CHAPTER THREE: Barriers
“Tell me more about the Muggle world, Lily. I’m dying to know everything about you…”
What nice hazel eyes he has…too bad his hair’s a little messy… “Well, what would you like to know?”
“Tell me about telephones. HOOT!”
Did he just hoot? Really? “Um… Well, they ring and stuff…”
“Fascinating, Lily. Tell me more about the ringing. SQUAWK!”
“James, why are you making bird noises? Ahh! Stop poking my face! Get off!”
Lily awoke with a start as the hooting persisted. In a groggy daze, she opened her eyes, expecting to see James Potter sitting by her, carrying on their conversation about telephones while pecking at her face… No, it must have been a dream… But there really is an owl in here! As her eyes adjusted to the blinding morning sun she unfolded the letter from the owl’s leg and shooed it off her chest. The owl glided lazily to the open window and stood perched on the sill. How did the window get open? Why am I dreaming about JAMES? These pressing matters jumped to the front of her conscience, but before she could sort them out, she began reading the letter:
Dear Lily,
I got your last letter a few days ago”sorry it’s taken me so long to write back. I agree with you about Petunia, but she’s just jealous, probably. Her outfits sound ridiculous, though. At least you can laugh about them!
Anyway, I hope you’re well and all, but I have some bad news. I know this is awfully short notice, but I have to break my promise to meet you in King’s Cross on the first. Something else has come up, something I forgot about, and I can’t make the Hogwarts Express. I’m really sorry that I can’t come, but I’ve asked the next best people to be there! James and Sirius will be waiting for you at 10:30 on Platform Nine. You’ll go through the barrier with them. Hope your summer’s still going well”I’ll see you at Hogwarts!
Remus
Lily frowned as she finished the letter. She had been looking forward to seeing Remus again tomorrow, and would miss the rationality that he brought to conversations with the boys.... But to say nothing more, at least the trip with James and Sirius would be interesting. She wondered what had come up at such an inopportune moment, but supposed it was absolutely necessary… “Now back to that dream,” a small voice spoke in her head. I suppose… She obliged, ignoring the other small voice that shouted, “But it’s JAMES! It’s JAMES, Lily! Why James?” Ignoring that voice felt quite good, she thought, as did her fluffy pillows, her downy comforter, and the gentle breeze from the owl’s wings as it flapped away... Soon, she was quite fast asleep.
It was well into the morning when Lily woke up again. But this time, the second voice caught up with her”why had she been dreaming about James? More importantly, why had she enjoyed it so much? Of the three, James was the least likely to catch her fancy. He had the worst manners, and never said the right thing, and seemed to care the least for her. Yet she was forming this opinion after spending just one day observing him and his friends”might she be jumping to conclusions? After all, first impressions were sometimes wrong....
Because of these thoughts, Lily walked around in a preoccupied daze all day. Her parents figured she was just nervous for the start of school, and Petunia had long since stopped caring about her sister’s moods. The day crawled by… Finally, it was night, and Lily packed her trunk by the white light of the near-full moon. She surveyed her room. She had never spent a long time away from home before, and was pretty nervous about it. As she piled in book after book, a gnawing, anxious feeling coated her insides. Tomorrow was the day that she would leave one world for another. It was the day when she would finally realize what being a witch really meant. It was the day when she would see once and for all if this whole thing hadn’t been a mistake. It was the biggest day of her life.
Twenty minutes later, after Lily had carefully rolled up her poster of The Beatles and somehow squeezed her record player into her trunk, she lay restlessly in bed, a light breeze wafting through the window she hadn’t bothered to close. Her fluffy black cat, Blanche, jumped onto her stomach, and Lily giggled. Lily thought back to the naming of the cat. She had been six and Petunia eight. She couldn’t even remember why they had chosen the name, but she did remember much laughter at the expense of the small kitten. Those were happier times, she thought. This world, this magical world, seemed so great, such a blessing, and yet there were huge sacrifices to make. To be away from her parents for so long was something she’d never done before. The rift that was growing between her and Petunia was almost too vast to manage. She’d be leaving all her friends from primary school, and would most likely never care as much for them as she did now. She was being pushed through a portal, and her world would change. She only hoped it was for the better…
***
Lily awoke after a short and dreamless sleep. Her usual morning activities were performed with no flair or glimmer of excitement”really without any emotion at all. Lily came downstairs, sat down at the table, and started in on breakfast as if she were some sort of automaton. Mrs. Evans noticed her passive daughter and asked what was wrong.
“I don’t know Mum. Nothing’s wrong… Well yes, something is wrong,” she said as she munched on a bit of bacon. “I feel like this whole school thing is like a cliff. What I mean is, I’m standing on the edge of a really big cliff right now, and going to Hogwarts could be good or bad”if it’s good, I’ll dive off the cliff into the wonderful water, but if it’s bad, I’ll get shoved off the cliff and fall on the jagged rocks.”
“My! Well you’ve certainly thought that one through. But don’t be silly, Lily”oh! A rhyme! How funny! … oh, what was I saying? Oh yes, you certainly won’t fall on the rocks, because you’re the best swimmer I know!”
Lily was about to tell her mother that she had completely missed the point, but then decided against it. It was better left to mull around in her own head.
Too soon it was time to leave, and Lily heaved her trunk into the trunk of the car. She turned around to look at her house one last time, and then clambered into the backseat.
The journey to London was short, but it seemed to take forever, just as it had for the trip to the Leaky Cauldron. Lily was deeply lost in her thoughts when her father announced their arrival at the station. King’s Cross seemed unusually busy for a Sunday, and Lily was relieved to see a plethora of oddly-dressed men, women, and children, with a menagerie that would make a zoo look tame. Snakes, rabbits, rats, owls, cats, toads, and all sorts of creatures stuck their heads out from brightly-colored bags, cloaks, and cases. Lily smiled down at Blanche, safe in his carrying case. He would enjoy these new friends.
And speaking of new friends, there were James and Sirius waiting right on Platform Nine, just as Remus had promised. As Lily got closer, she heard them talking about Quidditch (Do they ever stop?). She cleared her throat and they looked up with a start. Sirius looked calm and cheerful as he smiled warmly at Lily, but James looked ready to… well, Lily didn’t really know. Whereas before he had at least attempted to be somewhat cool and collected, he now looked extremely nervous, yet tried to pass it off by assuming a nonchalant air. The end result was very ridiculous. Thankfully for James, his parents noticed this too, and decided to break the awkward silence by introducing themselves. Lily followed suit, and introduced her own parents”Dad looking around in wonder and Mum eyeing a snake warily. It seemed they were not comfortable with the whole situation just yet, and they looked quite mad next to the stately Potters. The Blacks were nowhere to be found. Sirius casually explained that their absence was due to a prior conflict, and he had been staying with James anyway, but all present seemed to notice a slight unease in his manner.
“So, um, Lily, do you want to go through the barrier now?” James asked after another awkward silence within the party.
“Through the barrier? How can we go through a barrier?” asked Mrs. Evans flippantly, as if James was telling a joke.
“Well, it’s been bewitched to let certain people through: Hogwarts students and their parents. We just walk right through that wall there, and”” but James didn’t finish his sentence, as Mrs. Evans was staring at the seemingly solid wall in complete disbelief.
“Here, we’ll show you!” Sirius chirped, and he grabbed Lily by the hand and ran towards the unyielding brick wall between platforms nine and ten. Mrs. Evans gasped and looked ready to faint, but just as the two reached the wall, a group of backpackers walked straight through her line of vision, and Lily and Sirius were nowhere to be found.
“Well I’ll be... Where has she gone?” questioned Spencer Evans in a low voice. Violet was beyond words.
“Watch closer this time,” said Charles with a smile as he grabbed Grace’s hand and walked through the barrier, leaving James alone with the panicky Evans.
“Er… I guess we should just line up then together and go through. It’s really simple, you just can’t be afraid of it. On the count of three, then? One, two, thr “ oh, Mrs. Evans! You’re not centered enough!” But his cry was in vain, as a loud thud echoed back from the wall. Mrs. Evans had walked too close to the edge of the barrier apparently, and now had a bloody nose to show for it. Spencer found it hard to find concern for his wife, as he was laughing so hard. James smiled too, then steered a very reluctant Violet through the center of the barrier, followed by Spencer and the luggage trolley.
On the other side, the eccentric party of three found a concerned Charles and Grace, a silently laughing Sirius, and an embarrassed Lily, who looked aghast at her mother’s profusely bleeding nose.
“We heard the thump on this side.” She heard Sirius whisper to James.
“Happens quite often, actually, dear Mrs. Evans,” Grace Potter reassured them. “If you catch the edge of the barrier, you can’t go through. Here, take my handkerchief… There you are.”
In the meantime, Spencer and Charles were helping load the children’s luggage into the cargo areas of the glistening scarlet steam engine. Lily looked down the length of the train, “Hogwarts Express” was emblazoned on its side, and smoke billowed out of its engine. It was absolutely beautiful. Fifteen minutes later, after saying her goodbyes, Lily found herself seated in a plush compartment with James and Sirius as the train’s whistle sounded. She looked out the window, and waved at the Potters, then to her father, and finally, her teary-eyed mother, handkerchief still clutched to her nose. Lily smiled as the train pulled out of the station.
The three rode in silence for a while, too absorbed in their own thoughts to talk much. London soon faded from view and the train chugged on through the sunny countryside. Finally, Lily broke the silence. “I wonder what’s happened to Remus”why couldn’t he be here?”
“We don’t know,” answered Sirius. “He popped down to my house in London the other day and said that he couldn’t come, and asked if James and I could meet you at the station.”
“Yeah, and didn’t you say he looked pretty bad”real pale and skinny? Maybe he’s sick?” James ventured.
“Well maybe, but in his note to me he said something had come up and he had forgotten it. The flu doesn’t make appointments, you know…” said Lily. Sirius and James just stared quizzically at her.
“Floo? Powder? Huh?” said James, feeling very eloquent.
“What?” returned Lily, equally confused. “The flu, you know, the disease?”
“Oh! Must be a Muggle name. We thought you were talking about Floo powder, which would be just as confusing.”
But James and Sirius could not answer Lily’s queries about Floo powder because at that moment they were interrupted. “Well. What a sight,” came a cold voice from the open compartment door. “Black, Potter, and the Mudblood. We’d better move to a less inhabited car, shall we?”
“Good idea, Lucius,” came a female voice from beside the door. Lily recognized her as the girl from Knockturn Alley”Sirius’s cousin. Looking past Bellatrix Black, she saw two more familiar faces from the collision in the Alley, but the group seemed to have multiplied. There was now also the tall, older blond boy who had just spoken and was therefore Lucius. Standing behind him were a pale, flaxen-haired girl with an upturned nose, a pallid boy with waxy black hair, and a small, fidgety, mousy boy who looked completely out of place.
“Well, we’d appreciate it if you would move, dear cousin,” growled Sirius, knocking Lily back from her observations. “The stench is really getting to us.”
“Yeah, and her name is Lily Evans!” added James, feeling decidedly bold.
“We’ll be sure to alert the Prophet, Potter, thank you,” said Lucius in a sarcastic drawl. “Come along, Pettigrew,” he said to the mousy one, who very reluctantly turned and followed the sweeping black cloaks as they swished out of sight.
What came next out of James’s mouth was a string of curse words”many of which Lily had never heard before, and none befitting an eleven-year-old. “Well, if I had to guess, James,” she stated dryly, “I’d say you don’t like that boy.”
“Good job,” he said bitterly. Sirius just stared moodily out the window.
“Who is he? How do you know him?” Lily figured any conversation was better than an angry and awkward silence, but she really was frightened by the scowl on James’ face as he spoke.
“He’s Lucius Malfoy. The Malfoys are one of the oldest and purest lines of wizard blood in the world”kind of like the Blacks,” he said. Sirius grunted, his brow furrowed, as James continued. “Anyway, my family knows them.”
“How?”
“Well, it’s kind of a long story…” James said, twisting his hands in his lap. Lily could tell he didn’t want to tell it.
“We’ve got time,” growled Sirius, still glaring out the window.
“OK, well… We used to belong to this thing called the Society of Pureblood Sorcerers; it’s a really old order of wizards, and my grandparents joined because they thought it would be all tea and crumpets with friends. My grandparents were both pureblood wizards”well, my whole family is”and they got asked to join when they were really young. They thought it could help them with connections and stuff in the future. And I guess it was just kind of a snobby club for a while, and so my parents joined, but then…” James paused, but Lily pressed him on. “Well, I guess about forty years ago, the Society got more and more anti-Muggle. When Grindelwald rose to power”” he stopped at her puzzled look. “Oh, sorry… Er, Grindelwald was like the wizard version of that really evil Muggle guy… what was his name?”
“Hitler?” Lily guessed.
“Yeah, that’s him. So Grindelwald was a really Dark wizard, but lots of families in the Society started talking like they supported his views on Muggle-borns”really nasty stuff. The Malfoy family was really against Muggle-borns”almost wanted to kill them and everything. Lots of the Society members thought the same, but not my grandparents.”
“Well, why didn’t they leave, then?”
“Er… I think they thought that everyone was kind of mental because of the war and that everything would die down eventually.”
“Did it?” Lily was completely enthralled by the impromptu history lesson.
“No, it didn’t,” barked Sirius, his voice full of ire. “Pureblood wizard fools are still a bunch of cocky””
“Er, yeah,” James interrupted. “Yeah, it kind of settled down after Dumbledore, yes, the Headmaster, got rid of Grindelwald about twenty-five years ago. But then just a few years later all the talk had started up again. Abraxas and Brigid Malfoy”Lucius’s parents”were the leaders of it, and they were really good at persuading people to join them. They thought if they recruited wizards when they were young”like they did my parents”it would be easier to get them to support the anti-Muggle stuff. Anyway, it got really uncomfortable for my parents after a while, so they left. I guess that really ticked off the Malfoys, though, because they’ve hated each other ever since.”
“But then how come you’ve met Lucius? Wouldn’t your parents keep you away?”
“Well, they would have, but Malfoy Manor is right near our house. Both of our families are too stubborn to move, so Lucius has contented himself with being the neighbor from hell. I don’t mind if he bothers me now, but I wish he wouldn’t pick on you. It’s not right,” he finished triumphantly.
“Well of course it’s not right, but can you blame him? I understand where he’s coming from, I guess,” Lily said, in a very even and rational tone.
“But the whole lot is rotten to you!” James exclaimed. He had expected awe and respect and praise and thanks for his triumph of Muggle rights and defense of Lily’s honor, not an argument!
“They’re only rotten because their parents have trained them to be!” she countered wisely. Maybe it was because she was still bothered by her dream, but it felt good to argue with James….
“But you’re just as much a witch as they are!” argued James emphatically.
“Sure I am, but the Jewish people were just as human as Hitler, and that didn’t stop him! Some people are just prejudiced!” Lily said, sounding quite confident. Inside, however, she was anything but. Were there really people so prejudiced? If the wizarding world was filled with people who wanted to keep Muggle-borns out, how could she possibly fit in?
James sighed and raised his hands to his temples. He didn’t know enough Muggle history to continue, but he knew Lily was right. And so smart, he thought. Her argument was advanced, logical, and well thought out. Pity, she’ll probably be in Ravenclaw and I won’t see her for seven years, he reasoned glumly, for James, of course, would be a Gryffindor!
Lily had even surprised herself. She didn’t really know where her answers came from, and maybe she shouldn’t have argued with James so much. After all, he had been defending her and all the other Muggle-borns”she should have thanked him and kept silent. But it seemed like she could be so much more assertive around the boys. In fact, it seemed like she needed to have more confidence in order to match theirs! In primary school, Lily had always been pretty quiet. It wasn’t that she was not as smart as the other students, she just never ventured many guesses. She probably knew most of the answers, but feared she’d get them wrong if given the chance. But that’s gotta change now. I need to show the pureblood types that I really do belong at Hogwarts… She needed to prepare herself for whatever was coming.
The Hogwarts Express rumbled on, the three friends left alone with their thoughts.
Of Cauldrons and Comrades by LuthAn
Chapter Notes: Hello, hello! This chapter is a bit of a transition chapter, but also contains some *very* important information, so read and enjoy! The Hogwarts Express is carrying our old friends to their very first year at school, but where is Remus? Why is Lily dreaming about James? And who is that snooty boy with the long, blond hair? Read on and find out!
As always, heaps and heaps of thanks to Heather and Nielawen for their excellent beta-ing job. Happy reading!