Chapter One: The
Beginning
The rain poured harder that day than it had in weeks.
Lily Evans, a small girl for her age, was standing at Kings
Cross station between platforms 9 and 10.
The rain dripped from her long wavy amber hair down her narrow face and
onto her navy pullover. She sat down on
her large trunk, stunned at what was happening. Could it have all been a joke?
But no, that was impossible. It
was real, she was sure it was.
Several weeks ago, a letter had arrived for her at her
family's London apartment. She had been
invited to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She can still feel the soft parchment in her
hands, the green writing burned upon her brain. Still sitting in the pouring rain, she took the letter out of her
pocket.
Since it's arrival, she had sat in her room rereading it
over and over. The letter was
beginning to wear through. She looked
at each page individually. The first
piece of parchment was a personal letter from a Professor Apollo, deputy
headmistress, telling her that she had been accepted and to come to
Platform 9 ¾ on that very day. The
second sheet was a list of things that she would need for her classes, the third
a letter from a Professor Dumbledore saying that the supplies would be at the
school when she arrived. Lily looked at
this third one for a few minutes.
Rather than being in green ink, this one was in blue and was written
very quickly.
Once more, she looked up at the large clock. She had been sitting there for nearly twenty
minutes, only fifteen left until the train was supposedly going to leave. Suddenly, her thoughts were interrupted by
two young men arguing in a corner.
"Hurry up, we're going to be late!"
"That's not my fault, you were the one that forgot your damn
wand." Lily's ears perked up at this
and she looked down at the supply list once more. 'You will need:' she scanned down to the bottom, "one wand." She watched the boys carefully. They walked over to the barrier between
platforms nine and ten. Suddenly, a big
group of American tourists walked by, much to Lily's distress, and just as
suddenly the boys were gone.
'Peculiar,' Lily thought.
She dragged her large trunk over to the barrier. She looked to either side, and the boys were
nowhere to be seen. Hopelessly, she
leaned against the barrier and rather than being supported she fell right
through! She looked around her, and
there were people everywhere, people she hadn't seen while standing at the
station. Up above her head was a large
sign that read "Platform 9 ¾." Still in
awe, she walked back through the barrier, grabbed her trunk, and set back off
to the platform.
Once she had relaxed and thought through what she had just
done, she looked back around her again.
Young children, some wearing long black robes, were boarding a large
scarlet train while their parents watched from outside. While the parents seemed distressed at
leaving them, the children were running around wildly in the rain having the
best of times. Cautiously, Lily weaved
through the crowd and boarded the train.
Inside, she walked until she found an empty
compartment. She sat down and watched
out the window as other passengers waved goodbye to their parents. Lily wished her parents had come with her to
the station, but her father had to leave suddenly for work. Her mother, having no choice, left her to
find the station herself. "Dear
Petunia," Lily whispered to herself.
Petunia, her younger sister, would have nothing to do with Lily's
departure and insisted upon remaining at home.
Unlike Lily's parents, Petunia wanted nothing to do with the world of
magic, perhaps for fear of herself or just for her perfect life. Either way,
Lily was hopeless.
Just as the train began to move, a small tap on the door
disrupted Lily's thoughts and she went to open it. Standing outside was a small girl with short blonde hair pulled
tightly into plaits. She had an oval,
loveable face and a small thin body.
Water was dripping off her tiny glasses, her clothes completely
drenched.
"Come in quickly and dry off! You must have been waiting out in the rain forever!" Lily said to the girl. The girl looked up at Lily and gave a very
big smile, revealing two little rows of blue braces that looked funny on such a
young girl.
"My Mum's rather worried sending me away for my first year
of school," said the girl as she lugged her trunk into the compartment. "The poor old bat wouldn't stop hugging and
kissing me." The two girls laughed. "I'm Hannah. But most people call me Babs so you can just call me that." Lily laughed at the name. Indeed, she did very much resemble a rabbit,
one such as the cartoon character Babs from the Bugs Bunny skits.
"I'm Lily." Babs sat
down across from her and began ringing out her plaits.
"Where're you from?" asked Babs.
"London. I live
right near the station, so it wasn't that far for me to go."
"That's nice. I'm
from Wales. So I suppose they let you
buy your school stuff then since you are so close."
"What do you mean?" asked Lily quizzically. She just supposed that the school always
provided the school things and hadn't thought anything of it.
"Well, in my letter they said that we would get our supplies
at school. My older brothers, Evan and
Laurie, used to get their stuff at Diagon Alley, but this year they got the
same thing in their letters. I just
supposed it had something to do with the fact that we don't live very close."
"No, mine was the same," said Lily. Babs had a very concerned look on her
face. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing… it's just peculiar, you know. I wonder why they don't want us in Diagon
Alley." At that moment, the compartment
door opened and an old witch was outside, offering them food for lunch. Being that Lily had none of the gold coins
that the witch asked for, Babs generously bought her some of the unusual food.
The train ride went on, the two girls chatting aimlessly
about the classes they would be taking, Babs answering any questions that Lily
had, being that she was from a long generation of wizards while Lily was
Muggle-born as they called it. After
quite some time, the train began to slow down and eventually stop. The girls looked at each other and then
stepped out of the train. The rain had
ceased but the dark clouds still hung overhead, giving the earth a dark, eerie
quality that can only be seen after a rainstorm.
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A/N: So? What did you think?
Disclaimer: I don't
really own much, but JKR owns the rest so don't steal, it's not nice.
