Disclaimer: All characters belong to J.K. Rowling. Only Jo, Kat, Mary and the plot belong to me. So don't sue. (:

The Early Years

Lily Evans and her sister, Petunia, were in Lily's room playing a game of cards. Suddenly, a tawny owl flew through Lily's open window. Petunia started screaming as she ran out of the room. The tawny owl settled itself on Lily's shoulder and dropped a letter on her lap. Lily wasn't really surprised. It seemed that she had this affinity with owls. They kept flying around her. It was almost like she could communicate with them. Presently, the one on her shoulder was making soft cooing noises. Then, it flew off.

Lily picked up the envelope and on the front it said in green ink, Miss Lily Evans, 6 Avenue Lane, smallest bedroom.

She opened it up and as she read, her eyes grew wider, "Is someone pulling a prank on me?" wondered Lily.

It could be Sirius Black, Lily's new neighbour. He loved pulling pranks. It seemed to Lily that the end of the world was near when Sirius moved next door.

She read the letter again.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

Dear Miss Lily Evans,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into Hogwarts. Enclosed is a list of things you will need to buy if you wish to attend. There is also a set of directions to get you to Diagon Alley. It is in London, just look for a shop called the Leaky Cauldron. Then, you will know what to do.

Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress

Lily handed the letter over to her parents. Petunia and her parents read it. An uncomfortable silence followed. Then, Petunia pointed her finger at Lily and shouted, "FREAK!!!" After that, she ran out of the room.

"Can I go, Daddy?" asked Lily, a little hurt at her sister's reaction.

"Well," Mr Evans said dazed, "We could go to London and check it out since we're to going there to visit Aunt May anyway."

The next morning, Lily was in London. Her parents were looking at the set of directions, studying it, pointed at several places before frowning. Lily sighed.

"Let me see it." Lily read it and then pointed to a shop, The Leaky Cauldron.

"There it is!" and saying so, she dragged her parents off.

"That's funny, I never noticed it before." Mrs. Evans wondered aloud, "I wished Petunia had come with us, she would have found this quite fascinating."

Lily, however, highly doubted that.

Tom, the owner of the Leaky Cauldron, greeted them warmly and when he found out they were muggles, kindly brought them to Diagon Alley. Before leaving, he advised them to change their money for wizard currency first. He pointed them towards Gringotts. Before long, Lily came out of Gringotts with money jiggling in her pockets. Her parents left her to do her own shopping and told her that they would come and fetch her three hours later.

A little lost, Lily walked into the nearest shop, Madam Malkin's Robes for all Occasions, a short witch whom she presumed was Madam Malkin asked, "Hogwarts dear?"

Lily nodded her head in reply.

She started taking measurements and soon, Lily was out of Madam Malkin's with her purchases. She decided she would buy her schoolbooks next. An hour later, Lily was in the middle of Diagon Alley, unsure of what to do next.

"I've bought my books, robes, cauldron, quills," Lily muttered looking at her checklist, "Now, I need a wand."

The thought of a wand trilled her. She walked over to Ollivander's.

(A/N spelled it right?)

An old man suddenly appeared out of nowhere, "Hello, nice to meet you. Welcome to Ollivander's."

He took out lots of wands and asked Lily to pick one.

Lily picked one brown one. Ollivander asked her to wave it around. Lily waved it feeling a little stupid.

Ollivander took it away suddenly, "No, not this one," and gave her another one.

Lily waved this one too but Ollivander took it away again mumbling to himself.

After searching for awhile, he said, "Aha! Try this one," he produced a white wand.

"It's made of mahogany, 10 inches, good for charm work," he handed it to Lily and the moment she touched it, sparks flew out of the wand. Lily waved it around and more sparks flew out.

"It's the one," said Ollivander and wrapped it up for Lily.

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Lily soon found herself at King's Cross station. She looked all around for Platform 9 ¾ but could not find it.

Later, she overheard a conversation between a mother and her son, "All you have to do is run into the ticket barrier between platform 9 and 10."

She watched as the son disappeared. One minute he was there, the next minute he was gone.

"Here goes nothing…" Lily thought as she ran straight for the barrier. She closed her eyes and when she opened them again, she saw a red train right in front of her.

After getting some help from some 3rd years boys (A/N Lily was pretty you know, who wouldn't help a damsel in distress?), she managed to get her trunk onto the train. She soon found herself an empty compartment and settled in.

Lily didn't have a book to read so she just stared out of the window, thinking about her predicament. Nothing had prepared her for this. Not the owls, not the fact that all the teachers that made her angry always found themselves breaking out in boils. Fine, so maybe she found that one a little suspicious.

All of a sudden, the door burst open and three boys stepped in. Lily realised immediately that one of them was Sirius Black, Lily's new neighbour.

Lily sighed, "Sirius? Oh crap." Lily had this sinking feeling her time at Hogwarts would not be a dull one.

She snapped back to reality when Sirius started shaking her hand up and down,

"Lily! Long time no see! Didn't know you were a witch!" said Sirius.

"Actually, it's been only a day," replied Lily. Her response earned a few sniggers from Sirius two friends.

Sirius shot them a glare.

"Anyway, have you met my friends?" asked Sirius.

Before Lily could even answer, Sirius was already doing the introduction.

"The one who looks a little pale is Remus Lupin and the one with messy black hair is James Potter."

Suddenly, three girls walked in. One was talking rapidly the other 2 were rolling their eyes, obviously irritated with the one talking.

One of the girls said, "Look Mary, you can go back to your friends now."

Mary (the girl who was talking rapidly) replied, "But you haven't found an empty compartment yet. Let's keep walking, meanwhile, I can tell you about some of the cute boys I met on the way here."

"No thank you," the other girl said, "We would like to sit here."

"But you haven't asked if you could sit here."

"I don't mind really," said Lily coming to their rescue, "I'm sure the boys won't mind, would they?" Lily gave them a look that said they had better agree with her.

"We don't mind," said Sirius quickly.

Mary narrowed her eyes at Lily and then left the compartment sulking.

"Thanks for the help. By the way, I'm Joanna. That girl over there is Kathleen." Joanna said as she motioned to her friend.

Lily smiled, "I'm Lily, those three people over there are Sirius, James and Remus."

Jo (Joanna's nickname), Kat (Kathleen's nickname) and Lily started talking. Very soon, an announcement was heard, "We will be reaching Hogwarts soon. Will all students please change into your robes."

Lily, Jo and Kat got up, and were going to leave to change when Sirius asked, "Where are you all going?"

"To the toilet to change. Didn't you hear the announcement?" Jo asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Of course I did," replied Sirius, "But you're welcome to change with us."

Shouts of 'Perverts' could be heard from the compartment as Sirius, James and Remus were thrown out of the compartment.

"It's all your fault Sirius, if you didn't open your mouth, we wouldn't have been thrown out." said James glaring at Sirius.

"James' right," said Remus glaring at Sirius too.

"What did I do?" replied Sirius innocently.

"Oh, I give up," said Remus sighing.

After a little accident (Sirius, James and Remus had 'accidentally' pushed Lily, Jo and Kat into the lake), all the first years got to the castle safely.

"All first years follow me," said a very stern looking professor, "I'm Professor McGonagall, head of Gryffindor house, please line up in one straight line and when I call your name, please step forward and wear the hat. It will sort you into your house. The four houses are Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin. In Hogwarts, you will spend your free time in your house common room." She said that while leading the first years into the great hall.

Lily saw five tables in the great hall. One for the teachers and one for each house.

The hat started singing a song and when it was done, everyone clapped. She didn't pay much attention to the sorting after Sirius was sorted into Gryffindor. She was looking at the ghosts of each house. All seemed friendly enough except the Slytherin ghost. He was covered in blood. The Bloody Baron they called him.

Then, 'Lily Evans'. Lily walked up to the sorting hat. She picked it up and put it on. The last thing she saw was James Potter sticking his tongue out at her, then all was black.

"So who do we have here? Oh! Lily Evans! I've been waiting long for you and your friend. I trust you know him already? Who's he? Never mind, back to the sorting. Muggle-born, not Slytherin material, trustworthy, loyal, but I have a feeling your destiny's not in Hufflepuff. Smart, but I see bravery here. Definitely GRYFFINDOR!"

The hat shouted the last word to the hall. Lily walked over to the table that was clapping madly. Sirius gave her a high five but Lily was too absorbed in her own thoughts.

"What did the hat mean?"

She sat down next to Sirius and was brought back to earth when Sirius started shouting into her ear, "Congratulations Lily! You made it to Gryffindor! I thought would surely get into Slytherin."

Lily hit him on the head, hard.

"Ouch!"

'Joanna Streatfield' Lily crossed her fingers and hoped that Jo would get into Gryffindor. And as luck would have it, GRYFFINDOR!

"Yes!" Lily shouted and clapped along with the rest.

Then 'Remus Lupin'

Suddenly, Sirius stood on the table and shouted, "Give me a R, give me a E, give me a M, give me a U, give me a S! R-E-M-U-S! GO...... REMUS!"

"Do both of you know him?" asked a 4th year girl pointing to Sirius.

"No." replied Lily and Jo immediately.

In the line, Kat and James were shaking their heads.

Soon, it was James' turn. Sure enough, Sirius was standing on the table shouting, " Give me a J, give me an A, give me a M, give me a E, give me a S! J-A-M-E-S! GO...... James!"

The headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, cast an amused look at Sirius. James put on the hat and the last thing he saw was Lily sticking her tongue out at him.

"Why hello James. Nice to meet you. Now, since I'm such in a good mood today, I'll let you choose where you want to go. Sirius and Remus are in Gryffindor so I think I'll choose Gryffindor. Alright, so be it. I just had a funny feeling you would choose GRYFFINDOR!

Lily screamed, "What I'm in the same house as him? Help!"

"Yes, Lily dear, I know you're excited," said Sirius while he was jumping up and down like a three year old.

"I'm not excited," Lily protested, "I'm just..."

"Delighted" said Sirius finishing her sentence for her.

"Sirius..." was all Lily could say.

James walked towards the Gryffindor table and plopped down next to Remus.

"Where's the food?" asked James.

"We don't have food until Dumbledore makes his opening speech," said a 3rd year.

"A speech? Oh dear, how long are we going to wait?" said a grumbling Sirus.

"You'll be surprised," came the reply.

"Hello everyone, I trust you enjoyed your holidays. Welcome to and back to Hogwarts. I'm sure Professor McGonagall has briefed the first years on your houses and everything so I'll end my speech. A reminder that nobody should go wandering into the Forbidden Forest as it is, well, forbidden. We have also planted a whooping willow on the school grounds so please be extra careful. Thank you and enjoy your meal." said Professor Dumbledore.

As Dumbledore said the last few words, food suddenly appeared on the empty plates.

"Hurray!" shouted Sirius and he proceeded to shove food down his throat.

Lily, Jo and Kat (she had been sorted into Gryffindor) looked on in disgust.

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Ok, that's the end of the first chapter! How was it? I kinda edited the whole thing again. I thought there was too many chapters and those chapters were too short. So, I combined two chapters into one! Yay! So anyway, if you like it, review! Oh yes, to clarify one thing, Wormtail is going to come in during the later chapters. So don't need to ask about him ok? Thanks!