Chapter 1: Pillars, Pumpkin Pasties, and Pure-Bloods, oh my!

"Are you sure?" Lily asked nervously.

"That's what your letter says. Platform 9 ¾. But I don't think there is such a platform," her mother replied. Her chestnut brown hair fell to her shoulders and draped her brown eyes magnificently.

Lily Evans sighed. It was typical. Her first day going to a magical school and she didn't even know how to get on the train. Lily wished her sister, Petunia, was here. But she demanded to stay home while her parents dropped Lily off. Lily didn't know what was wrong with her. They had always been the best of friends before. Lily pushed her trolley anxiously and looked around. Everyone was rushing towards various trains, and Lily felt a caramel lump in her throat. She felt like she was going to explode into microscopic pieces. Lily had waited so long to go to Hogwarts, a magical school, but finding that she couldn't get on the train to get there made her feel like a hopeless wreck. Just when she felt she lost all hope, Lily felt a hand on her shoulder.

It was Lily's father, a tall, middle-aged, burly man with wavy brown hair and startling green eyes, like Lily's. He was accompanied by a short, grumpy looking woman with beady black hair and eyes. Next to her was a tall handsome boy of about Lily's age. Lily couldn't help noticing he looked haughty and bored.

"Don't worry, Lily. Here's someone that can help you. Mrs. Black, is it?"

"Yes," the woman said grimly. She looked Lily and her parents up and down.

"Muggles, are you?" she asked suspiciously.

Lily stared. Her father said, "Excuse me?"

The woman called Mrs. Black started breathing heavily through her pointed nose and clutched onto her scaly purse. "Yes – Of course you're Muggles. Well, I can't help you. Goodbye."

And she left quite rudely with her nose stuck up in the air. Lily could have sworn she added, "and good riddance," under her breath.

But the boy, who Lily supposed was Mrs. Black's son, leaned over and whispered, "See that large brick pillar over there? Well, just walk through it."

Before Lily could question his ridiculous request, Mrs. Black called out, "Sirius! Get over here! You're going to be late for your first day!"

Lily looked at her abashed parents with awe.

"A Muggle must be someone with nonmagic parents," Lily muttered.

But her parents were thinking about something very different.

"Honey, try what this boy is telling you," Mrs. Evans said.

"But what if it is some prank of his?" Lily argued. Then she turned around to watch what the dark-haired boy named Sirius was doing. He and his mother were walking towards the brick column at a rapid pace.

Mr. Evans exclaimed, "If they don't stop soon, they will ram right into the wall!"

But to his great surprise (and also Lily's), The boy and his mother went through and disappeared. Lily looked at her parents with her eyebrows raised.

Her mother had her hand over her mouth and her father was muttering something that sounded like, "Bloody incredible."

Lily gave a wry smile. She would have to try to walk into a brick pillar. For what the boy told her seemed to be true.

"Mum, Dad, I don't think you will be allowed to go in. So, I guess I'll be going on my own."

Her parents nodded, pulling themselves together.

Then her mother drew in a big sob and flung herself at Lily, laughing hysterically, "Oh, Lily, I'm so proud of you! What an intelligent, special, young woman you have become! Oh, I'm going to miss you so much!"

Lily hugged her mother back, holding back tears herself, and replied, "Don't worry, Mum. I'll find a way to write to you soon."

Mrs. Evans withdrew herself from Lily with great difficulty and looked down at her daughter with blurry eyes. She was looking at Lily as if she were this precious, long-lost jewel that would remove all poverty from the world.

Mr. Evans gave Lily a great bear hug and whispered, "Now if anyone bugs you, no foul play. Just knock them out as fast as you can."

Lily grinned and said, "Of course, Dad."

She was about to turn her trolley towards the pillar when her mother said, "Oh! Lily, you forgot Beary!"

Lily whipped around and grabbed her little soft worn teddy bear from her mother and whispered fiercely, "Not in public, Mum!"

Her mother just smiled and looked like she was going to start crying again so Lily just gave her parents one last group hug and turned around, putting Beary safely in her pocket.

Then, Lily took a deep breath and started pushing he trolley towards the pillar. This is it, she thought, I am going to walk into a wall. I must really want to go to this Hogwarts place.
She closed her eyes tightly and prepared herself to crash. But she didn't. She just kept on walking. Amazed, Lily opened her eyes and stared. A full red steam engine, with the golden words Hogwarts Express on it was standing in front of her. Next to her, kids were saying their good-byes to their parents. Many had frogs that were hopping all over the place.

Lily had refused to get a frog, defiantly ignoring her father's encouragement to fit in.

Lily looked around again. The students were getting onboard the train!

Lily grinned and leapt aboard the train with nervous enthusiasm. She carefully walked through the aisle, gazing at the occupied compartments. One, she saw, had the boy named Sirius in it. He smiled and winked at Lily. Lily smiled weakly in return. In Sirius' compartment, Lily saw he was shaking hands with a tall, messy-haired boy with glasses. Also standing up was a scrawny, wimpy looking boy, and an intelligent-looking boy with brown hair. Lily assumed that they had just met.

Shaking her mind out of everyone else's business, Lily walked on.

Searching for an empty compartment, or at least an empty seat, Lily walked to what seemed like the end of the train. Her trunk (which she had to slide along behind her) felt like a ton of bricks and Lily's arms started to ache. Luckily, she found a compartment with only on empty seat left. Lily slid the door open a bit too hastily, managing to make the occupants of the compartment stare at her in wonder.

"Umm,….Sorry, I'm really sorry, it's just that everywhere else is full and I've been searching …" Lily stuttered but trailed off.

Three girls were still staring at her. Lily, suddenly self-conscious, stared at them back, making this quite an awkward stretch of time, as you can assume.

The three girls exchanged glances with each other and suddenly burst out laughing.
And they didn't stop. Well, at least for the next sixty seconds.

Lily bit her lip. She certainly hadn't done anything so ridiculous to have these girls laugh for such a long time. Looking really sorry, Lily said, "I'm just going to leave now, I'm really sorry."

One girl, who had long straight brown hair and glistening brown eyes, suddenly stopped laughing. "Oh no! Don't leave! Of course you can sit here! Sit down, We'll explain," she exclaimed. Lily hesitated for a second, then picked up her trunk and tried to put in on the upper shelf in the compartment. With the help of the brown-haired girl along with the other two (who had jumped to help Lily), her trunk rested on the shelf in no time. Lily, exhausted and embarrassed, slumped in the empty seat.

The brown-haired girl smiled broadly. "My name is Estrella. We were laughing because Diana over here," she gestured to a girl with short blond curls and sparkling hazel eyes, "bet that the next person to enter this compartment would be a big, hairy, guy with a goatee. Not that your arrival wasn't random enough, put that bet on top of it. Sorry, but you look nothing like a big, hairy guy with a goatee, so we found that funny, that's all."

Lily managed a weak smile.

Diana asked, "What's your name?"

Lily replied, "Lily. Lily Evans."

"My name is Diana Seawright, she is Estrella Shaw, she is Charlotte Hopkins," pointing at a raven-haired girl with kind sapphire eyes.

Lily said, "Hi."

Charlotte asked, "Where are you from?"

Lily said, "London."

She sighed. It was enough to be asked questions by people that didn't understand that she was very tired, but now she was reminded of home. If any of those blind girls ask me one more question, I'm going to choke her, Lily thought savagely.

Diana, who had opened her mouth to ask a question, must have read her mind, because she quickly closed it.

Estrella laughed and said, "Maybe we'll talk about ourselves later, when we're in better moods and don't have butterflies in our stomachs."

Lily nodded thankfully and closed her eyes. She knew the train was moving, it started a half-hour ago when she was dragging her trolley through the aisle.

Lily kept her eyes closed, thinking about her parents. They must be home by now, Lily thought. There they would stay with Petunia while Lily went to Hogwarts. Lily didn't feel jealous, though. In fact, she wanted Petunia to come with her to Hogwarts. But Petunia had this sudden new grudge against Lily. Lily desperately hoped that it would be gone the next time they met. Lily pushed the thought of her family away from her mind. She had been quite nasty to the three girls that had helped her. Lily was thinking about those girls being her friends. That would be nice, Lily thought as she drifted off to sleep.

Lily was on a boat. She was gliding across a magnificent blue lake smoothly. The wind was very quiet and hadn't moved in a while. The sky was a beautiful clear blue. Not a cloud was in sight.

Suddenly, Lily saw her family on the edge of the lake. Her mother, father, and Petunia were standing and staring out into the lake. But they couldn't see Lily some how. So Lily called out to them, shouting for them to rescue her. But they didn't notice her, and Lily was drifting farther and farther away. Clouds clouded the once periwinkle-blue sky and it started to rain. First, softly, then with more force until Lily felt as if bullets were showering down at her. The tides in the lake became turbulent and Lily soon had no idea where she was going. She lost sight of her family altogether. Lily seemed to be caught in a whirlpool and was spinning around hopelessly in circles. Then, Sirius appears in the waves. Lily reaches up for help but Sirius fades away slowly, saying, "Someone else will help you, wait." Lily waits, but as she goes around in smaller circles, she realizes that help will not come. Lily becomes dizzy and closes her eyes. She feels herself fall out of the boat. She kept on falling. A horrible sensation went through the pit of her stomach. The kind of feeling when you go down a roller coaster that never seems to end. Lily opens her eyes. Darkness. She was falling through darkness. Lily panics, trying to stop her from falling. Then, she wakes up, sweating and feeling slightly nauseous. She looks around wildly, waving her arms around and almost screaming, "I'm falling! Someone help me!"

Then Lily blinked.

She was back in her compartment and the whirlpool was just a dream. "Oh," she said. All three girls were staring at her, again.

Lily smiled nervously and said, "I just had a nightmare. Sorry."

Charlotte said, "It's about time you woke up, too. You've been asleep for a half an hour but you were murmuring through your sleep."

Now it was Lily's turn to stare. "Really? What was I saying?"

"Oh, stuff like 'Help' and 'Petunia!'"

Lily looked down at her hands. She was missing her sister already. She considered going back, telling the conductor to drop her home. Her parents would be happy to see her and she would see her sister again. But Lily hesitated. Not many people have an opportunity like hers. Few are wizards and witches. Lily had a wonderful chance to experience something new, something nobody in her family has ever seen or done before. Lily was a witch. And she was proud of it. Lily secretly decided to work as hard as she could to become a very good witch so her family could be proud of her.
She sighed and sat up straight in her seat.

Lily suddenly became conscious of the girls still looking at her.

"Sorry, see, I woke up at about four, I was so excited and I didn't go back to sleep, and I had to drag the trolley through the whole train, which must've been a mile! Oh, and I'm so sorry I was really nasty to you before, I was just very tired and worried, because I come from a non-magic family and I really hope I can fit in. So, how are you guys?"
Lily said this really fast. After finishing, she silently cursed herself for being so weird. Thinking her words over, she realized that they didn't help her to "fit in." ... in fact, they probably did the exact opposite.

Amazingly, the girls understood every word she said, for they all nodded and said, "Fine."

Diana poked her head out of the compartment and said, "The food trolley is coming soon."

Lily, who winced at the mention of 'food', felt her stomach growling furiously. She lept to her feet and walked out of the compartment. Indeed, there was a plump, round-faced, jolly lady that was pushing a trolley piled with assorted sweets down the aisle.

Lily reached into her jeans' pocket and pulled out several Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts. Her family had gone to Gringotts to trade some regular Muggle money for wizarding money.

Lily approached the lady who asked kindly, "Anything off the trolley, dear?"

Lily nodded and looked down. But she didn't recognize any of the sweets.

"Oh, try the Chocolate Frogs. They are really good." Charlotte said from behind Lily.

Apparently, the girls had followed Lily out the compartment to buy some sweets. Lily, who was very hungry, bought some of everything the lady had. She piled everything in her arms, and brought it back to the compartment. The other girl, who's candy pile was much smaller, stared at her.

Estrella said sarcastically, "I can see you're not that hungry."

Lily looked up, with her mouth full of Chocolate Frog, grinned. Now that she had food, she was happy.

She spent the next fifteen minutes sharing her goodies, which including Fizzing Whizbies, Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans, Chocolate Frogs, Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, and many other unusual delicious sweets, with her newfound friends. Lily asked many questions that were bugging her ever since she got her letter from Hogwarts.

"Are you all from magical families?"

She found out that Estrella and Diana were 'purebloods', or peoples that came from an all-magical family. Charlotte, though, came from a witch mother and a Muggle father, so she was a 'half-blood'. Lily, on the other hand, was a 'muggle-born', a name that is very self-explanatory.

"Do muggle-borns do horrible in Hogwarts?"

"No," came Diana's frank reply, ", because some of Hogwarts' best students are muggle-borns."

"Oh," Lily replied, feeling much better.

They chatted through the next hour, watching through the window as the train raced through gorgeous meadows and valleys.

When the train was close to Hogwarts, they put on their billowing black robes. Lily looked out the window. Through the darkening sky, Lily could see a vague image of a tall, proud castle with many towers. She knew that she had arrived at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.