Lily Potter and the Ghostly Disappearances
The sun creeps through the shutters of Grimmauld Place on a crisp Monday morning. Lily Luna Potter rolls over in her bed with a small groan. The sun continues to threaten her, rising higher yet, causing her to shove her head underneath her pillow. Before she has the chance to fall back asleep her bedroom door swings open, with her mother Ginny Potter at the entrance.
"Happy first day of Hogwarts!" Ginny exclaims with a breakfast tray hot and ready in her arms.
Lily sits up with a certain daze about her, attempting to smile, genuinely touched by her mother's surprise. "Wow. Thanks, mom!"
Ginny strides over to Lily's bed and takes a firm seat, setting the tray on Lily's lap. Lily quickly digs in to the cheesy eggs and potatoes, closing her eyes in appreciation.
"Well, James and Albus have just gotten up and you've got about an hour tops to finish that and get dressed then we'll be heading to King's Cross.
Lily nods excitedly, suddenly becoming slightly overwhelmed.
Ginny exits, walking backwards the entire time as if suddenly realizing her little girl is growing up.
At the moment Ginny is gone, Lily's two brothers' head s pop in.
Albus smiles up at James. "I told you Mum made her breakfast in bed."
They both completely enter the room, James with his arms tightly crossed. James looks down at Lily's eggs longingly. "Well that's not fair! Neither of us got breakfast in bed on our first day of Hogwarts!"
Lily smiles up at them with a shrug and hastily swallows her last spoonful of eggs. "I guess I'm her favorite."
"I knew it!" Albus yelled and runs from the room.
James shakes his head after him, but suddenly become serious and sits down on Lily's bed. "You okay?"
Lily looks up at him questioningly. "Yeah. Why?"
James shrugs. "Well, I just remember how nervous I was on my first day of Hogwarts. You know, being a Potter has incredible benefits but a lot of drawbacks too. Everybody stares and-"
Lily laughs quietly before cutting him off. "James. I've been a Potter for eleven years already. I know about the staring and the whispers."
James smiles slightly, but it doesn't reach his eyes. "Well at Hogwarts…it's different."
Lily looks concerned for the first time. "Well, what do you mean?" She urges him to continue, sitting up straighter.
James stands and waves it off. "No. No, see now I've got you worried. I don't want to do that. You've got me and Albus to make sure nothing happens to you."
"Well, what would happen to me?" Lily asks, but James is already out of the room.
Lily sighs and falls back against her headboard. The truth is, she is a little worried. Everybody expects "great things" from Harry Potter's children. She's terrified of being a disappointment. She's terrified she won't be in Gryffindor. She's terrified she won't make the quidditch team.
Her father and grandfather had been made Gryffindor Seeker in their very first year of school, and her mother had been a professional quidditch player for god's sake! Lily's oldest brother, James, is in his fourth year at Hogwarts and he was made a beater in his first year. Her other brother, Albus, is going into his third year and he became a chaser in his second year. There was so much pressure on her to be smart, courageous, athletic, inspiring…she becomes sick to her stomach thinking about it and pushes her tray of food away from her.
Lily sits up and takes deep breaths, attempting to calm herself down. Her mother, Ginny, works for the Quidditch section of the Daily Prophet, so their family gets free issues of the paper every week. Her parents go through the paper to remove any parts that might mention 'The Potters', in an attempt to keep their lives as normal as possible.
A couple weeks ago, though, Lily got hold of the paper before they did and found a magical poll in the Quiz section that asked the question: What Will Lily Potter's Best Talent Be? The top answer at the time was, of course, quidditch and the second most popular answer, was Defense Against the Dark Arts. A poll! There was a poll about her in the Daily Prophet! The entire magical world knew that Lily Potter would be coming to Hogwarts this year and they all expected her to be great.
Harry Potter appears at the doorway beaming down at his little girl. "You look deep in thought."
Lily jumps at his words and looks up. "Oh! Sorry, I was just about to get dressed, I swear."
Harry laughs. "It's alright. It's a big day for you. There's a lot to think about. Are you nervous?"
"No!" Lily retorts almost too quickly.
Harry holds back another laugh, knowing exactly how nervous she was. "Alright then. You've got forty minutes."
An hour later, The Potters arrive on platform Nine and Three Quarters. Ginny looks determined at the Hogwarts express, ready to take on her first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Everybody in the station takes at the very least a double take as they walk by, all wanting a glimpse of Harry Potter and his family.
A man walks up him. "Hello, Mr. Potter. I would just like to say how much I admire you. It is an honor to see you in the flesh at last."
Harry stops patiently and the rest of his family does so as well, routinely. "Thank you very much, sir, have a nice day."
The man slightly bows down before walking away happily.
They finally make it to the front of the train. James and Albus hop on, each yelling back a hasty goodbye to their parents. Lily is about to do the same, but Ginny holds her back.
" I love you, Lily. Be safe and say hello to Neville for me, will you?"
"Of course, Mum!" Lily says breathlessly. She turns to her father and hugs him tightly. They both look at each other for a moment or two and that's all they need.
"Good bye!" Lily exclaims as she enters the train. The doors close behind her.
The drags her things down the train's long alley looking left to right for an open compartment. Finally she finds something better. Lily bursts into a compartment with Hugo and Roxanne Weasley, who are also first years this year. Hugo is the son of Hermione and Ron Weasley, and his cousin Roxanne is the daughter of George and Angelina Weasley.
"I'm so glad I found you guys!" Lily bursts out, attempting to cram her luggage into the top compartments. Hugo and stands and helps her with her things.
"Yeah, we'd hoped you would find us!" Hugo responded, shoving the last of her things up into the compartment and closing the door.
"So how bad has the whispering and pointing been?" Roxanne teased Lily.
Lily sighed, but kept a small smile on her face. "It's scary. I feel like everybody is just waiting for me to do something great or for me to mess up."
Roxanne and Hugo laugh to themselves quietly and Hugo retorts, "Well that's what you get for being a Potter."
"Well being a Weasley has got to be similar at times! I mean, the Weasley name is almost as popular as the Potter name." Lily argues playfully with them.
"Yeah, maybe sometimes, but not nearly as much as a Potter." Roxanne winks at her and they all laugh together, shaking their heads.
Suddenly their train door slid open with a loud bang and a very disheveled looking boy stood in the frame. "Hi. Um, I was wondering if maybe I could sit with you guys."
The three of them looked up in shock for a moment at the boy, but Lily then immediately stood up and took some of the things from his arms, handing them off to Hugo. "Of course! Yeah, are you a first year as well?"
The boy shivered into the compartment with them, with wide eyes. "Unfortunately. A third year just hexed me or-or something and he was threatening me. I don't know, but I just narrowly escaped him!" He rambled on and on, as if reliving the moment over and over.
His stuff finally packed away into the luggage compartments above them, an awkward silence fell.
Lily is the first to break the tension for the second time by offering the mystery boy a hand. "I'm Lily. Lily Potter. It's nice to meet you."
The boy accepted her hand and blushed slightly. "Oh, I'm sorry you guys. I haven't even introduced myself. My name is Mark Magnum."
They all nod at him in scattered greetings.
"Well, I'm Roxanne Weasley and this is my cousin, Hugo Weasley. We're all first years." Roxanne says brightly.
Mark nods at them with a small smile and shrugs. "This is crazy, isn't it? Magic, I mean. I just found out about all of this stuff a couple months ago on my eleventh birthday. My mom just took me aside one afternoon and spilled it all, saying that I'd be receiving a letter from this Hogwarts School to learn how to be a wizard!" He laughs disbelieving to himself.
Lily perks up, interested. "That's how my dad found out, except he didn't actually find out until he got the letter. Um, if you don't mind my asking, do you have muggle parents?"
Mark seems confused at first. "Muggle? Oh, right, normal people. Uh, well my dad is, but my mom is a witch. She doesn't use magic anymore and she said she wanted me to grow up with a normal childhood."
"So you don't know who Harry Potter is?" Lily seems smug at this point.
Mark squints his eyes in thought and ruffles his hair. "No, I don't believe so."
Lily's smile widens. "I like you already."
Mark laughs quietly and shrugs. "Oh wait! I know why that name sounds familiar! It's a Hogwarts elective!"
Lily's smile vanishes. Roxanne and Hugo stare at Mark in shock. "It's a…a what?"
Mark fishes in the back pocket of the robes he's already changed into and pulls out a pamphlet. "Haven't you guys checked out the first year classes? There's a class called 'The History of Harry Potter', and it goes on saying that it teaches a monumental time in Wizard History when some guy named Voldemort came to power and he was stopped by Harry Potter. That's the name you said, right?"
Lily disregards his question and looks at him, concerned. "Where did you get this? I thought we didn't get class schedules until after the Sorting Ceremony?"
Mark looks at her confused. "Well I just picked that up when I was shopping in Diagon Alley. There were a bunch of pamphlets in the waiting line at a bookstore and I just picked it up, to check out what types of classes they teach here and boy am I glad I get this instead of primary school."
Lily, Roxanne, and Hugo gather around the pamphlet reading about the class and Mark wasn't kidding.
"An actual class on my own family history. Wonderful." Lily mutters to her cousins as she hands the pamphlet back.
"Wait. What? Are you related to Harry Potter?" Mark asks innocently.
"He's my father." Lily responds bitterly.
"Wow! That must be so cool! You're father is famous! I wonder what that'd be like…" Mark drifts off, now staring out the window.
Lily, Roxanne, and Hugo exchange glances before spreading out and taking in this new information.
"I wonder why my brothers never told me." Lily wonders out loud.
"Well I bet they never considered it a big deal." Roxanne tries to explain.
Lily stands up and heads out of their train compartment. "I'm going to find the trolley that James told me about. Apparently they've got pumpkin pasties."
And she escaped the tension of the small compartment, not at all intending to find the trolley, but to find her brothers, in need of an explanation.