance of Hogwarts. It was breathtaking, Large and formidable the castle was currently lit up with hundreds of windows all lit and glowing. All of the first year students that were currently rowing across the lake could be seen staring in awe up at the castle. Their little faces alight with anticipation, and glowing with the light reflected off of the water.
As the boats got closer to the castle, Lily’s nervousness began to mount. “What was it the others were saying? Something about a Sorting?” she asked herself, “I hope I get into a good house!”
As the boats all reached the shore, the first year students disembarked and were led to the castle by a young man, who introduced himself as Arthur Weasley, the Head Boy. Hymn immediately ran up to him, to hug him, and introduced him to the rest of the group as “my cousin Arty.”
Inside the castle they were directed to a small room where the first years met one of their teachers. Professor McGonagall swept into the room like a queen, briefly telling them, that they will be sorted into “houses” and would then go and sit down with the rest of their house. “Now follow me please,” she ended, and in a nervous jumble the first years moved behind her to enter a large dining hall. “This is the Great Hall,” she mentioned to them over her soldier. Lily gazed up at the breathtaking ceiling, which was now reflecting the clear night outside with millions of stars winking down upon the students. The students lined up in between two of the house tables down the middle of the hall.
And the Sorting began. McGonagall brought out an old hat, which immediately split down the middle and sang a song. Each student would go up and try the hat on, after a varying amount of seconds; the hat would call out a house. When it came to be Lily’s turn she was trembling with nerves. After “Michelle Ethan” was sorted into “Ravenclaw!” it was Lily’s turn. She slowly walked up the aisle, pivoted, and sat down on a stool; she jammed the hat onto her hat, and just had time to wish for the best.
The hat came down over her eyes; inside her head Lily could hear a voice. “Hmm, well I see no doubt about where I should put you. But I do warn you my dear, you will not have an easy life. Make decisions with your heart and follow your dreams, but you still belong in GRIFFINDOR!” shouted the hat as the rest of the hall cheered.
Lily took the hat off and stood up feeling proud. She glanced to the Griffindor table and saw a small group of seats next to where James and Her friends were standing waiting to be Sorted. She walked over to a seat, but before she could sit down there was a tap on her shoulder.
“Good job Lily! I hope I get into the same house as you,” said James standing in front of her. But James wasn’t done talking, he opened his mouth as if to say more, but from his mouth came a voice of a much older boy somewhere in his late teens, “Evans, Evans, will you go out with me?”
Sixteen-year-old Lily Evans jerked out of her memory. In front of her stood a tall young man also sixteen years old, with tumbled up black hair, and laughing hazel eyes. At the moment his eyes were full of hope but that hope was quickly crushed.
“No Potter how many times do I have to tell you? I will not go out with you!”
“Alright, fine well I’ll see you later.”
Lily walked away disappointed. To herself she said “Snap out of it Lils, the sweet boy you met on the train is gone. He’s never coming back.”