Chapter One
As soon as she stepped foot on the train to Hogwarts, Lily Evans knew that her life had changed for good.
She made her way down the aisle timidly, hugging her bags to her. Her cauldron clinked dangerously against the wall, startling her every now and then. She tried her best not to look into the side compartments despite her curiosity, using her thick, long red hair as a curtain between herself and the rest of the world. But her attempts at blending in were soon foiled.
Before Lily had time to react, a small orange cat had jumped before her, tipping her over slightly as she tried not to trample over it. A squeal of giggles and worry came from the compartment she was now approaching, and a girl of about Lily's age, eleven, jumped out from the doorway. "I'm so sorry!" she laughed, shyly, her face turning pink. She scooped up the cat and smiled lightly at Lily.
"It's alright," Lily said, a smile on her face now that she'd righted herself. The girl before her was short and blonde with big, bright blue eyes. She was blushing terribly. "I'm Lily," Lily offered. "I'm a first year."
"I am too!" the girl responded. "My name's Celeste." She jerked her head to the side, motioning towards two other blonde, blue-eyed girls in her apartment, looking a bit older. "These are my sisters Anna and Rosaline. They're both second years."
Rosaline smiled at Lily and said, "Would you like to come in and take a seat with us? You seem to be having trouble managing those packages of yours."
Lily nodded gratefully and entered the compartment, tossing her belongings in the nearest available space as Celeste entered behind her, petting her cat. "That's Ginger, by the way," Rosaline said with a smile, gesturing towards the cat.
"So what house are you in?" Lily asked Anna and Rosaline.
"I'm a Gryffindor," Rosaline replied.
"I'm a Hufflepuff," Anna added. "We're expecting Celeste here to be one too. She's just so hard-working. Our mum was a Hufflepuff and our dad was a Gryffindor."
"What house are you expecting to be in?" Celeste asked Lily.
Lily shrugged. "Oh, I don't know. I'm Muggleborn, so—."
"Are you really, now?" Rosaline interrupted. Confused, Lily nodded. "I wouldn't go around saying that to just anyone, Lily. Some students might not like you so much."
Anna made a disgusted face, as did Celeste. "They'll think they're better than you," Anna snorted.
Lily was about to inquire as to why when a tall, lanky boy, just about her age, barged into the room, looking about wildly. "Oh, sorry ladies," he said with a wink. "I do believe I have the wrong room."
"Who was that?" Lily asked, her attention now diverted by the subject of the boy who had just entered and left.
Celeste shrugged but Rosaline spat, "He looks like one of the Black boys. He's probably going to be a Slytherin."
Just then, Ginger jumped once more from her position on Celeste's lap. Celeste groaned and sprang up. "I'll go get her," she murmured in defeat.
Eager to explore the rest of the train and meet other students now that she'd gotten on so well with these three, Lily said, "No, I will." She sprung up and headed out into the compartment, running down it after the cat.
After moving a few yards, she found her path blocked by a boy of her height with messy black hair. "Excuse me," Lily said, rather politely. "I'm chasing after my friend's cat. Would you mind moving?"
The boy smirked. "Not really," he said. "I'm quite comfortable standing where I am."
"In the middle of the aisle?" Lily snorted in reply, flipping her red hair behind her shoulder in a mixture of annoyance and confidence. "Please move before I'm forced to do something irrational."
The boy snorted as well. "Such as?" He leaned towards her, challenging her remark.
"I don't know!" Lily growled, now becoming aggravated. She tried to look over his shoulder, but he moved to block her view. "Hit you. Tickle you to death. Humiliate you out of my path."
The boy snorted once more. "If you hit me, you'll get a detention on your first day and I bet you hardly want that. If you tickle me, I'll have you know I'm not ticklish. If you humiliate me, well…it takes a lot of humiliate me."
"Than how do you propose I get you out of the way?" Lily taunted, now playing a long.
"Kiss me," the boy said frankly.
Lily blinked in surprise. "Kiss you?" she asked in disbelief. "But…I don't even know your name!"
"James," the boy said, sticking out his hand. "And you are?"
Lily glared at him, but took his hand, shaking it fiercely. "I'll tell you if you move."
"I'll move if you kiss me."
Not wanting to kiss this boy that she hardly knew, and that obviously was quite annoying her, Lily kept his hand in her grip, and lifted it to her lips. She kissed it, and dropped it, letting it fall loosely to James' side. "There now, I've kissed you," she said, blushing slightly. "Now please move."
"Fair is fair." James shrugged and stepped out of her way.
"Lily," she called behind her, now running after the Ginger, who was trapped at the end of the train.
Yes, her life had changed for good, but in more ways than one.
