Crazy Wizard

Chapter 1: A Few Witches, Wizards, and an evil Squid

            NOTE: Hi! This is my....uh....well....I forget how many HP FFs I've done but I wasn't serious about those like this one. And those were all about Harry…well except this one fic…but…So really this is my first serious Lily and James fanfiction. It will be confusing in the beginning because I have to jump from one character to another. My chapters are probably going to be around ten thousand words or so, sorry if you like chapters shorter. I am basing this on the information from the fifth book, that obviously Lily hated James. It might be boring in the first few chapters. Later in the fic I'll be quoting from OotP, but that won't be until the fifth year. Also, for the DISCLAIMER, the characters of Lily, James, Sirius, Remus, Peter, Arabella, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, and so on, aren't mine. The characters of mine are Catty, Essence, and some of the professors. Now, why do you ask this fic is called Crazy Wizard? Well it includes evil Voldie and since he's crazy, well yeah. Sorry if it's not a great name, that's just what I thought of. I like reviews, and I don't mind flames. I don't mind much what people think of me, or my fics or anything, but anything you say about my fic I'll take to heart. I would like all the help I can get. I'm not sure how far this fic will go. If I finish it, then it will go on until Harry's seventh year. Yes, HARRY'S. This is probably going to be a long fic, hopefully more than 100k words (^_^). Since the chapters will be so long, I won't be able to update a lot, so only about every month or two. I'm actually going to write three chapters before I post the first chapter on FF.net so the first three chapters will probably be every month. Anyway, I wonder when you're reading this. I'm WRITING this four days before Christmas! ^_^ Ok, well this is long (heh, not compared to the chapter), so I'll stop it. Onto my fic!

*          *          *

           

            "Lily. My dear, dear Lily."

            "Mum. My dear, dear mum."

            Mrs. Evans sighed exasperatingly at her youngest daughter. "Lily. You have to eat! You don't get a choice. Even though you're sick, you have to keep your energy up!"

            "But Mum. I'm not hungry. You're not supposed to eat when you're not hungry."

            "Lily, you're going to eat no matter what!" She looked at her daughter expectantly. Lily was looking disgustingly at the soup in front of her.

            "Lily, come on. Just one little bi-" But right at that moment, the door burst open and Lily's older sister, Petunia, ran in. Her hair was thoroughly ruffled and she was swinging her arms everywhere, trying to get the white owl away from her. The beautiful owl flew over to a rather shocked Lily and stuck its leg out.          

            "It just comes in and attacks me for no reason! The bloody thing even gave me this! It bit me! I probably have that rabbine disease or something! Mum! I'm feeling faint! Everything's spinning-"

            "Petunia! Be quiet already! It did not give you rabies honey! It's an owl, not a monster." Petunia crossed her arms and let out an annoyed breath.  Mrs. Evans shook her head and turned to her daughter. "What is it?"

            "A...A letter. Saying I'm a witch." Lily said, handing the letter to her mum and shrugging.

            "A WITCH? You're a WITCH? Ack! You FREAK! I knew something was wrong with you! I knew it!" Petunia was frozen in the doorway with a look halfway between scared and terrified. Mrs. Evans looked at her daughter as though she was about to say something, but as she read the letter, she looked utterly speechless.

            "I...Well I guess we should go see your Dad..." She said, trailing off as she read the letter through again, and stood up. Lily set her soup aside and got out of bed happily.

            "You know Petunia, you do get rabies from bites..." She said to Petunia, who was examining where the owl had nipped her. Her eyes widened and she ran off to the bathroom.

            "Honey? Is that Lily in the shower again? I know she's sick but she can't be taking a shower every five minutes with these dry spells lately! It-"

            "Dad! No, it's Petunia trying to get rid of the rabies." Lily said, after following her mother into the kitchen. Her father had come back home from the office where he worked at. He had a short-sleeved light blue shirt on and he was lightly sweating. The heat had been uncharacteristically hot and miserable.

            Daniel Evans was a man about 5'11" and had light brown hair, along with amazing green eyes. He was in his mid 40's.

            His wife of 15 years, Rose Evans, had flaming red hair that was medium length and worked as a nurse at the local hospital.

            Lily had amazing, red, medium-length hair from her mum and her beautiful green almond-shaped eyes from he dad.

            "Rabies?" He said, raising his eyebrows and getting out two slices of bread

            "An owl bit her." Mrs. Evans replied, getting out a knife for him.

            "An owl? There are now owls around? Well, lunch is much more interesting than breakfast. Oh, Lily, did you eat any? You really should try more." He said, getting out the mustard and taking the knife from his wife.

            "Yeah but it's even weirder than you think! The owl was carrying a letter from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry! I'm a witch! Can you believe that?" Lily said, jumping up and down by the end of it and beaming madly. But her father didn't seem so thrilled. Well, maybe a better word would be surprised. He didn't seem surprised at all.

            "Sorry, but am I the only one who hears me? A witch dad! A witch. Someone who does spells and things! Or...Or is this some weird, demented joke for my eleventh birthday?" She didn't seem so happy about it now.

            "Of course I hear you! I just sort of knew about it in advance."  He said, smiling and taking out cheese from the refrigerator.

            "Wait, so this isn't a joke? I'm a real witch? Really? Oh my gosh!! Wait. What do you mean you knew about it in advance?" She asked, giving her mother and her father suspicious looks.

            "Well you see, you're grandmother kind of told us." Her mother said, looking over at her husband.

            "Dreadfully weird woman." He said, taking a bite of his sandwich.

            "How can you say that about your mother?!" Mrs. Evans said, looking accusingly at him.

            "Oh, we're talking about my mum?" He said, winking at Lily. Lily covered her mouth and laughed. Her mother, though, did not find it so funny. She glared at him, but didn't say anything, expecting him to continue.     

            "Oh, yes. Anyway, she was a witch. I suppose the magic skipped me. I can't do anything magical. Mum tried to get me to do it, but I took from my dad's side of the family. All normal. My dad didn't mind Mum being a witch though. I though it kind of weird. Oh, yes. She spent a lot of time with you when you re a baby. She told us that you were a witch because of all the weird things you could do and that if you got sent a letter saying that you got accepted into a wizarding school, let you go. That's why I wasn't all that surprised. She told me it would happen when you were 11. She also told me this 'mentor' person would show up and show you around the wizarding world. Ah, Mum. To bad the sweet old lady had to die." Her father sighed, and took another bite of his sandwich.

            "So...Oh this is SO cool! I can't wait. It says that the mentor will show up on August 25th though! Today is August 2nd! Oh how dreadful! And school starts September 1st! Oh no! Ugh." Lily said, impatiently.

            "Don't worry honey. Since we're going to have to take you out of your school, you'll have freedom! Mum and you can go shopping! You like shopping right? I was never really a 'shopping' kind of guy. Too many bags and too much money spent. But you like shopping so..." But he trailed off as he realized Lily wasn't paying attention.

            "I get to quit that stupid school? YAY!" She was doing a little happy jig.

            "I thought you liked that school honey."

            "Eck, no. Who could like something that gives homework year-round? Anyway, yeah, let's go shopping Mum! Oh my gosh, I can't believe it!" She was, again, beaming madly and was looking at her mum.

            "Of course we'll go shopping. Oh, I can't believe my daughter, my Lily, is a witch! Oh you'll have to tell us everything about where you get your books and all, oh this is so exciting!"

            And indeed it was.

*          *          *

            "Master James," squeaked a small little elf. "Dinner is ready."

            "Thanks Mimi." A boy said and the elf disappeared with a crack. The boy had messy black hair and glasses that covered wonderful eyes that resembled melted chocolate. He was beaming and clutching a letter in his hand. He bounced down many flights of stairs to the dining room. His father was away again. A business trip. But his mum was sitting there at the table and smiled as she saw the letter clutched in his small hand.

            "You finally got the Hogwarts letter! Oh I'm so proud!" She got up and gave her only son a long hug before sitting down in front of her plate of food. "When is the mentor getting here? Aren't they doing group mentors this year? I heard that they didn't have enough people to do it one for each person this year."

            "Um...The person is coming on the 25th." He answered, handing the letter to his mum.

            "I think I will just give you the key to our vault okay? I mean, you've never been on those coaster things so I think it'd be fun for you. You'd have to get a few hundred Galleons though okay? I'll let you get that new Cleansweep that's just come out. You aren't old enough for the House Quidditch teams yet but you have been practicing a lot lately and you are getting pretty good, so maybe they can make an exception?" She was beaming at James. He was smiling down into his mashed potatoes.

            Hogwarts was going to be great. He was going to be remembered there forever, and he would make sure of it. Maybe he would hold the greatest number of detentions. Or maybe he could pull a huge prank. Sirius would definitely be up for doing both of those though. 

            This Sirius person that James was thinking of was, in fact, talking to his Mum about Hogwarts also.

*          *          *

            "But Mum. I have to go to Hogwarts! James is going and so is everyone else! Who could turn down an invitation to Hogwarts? It will be wonderful! Oh Mum, I have to go! Come on, please?" Sirius Black finished his mini-speech and looked hopefully at his Mum.

            "Honey, that school has gone down the drain. They are accepting mudbloods now!-"

            "Mum! Don't call them that! They are just a bit different! It's not like-"

            "Sirius! What has that Potter family done to you? They are lower than us! Lower!" She shrieked. Well, Sirius' Mum was not for the muggle-borns, to say the least.

            "Mum! No they aren't! They aren't any different actually! Not at all!"

            "Yes they are! They are so much-"

            "They are not lower Mum-"

            "-terrible witches and wizards-"

            "-just the same-

            "-shouldn't even-"

            "-nothing wrong-"

            "Natalie! Sirius!" A male voice roared. Sirius and his Mum turned to see Mr. Black in the doorway. He hated yelling. Sirius figured it was because he was sick of his wife yelling at him all the time. Actually, it was kind of funny because the quarter of the time, he was yelling himself.

            He had black hair just liked his two younger sons. Actually, right at that time Regulus Black popped his head in. "Oh, hello Dad, Mum, Sirius. What is going on? I heard yelling..." His sentence trailed off as he looked back and forth from his Mum, Dad, and brother.

            "Why can't you be like sweet Regulus here? He doesn't yell back at me! He thinks that Mudbloods are lower! Why can't-"

            "Don't call them that! And just because you happen to think Muggle-borns are lower, doesn't mean I-"

            "YES IT DOES! NOW GET UP TO YOUR ROOM! IF YOU AREN'T CAREFUL YOU WILL SOON BE BLASTED OFF THE FAMILY TREE!" Mr. Black roared.

            "You mean you haven't already? Anyway, the mentor person from Hogwarts is coming the 25th and I'm going whether you like it or not..." He said more, but that was carefully under his breath, so his Mum and Dad couldn't hear him. His Mum glared at his back as he walked up the stairs.

            "I swear! That boy needs to learn some things!" Mrs. Black said walking into the kitchen.

            "I agree Mother." Said Regulus, helping her in anyway he could.

            "Oh Regulus. You're the better son, you know. Sirius should be more like you. Start the stew." Regulus nodded and did as he was told

*          *          *

            "Oh Mum! Oh my gosh! I'm a witch! I'm a-" But a decisive crash ended her sentence. An 11-year-old girl with shoulder length dirty-blonde hair and beautiful green eyes had just tripped over a rug and had fallen onto the dining room table. She was clutching a letter in her right hand and was carefully pulling her left hand out of what had once been a bowl of potatoes. Now they looked rather mashed.

            "Oh Mum. I'm sorry!" She wailed jumping off the table and landing on her cat's tail. "Oh Fin! I'm sorry!" This, surprisingly enough, happened every day. The girl, in turn, was very clumsy and ran into everything. If you put her in a four-sided room, she would be able to run into ten different walls.

            "Oh Catty. No, it's rather fine. Now what were you so excited about?" Her Mum said. She had medium black hair and rather blue eyes. She stuck her head in the refrigerator and got out a bowl of carrots. You had to be ready if you lived with Catty Fash.

            "Mum! I got a letter and it says I'm a witch! A witch! Mum, a witch! I have to call Dad! Where's the phone-"

            "Catty! Wait, he'll be home in just a moment! Now what's this about you being a witch?" Her Mum replaced the mashed potatoes and looked over at her daughter.

            "Yes! I'm a witch! See!! Look at this letter Hogwarts sent me!" She handed a letter to her Mum and she read it.

            "Oh...well...I guess we can tell you now." She sighed and placed the letter on the counter. "You see-"

            "Oh Catty! Catty, Catty, Catty! My sweet, beautiful, wonderful daughter got into Hogwarts! Or some other wizarding school! Oh Catty!" Mr. Fash had opened the door and had run over to his very surprised daughter.

            "Ack! Dad! How do you know about Hogwarts? Oh! Dad! I can't breathe!" She said, trying, and failing, to push her father away before she was suffocated.

            "Oh! Now Catty, don't get mad. I'm a wizard! I never told you before because I wasn't sure if you were one. But you are! Oh I just am so happy!" He said, beaming madly.

            "Really? You're a wizard? Oooh! Tell me about Hogwarts! Did you go? What is it like? Is there homework year-round? What do they teach there?-"

            "CATTY! Calm down please. We can discuss it over dinner, it's getting cold." Catty happily did as she was told and started asking the question over again between mouthfuls.

            "Yes, I'm a wizard and yes I went to Hogwarts. I won't tell you anything about what it is like because I want you to be just as surprised as all the others. Yes, homework year-round. They only assign you essays on one thing in the summer though, so it's not like the school is year-round. They teach a lot of things! I can't remember all of them. Catty, this is not regular school. You have to work hard and you can't be just passing like you are now."

            "What? You're just passing? You said you didn't know! Catty! Grounded for a week!" Her mum said, looking over at Catty.

            "What? Mum, no! Come on! I didn't know! Dad just happened to go up there and find out!" But instantly bit her lip. She was sure she was not helping her case. "Ack, yes, you're right Mum. Definitely a week, heh. The mentor person is coming on the 25th also. Just for you to know." She couldn't wait! She finished her dinner and bounced up to her room. She couldn't believe today. First she finds out she's a witch and gets to go to a wizarding school, then she finds out her dad is a wizard.

Oh, how wonderful today had been.

*          *          *

            Essence Kindle looked at the white owl sitting on her window seal, bored. "Hello Mr. Owl. How are you? I have to wonder, is it boring flying around giving letters to people? Well I guess someone telling you to go fly wouldn't be so bad." She eyed the owl that had stuck out its leg. "Oh well I supposed you have a lot of other letters to deliver, why should you be held up by one person?" She walked over and untied the letter from the owl's leg. "Ok Mr. Owl. Be on your way." The owl flew off into the warm night air.

            Essence already knew what the letter would be about so she just laid it on her desk and walked off, down the hall. She had known she was a witch for a very long time; she didn't need a letter to tell her that. Or that she had been accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Her Mum and Dad had told her that she would be for a long time. She wasn't excited about it. At all. She slipped into the bathroom and stepped into the shower. Soon enough a house-elf would enter he room to clean and find the letter and run off to tell 'Master Kindle and Misses Kindle', well, if they were home. That's what her Dad and Faye were to house-elves. Masters. She didn't like the idea of house-elves. Well, except when she needed to talk to someone. Well, lately she had been using her diary for that. But still, something that responded was better than a book.

            After finishing her shower, she got on her bedclothes and walked down stairs to the dining room to get some food. Surprisingly though, Faye was there.

            "Essence. I was hoping I would catch you." Essence looked at Faye and her mouth dropped open as she saw her diary; open in front of her Stepmum.

            "FAYE! DID YOU READ MY DIARY?" She yelled, snatching her diary up and holding it to her chest.           

            "Essence, it is the only way I know what is going on in your life! You don't tell me or your father anything anymore-"

            "Of COURSE I don't!" She shrieked. "YOU'RE NEVER AROUND! YOU AND FATHER ARE ALWAYS AT WORK! YOU'RE NEVER HOME! HOW EXACTLY DO YOU EXPECT ME TO TELL YOU ANYTHING?!" She stopped yelling and was breathing heavily.

            "But Essence-" Faye tried, but to no avail.

            "No." She said, but then repeated herself with more force. "NO! Just because YOU can't be around long enough for me even to say hello, you can't just go off reading my diary! It's private!" She ran away, back to her room. Or at least she tried to get up to her room. She instead found herself in the indoor garden. She had been coming up here a lot. Her family was rich; her dad was the editor of the Daily Prophet and Faye was 2nd to the Minister of Magic. They were highly respected magic people in the community. It was kind of funny though. Who really knew who the editor of the Daily Prophet was? And people only knew the wizard 1st to the Minister. That would be Mr. Black. Kind of funny though. When Essence had met him, he seemed evil to her. Couldn't they see that?

            Ah yes. Back to the problem at hand. In all reality, what Essence had yelled at Faye was true. Mr. and Mrs. Kindle were never home. Essence didn't have any brothers and sisters. She didn't have anything to do either. So she would just wonder aimlessly around. Actually, her house was huge. Her Mum, though, was the descendant of Rowena Ravenclaw herself! That was amazing really. But, ah, we keep getting off subject.

            Essence had midnight black hair that was about waist length that she usually kept in a ponytail. She had dark blue eyes and a darker complexion than most. Everything about her was dark. And going to Hogwarts, wearing the black robes probably wasn't going to help. Essence had been home-schooled when she had been about five. Five through ten years of age. Essence hated to admit it, but homework had been a lot better than just sitting around the house all day. She had actually gotten used to doing essays and such. This was good for at Hogwarts because, as she was told, every week each teacher gave you an essay on one thing or another.

            This wasn't as bad to her as to most. She had a lot of books, and was sure she was years ahead of the other first years in Potions. She liked the idea of Potions. Mixing stuff that could be used for magical, special, great, or bad purposes.  Really interesting to her. She had heard the Potions teacher gave the hardest essays. But she was probably ahead of others in a lot of things. She even was starting to read up on Divination. She really couldn't wait 'til August 25th got here. She wasn't at all patient. At least she would get to get away.

            Essence didn't know when, but she dropped off into sleep in the gardens. Really relaxing in there. Water from the fountains, and the buzzing of fairies. A house-elf must have found her, for she woke up in her own bed in the morning, to her dad. Now this didn't happen that much.

            "Honey... Essence...My daughter...I'm sorry. Your mother told me about what had happened. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean..." He said trailing off as he looked at his daughter.

            "No, it's okay. If you wish to call her my mother, then you can. I just won't." Actually, Mrs. Kindle wasn't Essence's real Mum. Essence's real Mum had died when she was four. She had even seen it happen, but she couldn't have done anything. It had been a tragic accident. Somehow Mrs. Kindle had 'fallen' on a few knives that happened to be protruding from a little wooden block. Kind of weird that they had been facing with the point out. Actually, when Essence had gotten older, she herself had 'fallen' on scissors. Of course, that was when she was seven and she had been smarter then. If she hadn't of moved when she did, the scissors would have pierced her neck. Instead they had hit her hand, going right through it.

            That was when she had had to go to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. Not exactly the best time of her life, but she had gotten a scar, so that was cool. Oh yes, back to the conversation.

            "Yes, okay dear. Oh Essence. I'm sorry. I really am. I suppose I just got caught up so much in work." He sighed, looking very much tired. "I suppose I should stop going to those bloody parties and such. I suppose I should start spending more time here, with you. In all truth, Ess (It is pronounced just like the letter's'), when your mother died, I was too afraid to stay home. I needed something to do. I couldn't sit around wishing she was back. So I hired a tutor and just hid in my work.

            "I'm sorry that I did that now. I wish I had stayed here with you." He put his hand on the back of his neck and looked at his daughter. He smiled. "So I heard you got into Hogwarts." And thus started the conversation about Hogwarts where Essence tried very much to get her father to tell her all about Hogwarts.

            It was to no reward.

*          *          *

            It really was amazing how quickly 23 days could pass. Yes, it was finally the 25th of August and Lily was as excited as ever. Of course, before, on the 20th, she had gotten a letter saying that instead of having a mentor per student, a mentor would be assigned a group of students. She and nine other students would be under the supervision of Melody Avert. Anyway, today was it. In just three hours Melody would be here.

            "Lily! Are you ready? Just 30 minutes..." Okay, so maybe it wasn't three hours, but 30 short minutes. Oh no. This was bad. Lily scrambled up to her room and started to try to pick out what she was going to wear. Should she wear jeans? Or a skirt? She decided that she was probably going to be doing a lot of walking and would need to wear tennis shoes, and tennis shoes didn't go with skirts. Now what top to wear? This didn't take as long. She decided to wear the no-sleeve, purple tank top with a plain white Lily on the front. It was Lily's favorite shirt. But I'm sure you don't want to hear about Lily's choice of clothes.

            Lily rushed down stairs to get her shoes on and wondered how Melody would get there. 'How do wizards and witches travel I wonder...'

            But I'm sure we should rather go to Sirius first, who was the third to be picked up.

*          *          *

            "Sirius! NO!  You are NOT going to that idiot school Hogwarts!" Mrs. Black yelled at her older son.   

            "Yes I am Mum! And the mentor person will be here in a moment!" Mrs. Black looked as though she couldn't find anything to say.

            "I...Well....How are they going to get here? We aren't connected to the floo network!"

            "I hooked it up this morning." Sirius said calmly. His mum's left eye began twitching and she turned around and left him in the living room alone. "Finally." He said and sat on the couch. Melody would soon get here. Actually, she was there! A woman with blonde hair stepped out of his fireplace and turned immediately to catch the girl and boy who would've fallen otherwise. She steadied them and turned to Sirius, who had stood up. She extended a hand.

            "Hello. You must be Sirius. This is Haven and Cilpert." He shook her hand and smiled at the other two. "Right. On to the speech. Oh, this is boring, I'll just say it when we get to the last house. Come on. Take a handful of the powder, throw it in, watch the flames go green, step into the fire, don't worry it won't burn you, pronounce clearly, and we're off to The Evans' House." They all did like they were told, Melody of course going first. She still had to steady Haven and Cilpert, but Sirius was perfect with it and didn't need help.

            When they got to the house a girl with medium length red hair jumped up from where she was sitting and was beaming. "Hi!" She said, energetically and took Melody's hand, along with Haven's, Cilpert's, and Sirius'.

            "Hello. You must be Lily. This is Haven, Cilpert, and Sirius.  Take a handful of the powder, throw it in, watch the flames go green, step into the fire, don't worry it won't burn you, pronounce clearly, and we're off to The Fash's." Lily did as she was told, following the boy with the black hair in front of her. It was an immediate swirl and Lily closed her eyes. Of course she had to open them when a hand shot out and grabbed her, pulling her from the mix of colors.

            They were now at a house where a girl and her mother were sitting on a couch. As soon as the girl saw them, she jumped up, instantly knocking over the assortment of glass figures that was on the coffee table in front of her. "Oh! Woops, sorry Mum." None had broken, so it was okay. The woman hugged her daughter and said only...

            "Pro-nounce clear-ly." She gave the girl a little key and stepped back.

            "Hello. You must be Catty. This is Haven, Cilpert, Sirius, and Lily. Take a handful of the powder, throw it in, watch the flames go green, step into the fire, don't worry, it won't burn you, pronounce clearly, and were off to The Figg's." Catty watched as Melody disappeared into the flames and wasn't so happy now. She pulled over the girl with the medium length red hair.

            "Is it as bad as it looks?" She asked as the boy 'Cilpert' disappeared.

            "Well...It wouldn't be my choice of travel. But how do wizards get around? I come from a...normal family so..." Catty's eye's seemed to light up.

            "Oh me too! Oh, it's your turn." Lily smiled and Catty did also. Lily stepped into the green fire and said, clearly,           

            "The Figg's!" And she was off. Catty looked back at her mum, took and deep breath, stepped into the fire, did the same as the girl before her and was consumed in swirls of color. But in a matter of seconds, a hand thrust out and pulled her into a beautifully furnished living room. She said thanks to Melody and slipped over to Lily.

            She heard Melody say the exact things she had said to melody, inserting the girl's name (Arabella) and adding on Catty's on the end. "Does she just say that to everyone?" She whispered to the girl with the red hair.

            "I think so, oh and we never did have a proper introduction. I'm Lily Evans. You?" 'Lily' whispered

            "Catty Fash." She whispered and smiled, shaking the girl's hand.

            "...and we're off to The Grap's House." Melody finished, as she got a pinch of the powder and through it in the fire.

            After picking up Jimmy Grap, Brook Haven, and Bert Jip, they were off to "The Ravenclaw's Branch".

            "The Ravencalw's Branch? It that what they call their house? How weird." Catty whispered to Lily.

            "Actually, Ravenclaw was one of the founders of Hogwarts, along with Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. Ravenclaw is actually a House at Hogwarts too." Said a boy with short black hair that was rather cute. Well at least to Catty. Lily, though, seemed to be more interested on what he was saying.

            "Really? Did you come from a wizarding family? We didn't so we don't know a lot. Lily Evans." She finished, extending a hand.

            "And I'm Catty Fash." Catty chirped cheerfully, also extending a hand. He shook both of their hands.   

            "Yeah, I come from a wizarding family. I'm Sirius Black." But he didn't get to say more, for it was his turn to go to the next, and last, house.

 Arabella had a hard time with the floo powder, just like she had for the past three times. Lily, Catty, Sirius, and almost everyone else had gotten pretty good at it. Well, Sirius had already been good at it. So really only Lily and Catty and the others got better.

            When they got there they gaped at the huge living room. Ok, well Sirius didn't, because it was the same size as James'. But that was because James lived in Gryffindor's house.

            When they settled down, they saw a girl with long black hair, in a ponytail and dark blue eyes. A woman that looked nothing like her sat beside her and also gave her a key. They never found out what her name was, for Arabella and Haven were whispering in front of them and they couldn't hear anything.

            They were soon off to Diagon Alley. Lily and Sirius, as well as Haven and Cilpert got there safely. Catty, on the other hand, didn't.

             Instead of saying 'Diagon Alley' she said, "Diagonally.", which was not right at all. So as everyone else finished arriving at Diagon Alley, Melody was in a frenzy looking for Catty. Faye, who had come to make sure they found the girl, decided she'd watch the kids for a few minutes.

            It turned out, though that Catty found her way back to everyone, from wherever she was. While Melody was pulling out her hair, she walked right up to Lily and everyone else and said "There you are! Hi!" Of course Melody freaked out, and starting giving a mini speech on how important it was to stay with the group

            Essence found her way over to Lily, Catty, and Sirius. They all exchanged hellos and Essence explained that she was from a wizarding family, like Sirius. "So like, you're whole house is made of magic? Well, I mean is your house full of magic?" Catty asked, not really making much sense at all.

            "Um...Yeah. I think so..." She shrugged and noticed Sirius was looking around. "Looking for someone?"

            "Yeah, my friend. He was supposed to meet me here...Oh! James! There you are." James looked over his shoulder to see his best friend with three other girls. He said something to his Mum, and ran over to Sirius.

            "'Lo Sirius."

            "'Lo James. These are some people. Let's see, Catty...um..."  Obviously he had forgotten her last name.

            "Fash."

            "Yes, right. And this is Essence Kindle, descendant of Ravenclaw, and Lily Ev...Ev..." He said, trying to get her to say her last name, the one he obviously had forgotten. She just looked at him with a fake, confused look on her face.

            "My last name isn't Ev...." He scowled at her and she laughed. "Lily Evans. Hi." She said to James. He smiled at her.

            "So did you get your key Sirius?" James said, pulling out a small golden key from his pants pocket.

            "Yup." Sirius replied while pulling out a similar key.

            "Hey! Lookie! I have one also." Catty said, smiling happily. Essence also pulled out a similar one, but one that had an intricate design on it of a Raven.

            "What are those for?" Lily said, wondering that and also why she didn't have a little golden key.

            "For the little...places in Gringotts where all your money is kept. Oh, do you come from a Muggle family? That means a normal family. If you do, you probably don't have one." James said looking over at Lily. Lily had wondered what the gold, silver, and bronze coins that she had seen in the hands of a few people when she came in had come from and where she was going to get some.

            But she didn't have a key or money! How would she buy her stuff? But then she remembered something her grandmother had given her when she was a baby...

            She unhooked her golden necklace and slipped off the key that the chain held. It was a small key just like the others. She decided she would go up to the counter with everyone else, give them her key, and see what they made of it.

            She was amazed when she saw who she would be handing her key to. Goblins. Catty seemed amazed at this too.

            "Goblins? I have goblins protecting my money? Wow! This is so cool!" The others laughed at her and walked up to the counter.

            Melody had told them to ask for a cart for about four of them so they could leave earlier. After getting their keys checked, and by being assigned a goblin named Griphat, they were off in a cart suited for four rather small people. By accounting that there were six people in the cart (well, five people and one creature) I don't believe I have to tell you it was a bit cramped.

            Catty's was the first door that they came upon. Her number was 563 and when Griphat opened the door, a small mound of gold was in the corner, and a larger mound of silver and bronze coins was in the middle. She grabbed a bit of each kind of coin and sat down next to Essence.

            Sirius' 'compartment' was next (579). He had a much larger mound of gold, and a smaller bit of bronze and silver. Lily looked over at Catty and was sure she saw her color a bit. As they got deeper, they reached a cave and Lily, from James' side asked, "I never know, what's the difference between a stalagmite and a stalactite?"

            "'Unno, never knew myself." He replied as they began to slow down. They stopped in front of a door with the numbers 615 on the front. Essence gave the key to Griphat who unlocked it and blushed as he swung the door open to reveal the huge pile of gold that out ranked even Sirius' pile. She only had a very small pile of silver, and no bronze at all, so she scooped a bit of the gold into her bag and sat down.

            It turned out to be quite a while longer before they got to Lily's or James'. It turned out, though, that they were right next door to each other! Lily's at 812 and James' at 814. This turned out to be strange because, of course, where was 813? When they asked Grip hat, though, he ignored them and unlocked James' door.

            As Lily opened her door, though, she gasped. Her grandmother had left her a fortune! It was even slightly larger than Essence's. James' pile, though, about ranked all of them. As she looked into his cave and looked at him, he shrugged.

            "Wow! Lily! I thought you said you came from a Muggle family! How do you have so much gold?" Catty said. Lily looked back at the door after sitting down and shrugged.

            "My Grandmum was a witch; I guess she left me more money than I thought..." Catty decided to drop the subject, but battered James with questions.

            "So how did you get more money than probably all of us combined? I mean do you realize how much that is? I mean, I probably won't ever have that much in my life!" Catty waved her arms around to express her point, but Sirius grabbed one and shook his head. He looked a little green. Catty shrugged and turned back to Lily.

            Soon they were all out of Gringotts and were standing in front of Melody, who was telling them what the schedule would be.  Lily wasn't rather all that interested in how they were going to get their things in a special order, but rather getting them. So she didn't listen. It really is amazing how a person can spend 30 minutes talking about a schedule and then another hour talking how you shouldn't take a lot of time, only about 10 minutes in each store.

            But finally, they were off. Sirius and James were talking about other things, obviously already been being here.

            Essence was explaining everything to Catty, who was asking as many questions as she could think of, soon getting to useless questions like "So that store is made out of brick?"

            Lily was just looking around at everything and smiling. But soon she had to stop because they were at their first store.

            As they went along in their schedule, they got their books, parchment, quills, robes, cauldrons, and many other things. But that wasn't what anyone was looking forward to. Everyone was looking forward to picking out wands.

            And soon, but all to long for the kids, they were at Ollivanders. But not everyone got to go in at one time. Therefore, Essence was very annoyed that she would be last.

            As Haven and Cilpert went in, the rest of them got to sit outside and mess with their other stuff. James, who hadn't bought anything (saving it for when he was really supposed to go, even though he got some money for the new broom that he had permission to buy) stole one of Sirius' quills and was now poking him relentlessly. Soon, though, Sirius got out another quill and they were treating the quills like swords, or knives. They never did get hurt, even though Lily thought they should, being so careless.

            After another 30 minutes, it was Sirius' and Lily's turn, even though James also snuck in. Melody was outside trying to calm down the rest of them, so it wasn't really as much as sneaking as walking. Sirius, first to go, got his wand on the 6th try.  It was Beachwood, with a core of phoenix tail feathers. About seven inches. Pretty flexible. Sirius beamed happily when he waved it, and it emitted a show of red and gold fireworks. Mr. Ollivander wasn't so happy that the fireworks wouldn't stop, even after a few minutes.

            He eventually stopped it, and soon Lily was up. Like it had done with Sirius, a tape measure with silver markings took measurements of Lily, and she blushed rather badly when she realized she was being measured in front of two boys. After about the 11th try, though, Lily finally found her match. It was made of willow, ten and a quarter inches long, and really swishy. It, also, had a core of phoenix tail feather. He told her, that it would be a good wand for Charms work.

            When Lily had waved the wand, though, it emitted sparks of purple. This, Lily thought, was weird. Obviously so did Sirius and James, for she heard them whispering about it while it happened.

            But James was up next, so the whispering soon ceased. As the tape measure measured James, James looked at Mr. Ollivander who was looking through the high stacks of boxes. After a few minutes of measuring, and once James was deeply annoyed with it, Mr. Ollivander finally said "That will be enough." And brought over a box.

            James gave it a swish but it did nothing. As did the 16 others.

            "Okay! Aren't 17 wands enough? You know Mr. Ollivander, I think James here is just wand inept. Jamsie, maybe you're not supposed to have a wand-"

            "Will you stop calling me Jamsie!? It's bloody annoying..." And James went off muttering about…well since he was muttering you couldn't tell real well.

            "Maybe this one..." Mr. Ollivander said, more to himself, and gave a wand to James. A very nice wand actually. It was Mahogany, 11 inches, flexible. Great for Transfiguration work.

            And it worked! Finally, the wand emitted a shower of red and gold sparks. Sirius sprang up from where he had been sitting on the floor. "Finally! Jamsie! I was getting worried!" Sirius cried dramatically. James rolled his eyes and pushed Sirius over. This happened to be bad.

            Sirius, after being pushed, tripped over the tape measure, bumped into Lily, and sent her toppling over into a stack of wands. It accordingly fell and hit other stacks, sending wand boxes toppling everywhere.

            James couldn't help himself, and started laughing, both at the toppling wands and at the red headed girl who was looking absolutely terrified. Sirius joined in and soon they were being thrown out of the store by wand.

            When Lily walked out, James and Sirius were sitting on the ground rubbing their bleeding knees.

            "Oooow. That hurt." James said, looking at the bleeding scrape on his knee.

            "Serves you right, ruining the whole store like that!" Lily said.

            "I didn't ruin the whole store. Sirius happened to be inept to be able to stand on two feet." James replied, irritably.

            "No, you had to push him off his two feet!" Lily said heatedly.

            "No, it just happened! And plus, maybe Ollivander should keep his wands better than just stacking them up!"

            "No, you should just get over it and admit you caused it!"

            "No, you just need to shut up already!"

            "Why should I? I didn't ruin a whole store!"

            "Why do you care so much? It's not your store!"

            "So? It's still ruined and you're still the cause of it!"

            "Can we just drop this? It was just one thing-"

            "Yeah, then you couldn't admit-"

            "-didn't do anything-"

            "-can't even-"

            "-won't drop-"

            "-doesn't get-"

            "-needs to shut up-"

            "-needs to admit-"

            It was rather funny if you were there. Here were these two people who had only known each other for less than a few hours and were yelling at each other over pushing. Finally, though, Sirius, Essence, and Melody all got annoyed with it.

            "Evans! Potter! Stop right this- Potter! You're not supposed to be here! What are you doing? Potter! Evans? Hello?" Melody tried, but Lily and James were still yelling at each other.

            "YOU JUST LIKE ARGUING!"

            "WELL YOU CAN'T ADMIT ANYTHING!"

            "SHUT UP ALREADY!!" Sirius yelled, walking over and pushing them both. They both looked up and saw that everyone was staring at them. Even Catty and Arabella who had just exited the shop.

            "Potter! Now that you are actually listening..." And thus started Melody yelling at James over how he should not even be there, and ruined everything.

            It was a while before Melody finally stopped yelling. Then it was 'free time'. Of course if they didn't show up at the meeting place by 4:00 they would be left behind. And they all knew she wasn't kidding.

            "That was so funny when Sirius pushed you though; you looked all surprised and was like 'Oh...' It was really funny!" Catty said as she, Essence, and Lily walked around Diagon Alley.

            "No it wasn't! It was embarrassing..."

            "Think of it this way," Essence said, with a laugh. "You just spazzed out in front of only 1/3 of the first years, who will be following you all through your seven years at Hogwarts, so it's not like it was a big deal..." Lily glared at her and rolled her eyes.

            "I personally think that he is way too self-absorbed." Lily said.

            "You can't know that, you don't even know him!" Catty argued.

            "Actually, if you ask me, Sirius, when I first met him, struck me as rather self absorbed and annoying, but now he doesn't...Well actually I really don't know him so..."

            "You knew him before?" Lily said, trying to change the subject. It worked.

            "Yup. He and my...Stepmum work together, first and second to the minister so..." She would've continued had it not been for the look of puzzlement on Catty and Lily's faces. "The Minister of Magic. You know, the guy who controls the whole Ministry. You do know what the ministry is right? Oh...well obviously not. It...It's the center for all the magic. Anyway, the Minister is actually James' father, so I've met him before but not as much so..." She stopped for she had seen the new Cleansweep two, the newest, fastest, and best broom there was, in the window of the Quidditch supply shop.

            "Hey, what's Quidditch?" Lily asked, reading the sign above the shop, and three gasps sounded. One from Essence, and two from behind her.

            "You don't know what Quidditch is? Huh. That'd be terrible not to know of Quidditch before now. What would you have done during the 11 years you've been living, eh Sirius?"

            "Oh yes! How atrocious! So, Essence, getting the new Cleansweep? I, myself, am. So is Jamsie here."

            "Sirius!" James said, as Sirius walked over to Essence and stood beside her, looking at the newest broom.

            "Oh, yup. But I here there is going to be a new Nimbus coming out, so I might wait for it."

            "Yeah, but I heard that it will be coming out in two years. What do you have now?"

            "I don't know, I think a Nimbus 300. I like Nimbus' better, you?"

            "Oh, I prefer what ever goes fastest." Essence laughed and they began talking about what was happening lately in the world of Quidditch. James didn't bother to try to jump into the conversation, knowing he'd be thrown right back out again.

            "So you've never heard of Quidditch?" He asked, after walking over to Lily.

            "No." She said, rather stiffly.

            "Want me to explain it to you?"

            "Rather not."

            "Well, I'll just tell you and you can just ignore me." He said happily. "Well it's a wizarding sport that-"

            "Isn't a nimbus an aura or-"

            "Those are brooms, but we're-"

            "Oh really? So witches and wizards really do fly around on brooms? Oh this is so cool!-"

            "Oy! James! Sirius!" Both boys turned to look over their shoulders to see Remus Lupin running over to them. He had light brown hair, and was rather tall.

            "'Lo Remus." Sirius said, and returned to his conversation with Essence which both of them had rather gotten into.

            "Remus! 'Lo!" James greeted, and waved him over. Remus smiled at Lily and Catty. "This is Lily Evans, and that's Catty Fish-"

            "Fash."

            "Right and I was just starting to explain about Quidditch."

            "No, you were starting to explain of brooms."

            "No, that was before you interrupted." Catty let out a hurtful gasp and started to reply. "So anyway, "James started over Catty and she glared at him.

            "Well really James, you'll just have to answer her questions about brooms when you get to telling them about how the game is played on brooms, and it would just be worse for her to interrupt in the middle instead of the beginning so..."

            James glared at Remus. "Thought you were on my side."

            "Who said there had to be sides? He was just voicing his opinion." Lily said, finally speaking.

            "Yeah, but he's my best friend, therefore he should stick up and agree with everything I say."

            "Why? It's not like you're the ruler of what he should agree with. And why everything?"

            "So, that doesn't mean he has to say she's right."

            "And what's wrong with her?"

            "She's not his best friend!"

            "He was just voicing his opinion! Not saying she was right!"

            "Well obviously you weren't listening-"

            "Obviously I was, just you-"

            "-you don't even know-"

            "-can't even see-"

            "-can't get it at all-"

            "-can't understand-"

            Remus looked at the two fighting. "So...how long have they known each other?"

            "'Bout two hours or so I'd say." Catty said, eyeing the two humorously.

            "Well, at least we know that they won't get along well in the future..."

            It took Lily and James a while to stop fighting, and that was only after they had both realized they didn't even know what they had started fighting about in the first place. Of course then they had to start fighting about what they had started fighting about in the first place and so when Sirius and Essence finally ended their discussion, it was rather hard for them to understand what was going on.

            After a while Sirius tried to stop the fight, but obviously they had gone on to something else because he caught wisps of the conversation that went like, "How would you know anything!" "You think you're so better!" And then other sentences like, "Purple! Purple! You're probably-" "You think you can do anything and-"

            James didn't even notice when Sirius stole his bag of gold from his wildly swinging arms. It was hard even for Melody to separate them. Well really, she didn't. It was more of Essence hitting them both on the head with the heel of her hand.

            When it was finally time to leave, Sirius gave James the broom that he had bought with the gold he had stolen from James, and the two, plus Remus, went off whispering.

            Lily, Catty, and Essence were all talking about how it is/would be to live in a wizarding family.

            It wasn't long before they were all home, even Haven.

            Lily went straight up to her room and started reading vigorously through he books. James got his broom out, and went outside to practice his flying, getting used to the broom. Sirius went up to his room and started planning pranks and such. Catty was bouncing around the house and skipping. Essence was also reading her books. And Remus, well he was reading up on werewolves, his newfound breed.

*          *          *

            The group of six had all been thrilled on September 1st, and was all hurried to pack and to leave on time by their mothers. Well, save Sirius and Essence. Sirius' Mum didn't want him to go, so was in no hurry to get him packed. Faye was to busy at her job, so Essence's dad pushed her to get ready.

            Maybe we should get into it separately....

*          *          *

            "MUM!" Lily shrieked from her room. "MUM! WHERE IS IT?!?" Her Mum rushed up the stairs.

            "Where is what?"

            "My books! All of my books! I haven't found them! Oh, no, oh, no. This is so bad!" And thus they started searching. Well, it turned out they were already in her trunk. "Oh...sorry Mum. Oh...hold on...my quills! WHERE ARE MY QUILLS?!" Her mother looked at her exasperated and pointed to her hand. Lily looked down on her hand and saw that she was holding them.

            "Lily, maybe you should calm down. You'll probably over work yourself and get sick again!"

            "Yea, but Mum! They can probably just fix it with some potion or something! Oh, this is going to be amazing. Oh, what about Christmas?"

            "What do you mean Lily?" Her mum said from over Lily's trunk. She was making sure everything was there for Lily.

            "I mean, what if I can come home for Christmas? Should I come home or stay..." She wasn't really sure she wanted to stay home with Petunia for yet another Christmas. Petunia had been colder ever since they found out she was a witch. And she did not want to stay home with an evil-glance-shooting sister.

            "Um...Well whichever dear, maybe you can plan it out. This year, Hogwarts, next year home, and so forth. I'm sure you'll want to stay with your friends, get closer to them. But remember to owl us every week. And do your homework. And don't forget we love you. And make plenty of friends..." Lily rolled her eyes as her mother jumped into what she shouldn't forget. It was a pretty long list.

            After about 20 minutes, Lily looked at the clock and jumped. "Oh Mum! Time to go! Hurry!" Mrs. Evans looked at the clock.

            "Oh! Well come on. DANIEL! HELP ME WITH THIS TRUNK!" Lily's dad rushed in and grabbed the trunk. He dragged it out to the car as Lily rambled on about how cool and exciting it was going to be at Hogwarts. How she was going to be the best student and everything.

            Lily, her Mum, and Dad got into the car and drove off to the station.

*          *          *

            "JAMES! GET DOWN HERE THIS INSTINT!" Yes, that would be James' Mum yelling at him. It was almost, oh lets check, two hours before they were supposed to leave!

            "MUM! Its two hours before we have to leave! Why do I have to get ready so early?" James grumbled, walking down that stairs into the huge living room.

            "Because, Sirius is here." She stated calmly and walked back into the kitchen.

            "Sirius! 'Lo!" James grinned and Sirius did too.

            "'Lo. So, I've thought of this prank that we can play..." He leaned back to look into the doorway of the kitchen. He leaned back so far, though, that he fell. James was almost rolling because of laughter. Sirius mumbled something but jumped up. They both ran to James' room where they planned out their devious plot. Or, well devious prank.

            Before long it was time to leave for the station.

            "Mum...why is there a dirty rag in the middle of the floor?" James asked. Sirius leaned over and whispered in his ear something about the house elves. James tried hard to suppress his laughter. It didn't work.

            "James! Sirius! It's a portkey. We'll go to my friend's house. She lives right by the station, so we'll just have to walk. Now, just grab a hold and it will yank us away."

            And it did. After James and Sirius had grabbed a hold, it spun them wild.

            Soon a room materialized in front of them. It was rather small, but a cozy feel had a hold on it, despite the honking of the cars from outside the window. A lady with short red hair greeted them and started talking with Mrs. Potter.

            "Oh, Mum. Mum, it's time to go! Yes, it has been that long. No, I can't wait Mum. Please? Come on." Finally Mrs. Potter said good-bye to her friend and they all walked out onto the street.

            "Wait...Something's missing...Your trunks! Where are they? JAMES! Did you leave them at the house? Oh no! Oh this is terrible! Oh! JAMES POTTER, YOU ARE NOT GETTING A NEW BROOM UNTIL YOU ARE FIFTY!" James and Sirius looked at each other through all the shrieking and pulled out little boxes from their pockets.

            "What...YOU SHRUNK THEM? YOU SHRUNK THEM?! HOW COULD YOU OF SHRINK THEM?" The boys looked at each other again.

            "Dad."

            "How...He....OH YOU ARE IN SO MUCH TROUBLE!" She took them back inside the house and magicked the trunks back to full size. They dragged them to the station and got a cart.

*          *          *

            Crash. "CATTY!"

            "Oh Mum. I'm so sorry!" Catty wailed from the bottom of the stairs.

            "Oh, don't be sorry! You can't be sorry when you've just fallen down the stairs! Oh, your head...Kit! Can you fix this? It's rather deep..." Mr. Fash walked over and did a spell to fix the cut on Catty's head.

            "Do you have all of your things ready? You didn't lose them did you? Catty, are you sure? Oh, here they are sorry sweety. Oh, yes sorry. Sorry Catty." Catty was currently jumping around, bumping into many things.

            "Oh, sorry Mum. Dad! Didn't see you there, sorry. Oh, sorry…table. Oh I can't wait!"

            She continued to jump around the house hours, bumping into things a lot, and falling a few times. Soon, but not soon enough for Mr. And Mrs. Fash, it was time to leave for the station.

            Even though Catty had just spent the last 30 minutes jumping around, which was remarkable in its own, she jumped into the car and was jumping up and dawn in her seat.

            "Now Catty, you have to realize this is not regular school. This will be much harder and you need to realize you have to do the homework and can't slack off. You can come home for Christmas, if you want. If you want to make a pattern of it, than stay this year, come home next year, and so forth so you can stay for the fifth and seventh years. You have big tests at the end of those, so you'll need to stay and study. I'm not trying to be prejudice or anything, but try not to be friends with anyone from the Slytherin house. They are bad news Catty; they turn out dark wizards more than any other house. I think you'll get into the Gryffindor house, or maybe Hufflepuff.

"Now this game, Quidditch, you'll be able to try next year for a position. I was a great beater in my days, so hopefully you will be too. Also, stay out of the Forbidden forest. Bad news, ugly creatures. In the lake, I wonder if they ever got that squid. Yes, I believe they did. Threw a ruckus in the Ministry. But Dumbledore is smart.

"Dumbledore is going to be your Headmaster. He came in two years ago, from being DADA teacher. Oh! I suppose I'll tell you what they teach. Defense Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Potions, ah… Charms, History of Magic, and others. They can never get a good DADA teacher, never could. Probably the hardest to teach. I loved it though, probably most exciting class. Now I don't blame you if you fall asleep in History of Magic, everyone does. Well you probably won't tell us anyway. Anyway, here we are…" He was forced to stop his speech. Catty, who had only been half-heartedly listening, gave up the act and squealed.

            They got a cart for Catty's trunk and walked over to Platforms 9 and 10. "Um, Dad? Where is 9 ¾?" A Stationmaster had been behind her and heard her.

            "There is no 9 ¾ Platform here missy."

            "No-" But her father tapped her foot before she could say anything more.

            "We know, she read the ticket wrong." He went off, mumbling about how bad education was getting these days, while they turned and made there way over to the barrier that Mr. Fash was now quietly explaining to Catty.

*          *          *

            "Essence, ready? We're going to use the Portkey I was telling you about yesterday. Anyway, you already now that you shouldn't act up, you should do all of your homework, and so forth, right?" Essence bobbed her head up and down showing that really she wasn't listening, just focusing on how much she couldn't bare waiting. Her father rolled his eyes and got out a small little bag. It obviously looked like trash, as Essence knew it would.

            "Dad, I never got the chance to ask you. You know how wizards make them look like trash so people won't steal them and all, well what if they pick them up because they think its trash? I mean, wouldn't it just be the same thing?-" But before he could answer, she was whisked away in a swirling mesh of colors, which reminded her of the floo powder.

So in a matter of seconds, they were in a room holding a dirty bag of what had been sugar cookies.

            There was no one there, as Essence thought there would have been. Wasn't it someone else's house? Or was this theirs? Why was she just finding out about this? Well really she probably wouldn't of cared before but…

            "Oh no. We left early. Thirty minutes before we have to leave…Well more time to talk with you!" Essence mentally groaned. Talking with Daddy! Yay!

            "How well are you on your broom? I wasn't at all good when I went to school, and neither was your mother. But you have been practicing a lot. What position do you like best? Chaser?"

            "No. Beater, definitely Beater."

            "Wow. Really? I don't think there has been a woman beater in the professionals since Keldren in 1643. And she quit her first game! But I'm proud of whatever you do. You got that new Cleansweep right? I don't like that kind of broom though, to…well the professionals don't like them much either so…Well honestly, I'm not really 'up' with the world of Quidditch. The Prophet has been busy lately."

"Oh, really? How is that new competition, the Quibbler?"

"Oh it's not much at all! They speak about false and fantasy things. Things that are obviously fake, and do not exist. I believe that it will quit soon." Essence nodded; she had seen it, and it really didn't have anything that was real. Of course, nothing that was real to people who believed too much on what they had seen, and not what was out there.

            It was a funny paper though, but she did not include this with the things she told her dad over dinner.

            So they continued talking until it was time to go to the station, where they got a cart, and went over to Platforms 9 and 10.

            When they got there, they saw a redheaded girl with a cart looking up helplessly at Platforms 9 and 10.

            "Hey, LILY!" The girl turned around and a smile grew on her face when she saw Essence. Se rushed over.

            "What is Platforms 9 ¾, and how do you get on it?"

            "You're from a Muggle family? Don't worry, plenty other people are also. Just lean through this barrier. Don't worry; it's not solid so it won't hurt. You're obviously nervous and new at this so you better get a running start. Trust me; I've done this before, for seven years actually! Don't worry; they're all nervous at first anyway…"

            "With a few exceptions." Said a woman voice from behind him.

            "Delia! How are you! I haven't seen you in ages. Hello James, got your best friend with you? Hello Sirius."

            "Oh, I'm fine, even though these boys are wearing me out. You?"

            "Oh I'm fine. It has been busy at the Daily Prophet though."

            "Oh it must be with that whole Quidditch trial. How is that going by the way? I haven't had much time to read the Prophet these days. A lot to do."

            "Oh well, they aren't getting anywhere. It looks like they are going to have to let them go. No evidence."

            "Yes, I thought so from when I first heard about it."

            "Mum! Can we please go? It's almost time to go!"

            "Oh, yes, sorry Jamsie." There were snickers from Sirius and giggles from the girls. James glared at Sirius.

            "Bye Delia, hope we meet up soon." Essence was the first to go through the barrier, running.

            Lily, who was still skeptical of running through a solid wall, closed her eyes while running. She didn't expect to go right through, and almost ran into Essence.

            "Wow." Lily breathed as she looked around. There were so many people! She also saw the scarlet steam engine. She couldn't help but grin.

            "Oh wow! A train! I always wanted to ride a train!"

            "Really? I always thought you wanted to ride a unicorn Sirius." Sirius pushed James who hit Essence, who hit Lily's cart, which fell over.

            "Will you PLEASE stop pushing each other?! Have you noticed that someone always pushes something over? At least learn to stand before you push each other!"

            The boys mumbled something about being inept, when someone with greasy hair turned up behind them.

            "Wow, getting told off by a girl, and then actually doing what she said." The two boys looked over their shoulders to see Serveus Snape standing there with a smirk on his face.

            "Wow, having a half of a gallon of grease on your head, and you can still hold it up. Does it ever get heavy?"

            "At least that's better than having a huge ego and being conceited." Lily muttered.

            "I don't need help from you." Snape snarled at Lily.

            "Sure you do! How else are you going to think of anything? You do remember that grease pollutes things, including brains right? Or, well, at least it pollutes yours."

            "Wow, you must be right Black. Why would I be spending my time on low people like you? Oh, and Black, how's the dark side of life coming?" James raised an eyebrow and Sirius narrowed his eyes.

            "How's the grease side of life coming?" Essence responded, to the rescue of Sirius. Snape just raised an eyebrow with a smirk and walked away.

            "Sirius what was-?"

            "Come on, we have to get on the train." Mumbled Sirius. James looked rather taken aback by the attitude of Sirius and walked after him silently.

            When they were gone Lily raised her eyebrows. "And what was that about?" Essence looked at Lily as she walked forward, pushing her cart ahead of her.

            "Come on, I'll explain on the train."

            When they were on the train, it was hard to find an open compartment. As they were walking around, they met Catty also trying to find a compartment. When they were at the back of the train, they hadn't found an open compartment.

            "Uh…Oh! There's only one person in this compartment!" Catty said. "Can we sit with you? Every, and I mean every, compartment is full." The girl smiled and helped them to get their trunks up on the racks.

            "Hi! I'm Arabella."

            "Oh! The British/Germanish/Frenchish sounding name!"

            "Oh at least even you should have the brain to think of real words. Oh, well maybe not. Being a Mudblood."

            "Shut up Malfoy! Why don't you and your grease-ball of a friend get, and wash your hair!" Essence said, springing up. The others looked rather clueless.

            "Oh, but why? It looks so comfy in here, with all these Mudbloods." Essence's eyes flared.

            "Locomotor Malfoy!" Someone from behind Malfoy said, and Malfoy rose a few inches, and fell back on the floor on his rear-end. Laughs erupted from the people who saw, save Snape.

            "Locomotor Trunk!" Malfoy tried to get the trunk to fly to whoever had yelled the spell, but it didn't as much as wiggle. The people laughed harder then ever. Malfoy and Snape left, revealing James and Sirius doubled over, laughing.

            "Who did the spell?" Essence asked.

            "Oh, Jamsie here." Sirius said, between gales of laughter. James tried pushing Sirius but they both just fell over, still laughing.

            "Wow! That's amazing!"

            "I would've shrunk him, but I forgot the spell. Actually, I didn't think Locomotor Malfoy would work." You could here a crash from down the isle, like someone falling. The just laughed harder. Well, except Lily. She hadn't laughed very hard at all.

            "That was rude." She said.

            "No it wasn't, they called you a bad name. And plus, a lot of things are rude. Life is rude, big deal."

            "What? Oh, you mean a Mud-"

            "Yea, that's it. Anyway, it's a cussword pretty much, just in wizarding form. A nicer form would be Muggle-born. Anyway, Snape and Malfoy are jerks."

            "I still think it was rude of you to do that! And if you don't' mind, I don't need you to save me, or even help me."

            "Yeah, well if I'm conceited than you're stuck-up."

            "Conceited and stuck-up mean the same idiot."

            "Yeah, but you and stuck-up mean the same thing."

            "At least I'm not an idiotic conceited jerk."

            "At least I don't stick up for grease-ball."

            "Ok, NO! You two are not going to start fighting, it's to bloody hard to get you two apart." Sirius said, stepping in front of James.

            "Ok, well now that you've made a jerk out of yourself Potter, you can leave along with your best friend. We can do just well without the both you." Lily said, rather coldly.

            "Fine Evans. My pleasure." James said, just as coldly. The boys left, whispering to each other about something or another.

            "Why were you so cold?" Arabella asked Lily interestedly.

            "Because, I don't like him." She said simply.

            "Why not?"

            "Because, I know that they aren't going to be good people to hang around. They seem like jerks anyway." The others shrugged and Essence went in to teaching them how to play Exploding Snap.

            After James and Sirius had left. They had gone back to their own compartment to find Remus there uncomfortably sitting across from a short boy with a mousy look about him.

            "Sirius, James! 'Lo! Come, sit, save me!" Remus said and moved over. Sirius looked the boy up and down.

            "Hello Mr. Midget."

            "Sirius!" Remus said sharply. The boy blushed and looked out the window.

            "What? You're starting to sound like Lily. Okay, fine. Hi! I'm Sirius! What's your name?" Sirius said smiling.

            "Peter Pettigrew. Hi…" The boy said looking at Sirius before looking out the window again.

            "Right." James said but pulled Sirius over. "Okay, we need to get him out of here or we won't get anything planned!"

            "Well where are we going to put him?"

            "How about the…girls' compartment?"

            "Yeah, okay."

            "Hello!" Sirius cried dramatically as he entered. They all looked up from Lily and Essence's game of Exploding Snap.

            "Hi Sirius." Essence said, before returning to the game.

            "So now we're on first name basis, Ess?"

            "So now we're on nickname basis?" She raised an eyebrow and he looked at her blankly.

            "I don't know, are we?" He walked over and put his elbow on her shoulder as an armrest. She smiled and dropped her shoulder so his elbow slid off.

            "Probably not; I'm not dead yet."

            "Why must you be so cold and hateful? It hurts me so." He said dramatically. Essence narrowed her eyes.

            "What do you want?" James and Sirius both we taken aback.

            "Who said we wanted something?"

            "You wouldn't be acting friendly after we kicked you out of our compartment if you didn't want something." Arabella pointed out.

            "Well," James stretched his legs out and put them on the seat opposite to him, and right next to Lily. "We're very forgiving people."

            "Well I'm not." Lily said, as she pushed his feet off the seat, making him lose his balance and fall on the floor.

            "Well I think that's obvious." He said.

            "Now, back to what you want." Essence said to Sirius.

            "Well, you see. We do need your help. Well when you kicked us out we went back to our compartment but then found out it was infested with his little mouse guy-"

"Mr. Midget." James interjected. Sirius looked over at him. "What?"

"Anyway, you see we need to plan something therefore we can not have him there therefore you need to take him and keep him."

 Even though Catty, Lily, and Arabella looked lost at what Sirius just said, Essence looked like she understood perfectly.

            "Why would we take someone just so you can plan your latest prank?" The two shrugged.

            "Who said were going to plan a prank?"

            "What else would you be planning?" The two looked at each other.

            "Funeral."

            "Terribly sad."

            "But someone needs to do it right?"

            "Oh, yes. Who died?"

            "My…Great-Aunt-Uncle." James said. Sirius put his head in his hands.

            "He means his Great-Aunt who's name was Uncle."

            "Right-o."

            "Well, where is he going to sit?" They looked around.

            "Ah, he can sit in your lap!" Sirius said happily.

            "You had a better chance of being on a nickname basis with me." Essence said.

            "Well personally, I don't want him in here either. He's your problem. Not ours."

            "Oh come on Evans, please? I'll leave you alone for the rest of the seven years! Okay, I probably won't. Sorry for lying, but I will leave you alone for the rest of the day! Please?" Lily rolled her eyes.

            "No. You probably won't even leave us along for the rest of the day."

            "Really? You will? Thank you!"

            "No, we won't so you and your friend here can just leave please and go plan your prank that probably won't work anyway-"

            "Why?" James said, rather hurt that he was being told that his plan wouldn't work.

            "Because, most likely you're trying to do something way to hard and the only thing you'll succeed in would be getting yourself in the Hospital Wing."

            "How do you know?" James said coldly. "At least I would take the chance instead of…not taking the chance.

            "Okay, sure." Lily said smugly.

            "And once again, you say I'm stuck up."

            "That's because you are."

            "So now how are we going to plan anything mate?" Sirius asked.

            "Well, I'll give you something to work on. Sneak into the Slytherin Common Room, with Snape and Malfoy are bound to be in, then plant something, and turn him pink!" Lily suggested. "And get about a month's worth of detention." James' and Sirius' faces hardened.

            "Your right. Now…how do we get them to tell us the password?"

            "Oh! I know, what we need to do is make a-"

            "Sirius! You can't tell them," He motioned to the girls, "everything! If you are going to be a criminal mastermind then you have-to-get-these-things-right!" James said, emphasizing the last part by hitting the wall of the train.

            "Right!" Sirius said, popping up out of his chair. "Well, we must go and plan our devious plan further but-"

            "Would you like anything off the cart dears?"

            "FOOD!" Sirius and James yelled, scrambling over to the doorway. They bought everything off the cart, and the lot of it cost 3 galleons, and a sickle.

            "Oh my god! How can you even think about eating all of that?!" Essence exclaimed.

            "Ofe, yef. Soffy. Foo foo fan fun?" (Oh, yes. Sorry. Do you want some?) James said, offering her a pumpkin pasty.

            "Fo! Fever fill fe fiv foo far foo! Fist fyn fy fell foo. FYN!!!" (No! Never will we give you our food! It's mine I tell you. MINE!!!) Sirius yelled, or at least tried to. The food in his mouth muffled it out and it became more of a mumble. Essence smiled.

            "Yea well," She grabbed a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans from his hand. "Too bad then."

            All of the girls followed suit and soon they were all munching happily on the many sweets before them.

            But before they knew it, it was time to change into their robes.

            When the train finally slowed down, it was dark outside. Sirius and James had left the compartment to change their robes, and had gone back to their own compartment.

            When they all had gotten off the train, they heard a voice yelling, "Firs' years! Firs' years over here! C'mon, this way. Watch yer step now. Watch yer-Firs' years! Anymore? C'mon."

            They saw to what seemed to be a smaller kind of giant. He looked rather young, probably only in his twenties.

            As they got farther down the steep trail, it yelled over its shoulder, "Yeh all should be seein' Hogwarts righ' 'bout now." Everyone gasped at the castle that loomed up before them. But before the castle, a huge black lake with at least ten boats bobbing up and down on the rippling water.

            "No more'n four to yer boats now!" The half-giant yelled. He all hustled them into boats and somehow James got in a boat with Lily, Essence, and Snape.

            Essence took as seat next to James, adjacent to Snape, who looked rather happy. Well, happy in a psychotic sort of way.

            A very irritated James decided that he would get Snape out of the boat, you know, at least give his hair at least some cleaning. James pushed against the side of Snape's side. Even though he at first decided that he'd do it secretly, decided to give in and do anything to wipe off the happy look on Snape's face. He finally just kicked it.

            Lily, who had been sitting beside Snape, noticed the boat rocking, and when it was about to tip over, she screamed, stood up, and fell over, into James.

            This caused her, James, and Essence to fall out of the boat into the icy cold water of the lake. They all could swim well though, so it wasn't such a big deal.

            "YOU IDIOT! YOU FREAKING BLOODY IDIOTIC IDIOT!"       

            "OH WILL YOU SHUT UP ALREADY?"

            "YOU DUMP US IN A LAKE AND YOU TELL ME TO SHUT UP?"

            "YES! THAT'S PRETTY MUCH-" But his voice was cut off because he was sucked under water, then Lily and Essence.

            What felt like tentacles rapped around their legs. They thrashed around, trying to be able to breath. But the tentacles held their grip, unrelenting. The three were starting to get light-headed.

            James grabbed his wand, and almost about to faint, muttered the words of the shrinking spell and waved his wand just like his dad had taught him. The giant thing started to shrink…and was finally as big as a fish…or well a shark.

            The problem with this was that it just meant that the tentacles were smaller. But, the good thing was the thing was surprised, and since the tentacles were now smaller, and could be grabbed, it was easier for the three to untangle themselves.

            Even though they were now free, they had been deprived of oxygen to long, and had by now fainted.

            Above the water, there was madness. How were they going to get out of the water? Why hadn't they come up? Was there a shark in the water like in that one movie? And had that been a spell in the rippling blackness?

            Hagrid seemed worried and gripped an umbrella. Well they couldn't fire him just because he used it to save lives right? He breathed deeply, and muttered a spell. The three kids levitated out of the water, and back into the boat that they had first started in at.

            The boats, which had stopped, had now started, at a faster speed. Once they got to the castle, they all followed the running giant. They were left in a hall, with a rather jumbled woman. She turned from jumbled to trying-but-not-really-getting-there-strict in a split second as the kids started whispering.

            "Quiet!...Please!" She tried. She cleared her throat, mumbled something about how she was definitely going to be retiring soon, and continued. "Welcome, the banquet will begin soon. Before, you will be sorted into houses. The Sorting is important, and the houses that it sorts you in will be like your family all through your seven years at Hogwarts. You will do many things with, and within your house such as go to classes, sleep in a dormitory, and spend time in the common room. Four houses, there are, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. All noble histories, and other such things I'll all tell you in classes, or you will find out. Learn from the older students, most of them are more responsible than they were when they were at 11, most of them. It will begin in a few moments…"

            She rushed away and soon returned with an old hat and stool. She led them into the Great Hall, and everyone gasped. It was really a beautiful sight, well if you weren't worried about your best friend dieing of drowning that is.

            As the sorting continued, it turned out that Sirius, Catty, Brook Haven, Remus, William Sensense, and a girl named Galient Ven all got into Gryffindor, and were welcomed wonderfully. The girl they had met before, Arabella, got in Hufflepuff, along with the mousy boy named Peter Pettigrew and a few others.

            Snape had obviously been put in Slytherin, just like Sirius had predicted. Sirius, very uncharacteristically, did not eat much at all. Seeing your best friend unconscious was not something you wanted to eat in after.

            After dinner, all of them were led to their dorm rooms and were asleep by the time they hit the pillow.

            Not Sirius though. He had to stay awake for a few more hours if he was to go see James.

            At about 11:30 he got up out of bed. He didn't change; he had never changed into his other clothes. He had never gotten his trunk. Oh, wait. There it was, at the end of his bed. Oh, well he still never did change.

            He snuck downstairs and opened the portrait hole, careful not make it squeak. His first mission was to find the hospital. As he climbed out of the portrait hole, he listened intently to what sound he half-expected to be there.

            Footsteps.

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            Well, wasn't that fun? Going through about 13k words just to be cut with a cliffhanger. Okay, so review, even if it contains a death threat. I like death threats! ^_^ *cough* Sorry, anyway, how did you like the chapter? Sorry, this chapter was longer than I expected! I like the long chapters, do you? I just wonder if I should separate the chapters, so there are fewer words. Well, I hope you tell me in the reviews! YAY! Sorry for any mistakes, I at least tried to get it perfect. Well not really, who likes anything exactly perfect? If anything is perfect, it's creepy! Okay, well there you go, the first chapter of my wonderful, beautiful story! Oh, and yay me! I finally figured out how to make the words bold, underlined, and italic! YAY! Anyway, I hope you liked it. Review if you like. Also, if they can have five in a boat in the movie, then they can tip the boat over! And…I think that's about it…yeah. AND WHY ISN'T THIS BOLD?????!!!!! _

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Number of words: 14161

Number of Pages: 27