Lily waved at her slowly disappearing parents as the Hogwarts Express turned a corner. She turned to Hugo who stood next to her, grinning widely.
"We're finally first years!" he said. "Can you believe it Lily?"
"Maybe this means we won't be seen as the little kids in the family anymore." Lily said happily although she knew James and all her older cousins and even Al would always see her as a little kid.
Lily and Hugo slid open the door to the compartment which their parents had previously placed their trunks inside still chatting about Hogwarts. They were so wrapped up in their conversation that they hadn't realised a young boy was already sat in the compartment. He had shortish dark hair similar to Al's and dark brown eyes which were currently conveying surprise and worry.
"Oh! Sorry, um would you mind if we sat here too?" Lily asked him politely. "Only our trunks are already in here and they're pretty tricky to lift..." she tailed off with an expression that clearly stated that they were still going to sit there anyway; a perfect imitation of her mother's fiestyness.
"Sure, go ahead." The boy said nervously, gesturing to the seats opposite him. Lily and Hugo perched themselves onto the seats and Hugo gave the boy a wide smile.
"I'm Hugo. It's lovely to meet you." Hugo extended his hand for the boy to shake. He could be very charming even at the young age of eleven having inherited virtually none of Ron's tactlessness.
The boy took his hand and shook it gently, still looking nervous. "My name's Joseph- well Joe most pe- I mean, most people call me Joe." He stuttered.
"Hi Joe." Lily smiled kindly. "I'm Lily." The boy relaxed slightly and returned her smile.
There were a few moments for silence while everyone thought of something to say next until the door slid open. Lily, Hugo and Joe all looked up to see Albus Potter at the door.
"Hey sis, Hugo. Just checking you had found somewhere to sit." The thirteen year old boy smiled at them then noticed Joe. "Who's your new friend?" he asked.
"This is Joe." Lily obliged. "Joe, this is my brother Al. He's also Hugo's cousin."
"Nice to meet you." He smiled at Joe then turned to the others. "Anyway I'm gonna get back to my friends, see you at the feast!" he slid the door closed.
"Your brother seems really nice." Joe said with a slightly wistful look on his face.
"Yeah Al's pretty cool. Cooler than my other brother anyway." Lily laughed.
"You have more than one brother?" Joe asked.
"Yep. I have two; Al and James who's in fifth year now."
A look of realisation passed over Joe's face. "Is your brother James Potter?" he asked.
Lily and Hugo exchanged an exasperated glance, preparing themselves for the 'your dad/uncle is Harry Potter' speech their parents had told them might happen.
"Yeah." Lily said moodily, expecting the worse.
"He's best friends with my brother!" Joe exclaimed happily and Lily felt relieved.
"So you must be Scott Eden's little brother?" Lily asked and Joe put on an expression of false indignation.
"Hey, less of the 'little' if you don't mind!" Hugo laughed.
"Believe me, we will all always be the 'little brothers'." He said, running his hand through his red hair. As he did so, the compartment door slid open again and the witch pushing the lunch trolley put her head in.
"Anything from the trolley?" she asked kindly and Lily, Hugo and Joe all reached for where they had stored their money bags.
Lily was looking at the sweets and cakes on offer carefully when two large shapes darted down the corridor at high speed singing a Quidditch chant very loudly. They passed the compartment before one of them doubled back and peered past the sweets trolley.
"Oh you guys are in here!" the boy said, smirking at Lily and Hugo. Lily gave her older brother a withering look, clearly telling him she was perfectly okay without his interference. "Found him Scott!" he yelled down the corridor presumably to the other singing boy.
"Hey bro." A chestnut haired boy's head said to Joe. "Just came to wish you luck with the troll." He said laughing and dashing off again before anyone even had time to process what he had said.
"See ya sis!" James yelled, following Scott.
"Er, did he just say troll?" Lily asked feeling very confused.
"Oh didn't you know?" said Joe with a terrified look on his face. "That's how we get sorted. By battling a troll." He ended in a small voice.
Lily burst out laughing. "I'm assuming Scott told you that?" Joe was silent. "James tried to tell me the exact same thing. Luckily my Dad heard him and told me how we really get sorted."
"Well I feel pretty stupid right now." Joe said, going red. "So how do we get sorted?"
The three had an enthused discussion as the train continued about the sorting and before they knew it, they had pulled in at Hogsmeade station.
The students filed off the train onto the platform now wearing their Hogwarts robes. Lily, Hugo and Joe walked together towards where Hagrid was calling for first years. They passed James and Scott who were messing round with their friends and trying to trip smaller students up.
"I'll catch you guys up." Lily muttered, breaking away from the other two.
She marched up to the fifteen year old boys with a surprisingly small amount of fear considering there were five of them and one of her and she was about half their size.
"Excuse me, Scott is it?" Lily snapped defiantly at the boy, ignoring the other four.
"Er, Lils what are you doing?" James asked her with a smirk on his face.
"Shut up James." Lily gave him a scathing look and turned to Scott. "I think what you said to Joe was really horrible. He was genuinely worried about that and... and you're supposed to be his older brother!" and she ran at him, but before she could get close enough to stamp on his foot or something equally painful, a pair of arms grabbed her and pulled her back.
"Come on Lily." James said as he turned to face her. "I'll catch you up." He called after his friends then knelt down in front of Lily so he was at her eye level.
Lily scowled at him. "What was all that about? You know Scott was only teasing Joe, right?"
"But he looked so scared. Then he felt really stupid for believing him. I just felt so bad for him that I had to do something. I know what it's like to have an older brother make stuff up don't I." She added, giving James a pointed look.
James laughed. "Wow. I forget how feisty you are sometimes; remind me never to annoy you again once you learn how to use a wand." Lily giggled.
"Sorry James. I didn't mean to make you look stupid in front of your friends." Lily was beginning to slightly regret her choice of action.
"Nah you didn't. C'mon, we need to get you sorted. Race you!" he yelled, abruptly getting up and running away. Lily laughed and immediately followed him until she caught up with where he had come to an abrupt stop.
"Erm, Lils?" he looked down at her looking apologetic. "There's a slight chance you've missed the boats."
"WHAT?" Lily cried. That had been one of the things she was most looking forward to about the day plus now she was going to be really late for the sorting. "How am I going to get to school now?" she looked up at her older brother expectantly.
"Right, well... I guess you'll have to come in a carriage with me." He said giving Lily a determined look. "After all, I am supposed to be your older brother." He chuckled and Lily gave him a signature 'little sister' look.
There was one carriage remaining ready to leave so James and Lily clambered in finding themselves face to face with a group of four students who looked to be around fourth year. They all glanced up once then returned to their conversation which they appeared to be engrossed in.
"I read a total of forty six different books over the summer in preparation for this year. Apparently fourth year is a huge step up from third year work." Said a bespectacled girl with long, straggly hair and oily skin.
James and Lily exchanged a smirk in their corner of the carriage.
"I just hope there are some decent first years to join our History of Magic Society." Said a pompous sounding boy with tightly curled blonde hair. "Some of the current members just aren't up to scratch." He said seriously.
"Uncle Percy." James mouthed to Lily, nodding his head towards the boy. Lily forced back a laugh.
The carriage stopped and James and Lily exited followed by the four members of the History of Magic Society.
"Oh thank goodness, there you are!" a voice said and Lily looked up to see an agitated Professor McGonagall rushing towards her.
"Hmm, it's good to see you're already influencing your sister to get into trouble Mr Potter." Professor McGonagall told him pointedly. "Miss Potter, any particular reason you didn't arrive on the boats with your classmates?"
"Sorry Pro-"
"It was my fault Professor. I had to tell Lily something and it caused her to miss the boats. Please don't give her detention."
"Don't worry. I won't be giving either of you detention; that makes a nice change Mr Potter." She smiled thinly at him before ushering them into the Great Hall and leading Lily to where the other first years were congregated.
A bright red head collided with Lily abruptly. "Where did you go?" Hugo asked hurriedly. Lily noticed Joe behind him looking expectant.
"I missed the boats so I had to get a carriage with James." Lily said simply.
"Ready first years?" Professor McGonagall asked as she opened the large Great Hall doors. Lily walked nervously down the middle of the hall with Hugo and Joe and the rest of the first years. They collected at the front of the hall and waited to be sorted.
Lily watched Joe get sorted into Gryffindor and join the table his brother sat on. Scott caught Lily's eye and grinned at her; Lily scowled at him.
"Potter, Lily!" Professor McGonagall announced. Lily took a deep breath and walked towards the wooden stool as Professor McGonagall placed the sorting hat on her head. She saw James give her a thumbs up and Al sat next to her cousin Rose who were both smiling widely.
She wasn't worried about which house she ended up in, even Slytherin; her parents had made it pretty clear that they really didn't care what house they ended up in.
"Hmm another Potter? I thought I'd seen the last of you lot. Well if you attract anywhere near as much trouble as your father did then you're going to need to be quite brave. Luckily you are, pretty smart too. I see there's Weasley blood in you as well. Ok. GRYFFINDOR!" the hat spoke in her head before yelling the last word.
Lily trotted over to the table and sat down next to Joe. She looked down the table to see Al and Rose smiling at her and James high fiving Scott.
Lily turned to watch Hugo being sorted as he too ended up in Gryffindor and smiled at how much fun her first year was going to be.
Author's Note: thanks for reading chapter 1 of my new story! For anyone reading my other stories, this one is going to be a little different because it's a proper multi chaptered story with a plot rather than one shots. Also, this definitely isn't a 'Lily in her first year' story. This is just the prolugue to introduce the characters. The next chapter is where the story starts and Lily is already in sixth year. Plus the rest of the story will be in first person from Lily's point of view. So, review and let me know what you thought!
LittleRose13 xxx