Once More With Feeling

1. First Meeting

Lily Evans stared confusedly at the letter clutched in both her hands. She had read it (and reread it and reread it) so many times, she was surprised she could still make out the words. Platform 9 and ¾, it said. Where in the world was she supposed to find a nonexistent platform?

Ginny Weasley had to break into a half-run to keep up with her long-legged brothers and her rushed and harried mother. The station was crowded and bustling and wonderful, and she reveled in it. She drank in the sights of a different world – the man reading a newspaper in the corner, the woman making odd faces in attempts to apply her makeup…the sights, the sounds, the colours!

Lily Evans felt her heart racing and she swallowed thickly. Beside her, her parents were already looking at her with pitying expressions. If this was a joke, all a stupid, sick joke, she didn't think she could take it. She couldn't bear if it was all…

Ginny Weasley caught sight of her brother Ron trying hard to suppress a goofy grin and her stomach dropped. She was the last. They were all leaving her behind this year, even Ron, who had never left her behind before. She felt her heart racing and she swallowed thickly. Her brother Fred had told her not everyone got a letter. If she didn't, if this was all some massive build-up to disappointment, she didn't think she could take it. She couldn't bear if it was all…

"Are you…looking for the platform?"

"Excuse me! Could you tell me how to…?"

The voice behind her made her whirl, and she came face to face with a hazel-eyed boy with the messiest crop of black hair she had ever seen. Her fingers ached to smooth it down. He gazed at her curiously from behind round-framed glasses, and she swallowed again before she spoke.

The voice behind her made her whirl, and she came face to face with a green-eyed boy with the messiest crop of black hair she had ever seen. His eyes fastened on her – her, alone – for the shortest of moments, and she knew she would never forget the colour of his eyes. They were so…green. He was gazing nervously at them from behind round-framed glasses, and try as she might, she couldn't seem to get any words out.

"Yes, I'm…do you…," she began. What if he wasn't a…wizard? What if he was just a helpful boy who wanted to know if she was lost finding a regular platform, a whole number platform like 10 or 7 or 9.

Her mother was speaking to him. "How to get on the platform? Yes, not to worry…," and Ginny's heart dropped again because this boy was off to Hogwarts too and she was still the only one too young. But he looked so confused and helpless that Ginny couldn't find it in herself to resent him. Instead, she found herself feeling rather sad that she would probably never see him again.

"Hogwarts?" he said, and her heart leapt. "My letter looks just like yours," he added, pulling an identical cream sheet of parchment from his coat pocket.

"Blimey! That bloke we helped get through the barrier – guess who it was?" George exclaimed. "Harry Potter!"

"Yes, Hogwarts," she said quickly, "I don't know where to find the platform."

"Harry Potter?" Ginny whispered to herself, and she thought of the picture book carefully set on her bedside table: The Boy Who Lived.

"Oh, easy," he grinned. "It's just through here. Your parents can follow us through if they want."

"Ron," she cried, "Go sit with him, will you? Will you try to be friends?" Ron shot her a mortified look, but she could tell he'd been thinking the exact same thing. And as Ron marched onto the Hogwarts Express for the first time, Ginny felt a strange sense of…foreboding, as if fate had twitched a little.

Lily nodded and grasped his outstretched hand. And, for just a moment, it was if the world stopped and stared.

Ginny nearly cried from excitement and triumph when Ron wrote home to say that he and Harry Potter were getting along like two peas in the Hogwarts pod.

A few days later, when James Potter and Sirius Black performed their first prank, Lily Evans bemoaned the moment she took James Potter's arrogant, troublemaking, infuriatingly persistent hand.

A few months later, when Harry Potter showed up unexpectedly and she put her elbow straight into the butter dish, Ginny Weasley bemoaned the moment she told her brother to make friends with the famous boy she'd always had a bit of a crush on.

Seven years later, when James Potter shrank his head and kissed her, Lily Evans knew it was the best decision she ever made.

Seven years later, when Harry Potter missed the Quidditch Finals and kissed her, Ginny Weasley knew it was the best decision she ever made.

o.o

A/N: What do you think? I want to make this a several-part story, with a significant moment for each chapter. This one was their first meeting (obviously), and I'm thinking stuff along the lines of first kisses, weddings, babies, etc. But, of course, only if you lot think it's worth writing.

I really ought to be sleeping right now, but I couldn't until I'd written something. It would be nice to wake up to some reviews…maybe?