Lily was slow in waking. When she did, she didn't open her eyes right away, grimacing automatically at the throbbing pain pulsing in the back of her skull. But there was a noise nearby, irritating and persistent, and despite herself, Lily eventually opened her eyes. She could've sworn she'd turned her alarm clock off...
The world came into a blurry kind of focus, but the first thing she noticed was the color white: the paint on the walls, the ceiling, as well as everything else in the room; all of it was far too bright. The second thing Lily noticed, as her eyes focused better, was the source of the noise: the beeping of a heart monitor.
... Why was she hooked up to a heart monitor? Nothing she remembered even remotely explained...
"I see you're awake," came a smooth, aged voice from her left, and she flinched, head whipping to that side despite her headache.
It was an older man, she realized. A much older man- to be honest, he kind of looked like Merlin, with a long white beard and dark robes. He was seated in a chair by her hospital bed- and she still had no clue at all why she was in a hospital bed- looking calm.
Lily said nothing, completely speechless, but said up slightly. Even if she couldn't remember why she was in a hospital room, she did know she had no clue who this guy was, and surely the hospital staff wouldn't let some random stranger dressed like some kind of wizard in her room without supervision?
She couldn't think of anything better to say, Lily ventured out, "... Are you a wizard?"
Of course he wasn't a wizard- there was no such thing- but she honestly couldn't think of anything else to say. Her brain was still muddled, fuzzy and hurting. So she wasn't expecting the flicker of surprise to cross the old man's face.
"Perceptive one, aren't you?" he asked in a pleasant tone, and Lily blinked.
"Okay... so I'm Lily, I don't really know who you are, or why I'm here." It was more of a statement then a question, really, but she was genuinely confused. The last thing she remembered was...
She'd been at school, and she'd been really mad... and that was all she could really remember. There were another few moments of quiet before she even remembered why- oh, yeah, she thought suddenly. They cut my hair.
"Did I knock myself out with pure rage?" she asked curiously.
"In a manner of speaking, I suppose you could say that." His eyes crinkled in a merry sort of smile. "My name is Albus Dumbledore. I am the Headmaster at Hogwarts' school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. And you, my dear, are a witch."
...
Everything had been normal up until now. Pleasant, even; it was her birthday and school had just ended days ago, Lexi had woken up late and they'd had a huge breakfast, and had fun all evening, and plans had been made to go out to eat at Burger King or the like.
Normal up until the door'd been knocked on, and when her father went to answer it, Lexi assumed it was just some post, or maybe a neighbor, or something else like that, up until the door slammed back shut again, hard enough that she flinched.
Eventually her dad walked back into the living room looking annoyed, and she asked apprehensively, "Um, who- who was that?"
"Nobody," her dad answered, sitting back down on the couch next to her and reaching for the remote to start up the movie she'd paused in his wake. "Just some weirdo. Don't ever answer the door if we're not home, okay?"
"Um. Okay."
And then he lifted the remote, and with a bang that had her yelping and pulling her legs up onto the couch, a woman appeared in front of the TV.
"Well, that was rude," she chastised.
Lexi might have screamed again, but it caught up in her throat, and she ended up with a somewhat strangled, "Dad?"
He was already on his feet, looking livid, TV remote still in hand although he hadn't actually managed to start up the television. "Who are you? What do you want? How did you get in here?"
The woman looked pinched, like she might call him out again for being rude, but sighed instead. She was an older lady, face set with wrinkles, hair pulled back. She was wearing the strangest clothes, like a formal black bathrobe, but without a tie and looking a lot less comfortable. And she was tall, Lexi noticed faintly. And she'd just appeared in the middle of the living room out of thin air.
"I'm the Transfiguration professor at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. You may call me Minnerva."
"Transfiguration?" Lexi had never heard that word before in her life.
"Get out of my house," her father said. "I'm going to call the police."
"How does one bring this up subtly?" Minnerva mused, then sighed again. "In all my years, I have never quite come up with a sure-fire way of explaining this to muggle families. Here."
She reached into one of her giant bathrobe sleeves and came out holding a long stick. Lexi, not sure what to do aside from sit on the couch and try to sink into the upholstery, just watched as she raised in up into the air at where her dad was dialing on his cell phone and slashed it sharply. It flashed red at the tip, and then the color shot out like a laser beam, cutting straight into the phone.
And suddenly her father was holding a breadstick. The kind you would find in a restaurant: certainly not a phone. Lexi gaped, and her father swore loudly, dropped it on the carpeted floor.
"Miss Talbot," the woman said, addressing her personally, and took a few steps closer while her dad was distracted by the food, and reached again into her bathrobe, but instead came out with a big white envelope, and held it out to her. "You're a witch, and hereby invited to study at Hogwarts, in Scotland."
Several thoughts ran through her head, the first of which being, Scotland? I've never been to Scotland. And the second being, Huh? Witch?
...
The plane ride to Britain had been... awkward, to say the least. Both her mom and dad had been along for the ride, for one thing, and that was always awkward anywhere; but there was also the fact that all three of them had still been processing the whole magic thing. But the farewells had been teary and excited enough, excited on her end at least, not caring in the slightest her father's mumbling about elementary school.
And so she'd been handed over to 'Professor' McGonagall, or so she'd been told to call her, even though sometimes she messed up and said "Mrs." instead, to go shopping at a place called "Diagon Alley", which was really neat because it was magically hidden from the rest of the world- muggles, Mrs. McGonagall had called them- and for once she didn't mind how crowded the place was, admiring everything, all the old-fashioned looking buildings with things flying through the air, zipping through display cases.
(Well, she minded a little bit, and felt really self-conscious in her "muggle clothes" and felt really out of place, but she ignored it, because everyone seemed to be clearing a path for Mrs. McGonagall.)
She didn't recognize the money in her own bag- galleons? What?- but that was fine, because Mrs.- Professor- McGonagall led her through each shop they went to for the various things on her list, for odd things like cauldrons and glass vials and gold-colored scales, even a small telescope; thick black robes that felt like a really complicated dress, cloaks, a pointy wizard hat that made her laugh. Gloves made with dragon scales.
They also had to buy schoolbooks, but for once, they actually looked interesting. They went to two different stores for the books, a place called Flourish and Blotts and another called Obscurus Books. And they bought quill pens, things Lexi had always, always wanted to use, parchment (paper) and a bunch of other things, and a big old trunk to put everything into.
Finally there were only two things left on the list: A wand, and then the optional pet and she was so getting a pet, she'd had her own spending money transferred into galleons.
Still, though. Wand first. Wand first.
God, she was getting a wand.
There was a big, dusty old store that looked like Flourish and Blotts, but less busy and filled with boxes and piles of random sticks- wands- instead of books. It smelled like cut wood shavings and cardboard, and it was kind of dark, with light pouring in from the windows but not getting anywhere near the high ceiling.
"Mister Ollivander," Professor McGonagall called into the empty store, and from way in the back, behind the pay counter, a voice replied, "Just a moment, just a moment!"
Lexi stood there awkwardly, still in her regular clothes, and shifted the trunk so it leaned against the ground, staring at all the wands. Each one looked different: different shapes, different angles, different colors. They were all made out of different things, she thought.
And then the sound of footsteps had her looking up, to see a man even older looking than Professor McGonagall, with big bright eyes in the darkness of the store. "Why, hello, young witch," he said pleasantly. "I don't believe I recognize you."
"I'm a-" she struggled for a moment, frowning, trying to remember, before smiling shyly. "I'm a muggle-born."
"Can I ask your name?" he said kindly, and when looking up at Mrs. McGonagall had the older woman nodding, she looked back at Ollivander and twisted her fingers together nervously in front of her. "I'm Lexi Talbot. Um. Alexandria Talbot, but call me Lexi."
"Well, Miss Talbot," he said. "Let's find you a wand."
They tried several, with Ollivander explaining the bits and pieces of each and every one- cores and lengths and woods and flexibilities- each one different. She startled each time at the rush each wand brought- a rush that rushed out when she so much as waved it, even if she knocked over a few things in the process.
And finally one didn't knock things over, she didn't get the chance to try, because the rush turned into a warmth, a stagnant stirring in her whole body coming from that stick. This wand felt... friendly. Like it was happy to see her, even though Lexi knew that made no sense.
But Ollivander seemed to understand, because he merely hummed in thought. "Yew wood, dragon heartstring core, eleven and a half inches, slightly springy," he said, taking it from her hands, at which she had to fight the urge to grab it back. "Interesting wand for someone like you."
"Why?"
"This," he said, "is a powerful wand. I don't sell very many yew wands at all," he continued, and handed it back. Lexi struggled not to grab it to her chest, because that would look weird. It was just a wand, no matter how crazy that sounded. "Let alone with dragon heartstring cores. But wands choose their owners. I expect great things from you, Miss Talbot."
They paid for the wand and left, waving goodbye to the friendly old wandmaker. Lexi didn't put it away until they made it to the pet-shop, Magical Menagerie, a surprisingly small store for having so many animals squawking and barking and mewling. Most of these places seemed small, narrow but deep. This place was filled with boxes and cages, with wide-eyed owls and cats and weasels and strange things she didn't recognize. There was a turtle in the front, shell bejeweled, and she cringed at the price. Whatever a Galleon was worth, that was a lot of them.
The Professor let her wander the store, which she did until she started to feel uncomfortable making her wait and circling the store again and again. She didn't want a cat, because she already had a cat at home- sickly and unable to travel, but her baby wouldn't like other cats. So it was either an owl or a toad, both of which sounded intriguing: but her dad was getting an owl, Professor McGonagall was picking out a well-trained one so they could communicate...
These toads were not like regular toads, she realized as she was drawn again and again to those sections. They were bigger, for one thing, and not all of them were toads, there were frogs too, but they seemed more... intelligent. They watched back, and when she held them they stayed put mostly. Like a trained pet rather than some random frog.
So she held them all, avoiding some and drawn to others, until eventually she came across one she liked within her Ten-Galleon budget set by the Professor: a still small- and by small she meant a little bigger than her palm, but the sign said it would get bigger- young frog that was mostly white with a bumpy brown-splattered back and grey forelegs. The sign called in a "Giant Burrowing Frog" even though it looked more like a toad. Eight Galleons.
So she shyly brought the whole terrarium up like she saw the other kids doing with the cat and owl cages to McGonagall, who only raised an eyebrow at her choice and led her to the counter to pay. Lexi's heart pounded the whole way. Her father would call this a waste of money, a toad, but she liked this one that seemed to like her too.
"What are you going to name it, honey?" the saleswoman asked curiously as she rung it up. "I don't get too many young witches buying toads these days."
Even though she'd thought of a name while staring at the frog to see if she wanted her- mind spinning with meaningful names, something worthy of a magic white frog, and coming up with myths- Lexi still stuttered a bit, scuffing her feet nervously, before finally answering, "Iris."
"Like the flower?"
"No, like the Egyptian goddess Iris," she corrected automatically, and winced at the blank look she got, shutting her mouth until the terrarium got handed back to her, with little baubles she'd gotten with the extra galleons to make it homier for a frog. This she had to carry.
"Here you go, honey."
"Thank you," she said, holding the terrarium close to her chest, and then they left that store, too: en route for a place called "King's Cross Station".
...
It was with a sense of trepidation that Lily left The Leaky Cauldron on her own, leaving her father finally behind to finish whatever conversation he'd been so dead-set on having.
She sort of immediately regretted it- the crowds were huge, the people were bigger, it was noisy, and she looked sorely out of place in her nice clothes in all these robes- but she steeled herself and took the second step out anyway, supplies list clutched in one hand.
And realized she had no idea where to go.
Lily had been to enough fancy dinners with her parents to know how to be polite, despite what everyone else thought. So after a few moments staring at the buildings, she sought out help, eventually calling out to the closest person to her- a taller man with long blond hair.
"Excuse me, sir, you wouldn't happen to know the place that has the uniforms?"
She flinched slightly at the way he stopped, turned, and stared. Lily knew a look of disgust when she saw one, and this guy wasn't even trying to hide it, glancing down at her like some random piece of trash. "You'll be looking for Madame Maulkin's," he sniffed, and raised a hand in a vague direction. "Go straight that way. It'll be down the first alleyway."
"Okay, thank you very much, sir," she said with forced politeness, then set off in the direction he'd pointed at despite her better judgment. It wasn't like she had a clue herself beyond what he'd said.
This alley did not look... friendly, for lack of a better term. Lily wondered what a clothes shop would be doing down this way.
There was a small keening noise from below her as she tried to take a step, and Lily looked down, nearly stumbling over the small cat that'd seemingly appeared out of nowhere to tangle in her ankles. It was a calico cat, looking a little scruffy, but was persistently rubbing her ankles as she settled back standing.
"Hey, buddy," she cooed. "You lost too?"
It just mewled at her again, then slipped away between her legs, heading off in the opposite direction of the alleyway, skirting the crowds. "Hey wait, no, come back, you're gonna get run over!" Lily yelped, and then, glancing back at the alley- which she didn't particularly want to go through, anyway- chased after it.
Once she caught up, it just stopped running away, staring back up at her. And so Lily looked up, hoping she hadn't lost sight of the place the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron was at, and immediately realized she was standing in front of a store with "Madame Maulkin's" written across the top of the door.
"That lying bastard," she muttered. And then she looked down at the cat, who looked back up at her, and pushed opened the door to head inside.
Right in the front there were a bunch of chairs, probably for waiting customers. A waiting room, without the "room". Farther inside, Lily could see that the place was bustling with people and robes, some of them not hanging on anything particular she could see, just hovering or skidding around through the air, and nobody seemed to think that was odd.
Weird.
She was halfway through the uniform list and looking for dragonhide gloves- she'd known dragons had to exist- when a voice interrupted her rummaging through the barrel.
"I don't believe animals are allowed in here," said the voice from behind her, british and snide.
Lily glanced down and, yes, sure enough, there was that calico cat, standing by her ankles. "I really hope you're talking about my cat right now," she said, then turned, one dragonscale glove in hand.
He looked to be her age, eleven or maybe twelve, wearing the same kind of black robes she was buying, with pale skin and gelled-back blond hair like he was trying to be a Greaser, but failing miserably. Like a rich kid trying to be cool, if his fancy shoes were anything to go by. Shoes were always an indicator of how much money someone had.
He raised his eyebrows haughtily, arms crossed over his chest. "And who are you? I can tell you're not from around here, with that accent."
Shifting her weight slightly to one side, she raised her chin. "Lillian Noir Cendrillon," she said proudly. "But I prefer to go by Lily. And yes, I'm not from around here. I'm from the Americas. Florida, to be exact."
"Draco Malfoy," he said, and from the way he stated it, Lily knew he at least thought "Malfoy" was important. "Are you here for Hogwarts as well? It's kind of odd for a witch from America to come here."
Lily sighed. "Well, you see, that's a bit of a long story... I need to stay out of America for a while... plus, I am not going to an all-girl school, I was not going to Salem."
Conversation petered out then, but it didn't really matter once another woman called out Draco's name from somewhere else in the shop. "I'll see you at Hogwarts, then, I suppose," he said, still managing to make that sound pompous, before turning on his heel and leaving.
It didn't take much longer to get the rest of the things and pay before leaving the shop, and this time she looked on her own through the stores to find what she needed, immediately searching for her textbooks and supplies and a trunk and a few extra notebooks and parchment with the Galleons her father had exchanged for. With everything said and done save for the wand- the cat was still following her around- she headed off for "Ollivanders".
The store was thin but deep, and only dimly lit. There was no one save for an old man standing behind the counter, examining what looked like a wand from the doorway.
"... Excuse me, sir," Lily said haltingly. "I'm here to... buy a wand... I guess."
"Yes, yes, come in," he- she was assuming this was Ollivander- said, glancing up from his wand.
And she did. He took into account her measurements, asked a few odd-end questions, and pulled out a few boxes with wands to try out.
... And that's when everything went downhill.
When the first wand exploded in her face, she was stunned, mortified, and hoping this was at least somewhat normal. But when the smoke cleared and she could see Ollivander's face- she knew it wasn't.
"I've only seen this kind of reaction- a few times, in my life," he said carefully, taking the nub of wand left in her hand cautiously. There were splinters all over the counter.
"... And... what happened to those witches and wizards?"
"Most of them are most likely in Azkaban," he said, and Lily didn't know what "Azkaban" was, but it didn't sound good or pleasant.
"... I think you should be aware that the first time I used magic I blew up a school," she said, still embarrassed and now a little nervous. "That- that should probably be taken into account."
"Oh, this does not bode well..."
They went through four more wands- only one other exploding, but the rest had some pretty bad reactions as well- before finding one that felt slightly more right than others, but still seemed kind of unstable.
"Elm wood, Phoenix feather core, ten and three quarters inches, slightly yielding." Ollivander nodded. "This should be durable enough for you, I hope."
"I can pay for those wands, just so you know," she said somewhat meekly.
...
"... And that's how I nearly blew up Ollivander's shop," Lily concluded, and sat back in the compartment seat.
She'd been right in her former assumption that he was, well, loaded. Or at the very least, his family had influence. If the two practical body guards were anything to go by- she knew the difference between an ally and a lackey- or grunt would be a better word.
She'd found this compartment pretty quickly, and it was the first semi-empty one she'd come across. After being introduced to his two 'friends' Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, she'd been asked- well, ordered, more like, and so she'd humored them- to recant the "long story" she'd mentioned in the robe store, and eventually that had devolved into blowing up wands.
"Bloody hell," Crabbe muttered.
"Not exactly what I was thinking when I apparently woke up from a coma, but, yeah."
Draco's jaw worked for a second, eyes flashing irritably. "You're a mudblood?" he snapped out at last, sounding vehement.
"I have no idea what that means, but it sounds offensive and I don't like your tone." Lily narrowed her eyes. From below her seat, the cat she'd met in Diagon Alley mewled quietly.
There was a silence.
"Well, I ain't fucking moving, I'm comfy." Lily said at last, and all three boys flinched. "So you can either suck it up or switch compartments."
The compartment door slid open suddenly. Another younger girl, probably a first-year like herself with short, bobbed brown hair. Her eyes flickered about before finally settling on the floor. "Excuse me," she asked the carpet. "Have you seen a- a toad? A boy named Neville's lost his."
"Um..." Lily paused, contemplating for a moment whether or not to say 'yes' and point to the three boys in front of her. "No, I haven't seen a toad. Sorry."
"Oh. Okay. Thanks anyway," the girl said, and hurried to close the door. As soon as she did, Lily recognized her accent- or the lack of it, depending on your perspective. But by the time she called, "Wait, are you American?" the girl had already moved on down the hall, shadow disappearing from the windows.
...
If he moved, it would mean she won. So most of the train ride passed in a rather awkward angry stare-down during which she completely ignored the three of them.
First, he'd thought she was a Weasely, from her red hair and muggle clothing. But when she'd turned around in that shop and spoke, Draco had realized immediately that she was no such thing, from her strange accent. American. Draco had thought that, perhaps, she was from a pureblooded wizarding family in America, and that was why she could choose which school to attend.
But according to her story about blowing up a school- part of a bloody muggle school, apparently- she hadn't known she was even magical until being confronted by the Headmaster. She wasn't even a half-blood.
"You may as well leave," he said confidently, but even though she looked at him suddenly, it didn't look to be because she'd heard him.
"Honestly, if you think you can intimidate me, I've dealt with way worse. Way, way, way worse. As I said before, suck it up or get lost." Before he could come up with a suitable response, she tilted her head. "By the by, I think I met your father earlier. I mean, I might be wrong, but you guys do look slightly similar- same stuck up face, platinum blond hair, shoes. Which are arguably nice."
Had that mudblood just insulted his father, and then say he had nice shoes?
"What?" he said, baffled, trying to sound offended.
"Also, do you know where Azkaban is?" she asked suddenly, sitting all the way up. "Ollivander said a lot of people he'd met like me ended up in Azkaban, and I don't know what that is. It doesn't sound nice, though."
...
The train ride had been a long one, and they never had found that toad of Neville's, which made her feel kind of bad. She'd just gotten hers, and would've hated to lose her. Bu she'd managed to wrangle into her robes, and had passed e better part of an hour reading before the other boy had found her for help in the first place.
Now she was being led by a giant bearded man named Hagrid to an almost ominous dark lake, but then it was dark outside without it, so she figured it looked like a nice enough lake during the day. Beside her walked Neville, the only other person she'd actually had a conversation with on the train aside from a very one-sided and distracted exchange with a girl called Hermoine.
"I like your frog," Neville said beside her. "What kind is it?"
"Giant Burrowing Frog, I think," she said with a shrug, looking down in her terrarium where Iris was seemingly sleeping. "I dunno, I thought it was a toad at first- are we getting in those boats?"
"I'm not sure," was Neville's only answer, but then Hagrid was bellowing for everyone to get into the boats, so there was that question answered.
They loaded on carefully, several kids to a boat, and she just tried her hardest not to trip on the hem of her robes, something she'd already done twice and didn't feel like doing into a lake. She and Neville sat on the back row and watched as they went across the lake, talking a little more about frogs and toads, but he knew more than she did, so she ended up just listening.
There were a few kids, if she looked around at all the boats and focused at the lantern lights, that looked really nervous. She wondered if they knew something about the lake that she didn't, and tried to banish the thought of sea monsters breaching to eat the flimsy little wooden rowboats.
But they got to the other side without incidence, and eventually they were all filed out of the boats. Lexi slipped a few times but didn't fall, and eventually, when she turned to wait for Neville, she stood next to Hagrid, and wanted to shrink. But then Neville came up, and Hagrid boomed, "Oy, you there!" And she realized he was talking to Neville, who shrunk as well until he finished, "Is this yer' toad?"
"Trevor!" he yelped happily, lunging forward to grab and looking much happier as he returned with a small, dark brown toad. "It's too bad you left yours on the train," he said earnestly. "I think they'll get on."
She laughed as they were led up to to an enormous, medieval looking castle, complete with spires and stonework and giant windows. She'd never seen a castle. Lexi felt horribly small next to it, but excited to be living in one, so far away from home. She was a witch. A muggle-born. Free. "Maybe so!"
They stopped at the massive door, and even from her place a few people back from it, she could clearly see Hagrid as he reached up with one huge hand and knocked three times, the bangs ringing like gun shots. She wondered how he was so big. Was it a magical thing?
She had to be prepared for anything. Most of these other kids were from magical families, and so they would know all about magic, and she didn't want to be the one who freaked out about everything. She wouldn't be caught of guard. Magic was a whole new rule for this game.
The door swung open immediately to reveal Mrs. McGonagall, dressed in pretty emerald green robes. Her eyes cut across them like she was judging them all, and after a few moments, she nodded.
"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid.
"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here."
She pulled the door wide, and Lexi oohed along with the rest of her classmates, craning to get a look inside. The entrance hall was bigger than a house. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches, the ceiling higher than the one at Ollivander's so that she couldn't even see it, and there was a beautiful marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors.
She was so glad to be a witch.
They followed Professor McGonagall across the stone floor. Lexi looked at the decorations, all of them fitting suh a huge, old looking castle, with strange looking candles and torches, and tapestries hanging from the walls, and big windows that vanished as they got farther in. There was chatter from somewhere, a crowd like standing next to her playground, but she didn't know where it was. Either way, Mrs- Professor McGonagall led them straight to a large, empty room.
"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room.
"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rulebreaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.
"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting."
Lexi wondered now how they were possibly supposed to do that in an empty room made of stone blocks. She didn't even know if she was wearing her robes right, and had no real way of telling aside from asking Neville, who, judging by the way Mrs. McGonagall was staring him down, probably didn't know either.
"I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall. "Please wait quietly."
And then she left them to titter among themselves. Despite herself, Lexi turned to ask Neville what was going on, if her things were on right- she felt ridiculous in this pointed black witch hat, like she was all dressed up for Halloween, but most of the other kids wore theirs as well. "Neville? Is my thing on right?"
"I think so," he said. He was still holding Trevor.
"Are you going to have to hold Trevor for whatever this sorting thing is? Do you even know what this sorting thing is?"
Neville just shrugged and looked stricken.
And then a bunch of kids screamed right behind them, and both turned suddenly to see what was going on, Lexi's heart kicking in her chest. Several people made various noises at once, screams and gasps and exclamations, but Lexi said nothing, staring wordlessly with wide eyes at the twenty or so see-through people that had just phased through the back wall.
At first she thought maybe that was a magic thing and people could phase through walls by turning intangible, but then Neville murmured, "Wow, ghosts," beside her.
Ghosts?
Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they floated across the room, completely ignoring the first years. They seemed to be arguing in hushed voices between themselves. What looked like a fat little monk was saying: "Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance -"
"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves?" a ghost wearing a ruff and tights said indignantly. "He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not really even a ghost - I say, what are you all doing here?"
Nobody answered.
"New students!" said the Fat Friar, smiling around at them. "About to be Sorted, I suppose?"
She, at least, nodded, feeling obliged to answer a ghost. Who knew, maybe it was rude or something with ghosts and they would get angry if you didn't. But she couldn't bring herself to speak in the dead quiet.
"Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!" said the Friar. "My old house, you know."
There was a sharp noise as the door to the Hall opened again, and Lexi swiveled her head to see McGonagall step in. She didn't look particularly amused at the ghosts. "Move along now," she commanded and several students jumped. "The Sorting Ceremony's about to start."
Professor McGonagall had returned. One by one, the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall.
"Now, form a line," Professor McGonagall told the first years, "and follow me."
It was a minute before they all got situated, and she ended up behind Neville, with a stranger behind her. And then Professor McGonagall led them through the double doors she'd so effortlessly moved- had she even touched them?- which lead to a dining room that looked like it belonged on Olympus.
Thousands of candles hovered in the air, hanging ominously above four long, wide wooden tables, which were mostly filled with students chattering and talking; the source of the noise. Ghosts mingled among them. Lexi thought privately how the candles didn't leak wax on everything and decided, once again, that it was a magic thing and she shouldn't be surprised by magic.
The ceiling was amazing. She could think of no other word for the shimmery black starlight. The only reason she knew there was actually a ceiling at all was the fact that the sky outside had been cloudy and overcast, and this one was brilliant, with twinkling constellations and a full moon.
"Wow," Neville said.
"Wow," she agreed, and tore her eyes away to look around again.
The tables were covered in glittering golden plates and thick gold cups like metal wineglasses. At the back- or, she supposed, front of the room- there was another table, set in a T above theirs, where older people in robes- probably the teachers- professors- whatever were sitting. This was where Mrs. McGonagall led them, and Lexi hiked up her robes slightly, hoping nobody would notice but wanting even less to fall on her face while everyone in the Hall was standing.
Without a word, McGonagall- though Lexi hadn't seen her fetch it- put a four-legged stool in front of them, with a pointed wizard's hat sitting on the seat. It was old, dusty and patched, more brown than anything else. It was torn and filthy. But everyone in the hall, not just the first years, stared at it and so she did too, wondering all the while what would happen until suddenly a rip opened up near the rim.
And then when it started to sing, she blinked.
"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,
But don't judge on what you see,
I'll eat myself if you can find
A smarter hat than me.
You can keep your bowlers black,
Your top hats sleek and tall,
For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat
And I can cap them all.
There's nothing hidden in your head
The Sorting Hat can't see,
So try me on and I will tell you
Where you ought to be.
You might belong in Gryffindor,
Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring, nerve, and chivalry Set Gryffindors apart;
You might belong in Hufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffis are true And unafraid of toil;
Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,
if you've a ready mind,
Where those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind;
Or perhaps in Slytherin
You'll make your real friends,
Those cunning folk use any means
To achieve their ends.
So put me on! Don't be afraid!
And don't get in a flap!
You're in safe hands (though I have none)
For I'm a Thinking Cap!"
The whole hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again.
"That's a singing hat," she said in a flat voice.
Despite himself and the look of terror on his face, Neville bit back a giggle. "Yes, it seems so."
Professor McGonagall, once again with an item she hadn't been holding before, stepped forward towards the Hall of students they were facing and lifted a sheet of stiff looking parchment.
"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said. "Abbott, Hannah!"
A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. There was a short moment of silence, and Lexi wondered what was going to happen.
"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat.
The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at what had to be the Hufflepuff table, adorned in yellow, with badger emblems al around, pinned to the student's cloaks and on woven placemats under their empty plates.
She spent the time watching each table's reactions to each name, and eventually distinguished each of the houses: Gryffindor, in red and gold, Ravenclaw, in black and white, Hufflepuff, in yellow and black, and Slytherin, in silver and green.
Gryffindors were brave, she thought. Ravenclaw were smart, Hufflepuff were loyal and kind, Slytherin were cunning and ambitious. That was what the song had said.
Which house would she go into?
...
"Cendrillon, Lillian." the Professor said, and Lily realized she was being asked to go up on a stage in front of the entire school and put on a hat that would apparently determine the house she was going to eat with, work with, and live with for the next seven years of her life, no take-backs.
What the fuck was she doing with her life?
Going to a Wizard school.
Lily sighed, and then stood, making her way up to the stage with as much confidence as she could muster feeling everyone's eyes on her. And she sat on the little stool, and they put the giant hat on her head, and Lily almost swore when it spoke in her brain.
Hmm, it mused. Ambitious, and intelligent. Loyal to a fault, and courageous when you need be. But one stands above the rest... it'll have to be...
And the thing bellowed, "SLYTHERIN!" at the top of it's nonexistent lungs.
Slytherin cheered, the house with the green and silver and snake emblems, and once they took the hat off she hurried down there and found a seat. Once they stopped, the next name called, she took a minute to observe her new table. They were quiet, she noticed. But calculating- like they were sizing the new kids up, trying to see who was what.
...
Neville was nervous, determined not to show it, and almost certain he was failing.
They were calling names in alphabetical order, so he knew his was coming closer with each passing name. His only consolation was that most of the other students looked pretty queasy, too.
"Charlotte, Caitlyn!"
"RAVENCLAW!"
"What house do you want to be in?" Lexi whispered from beside him; flinched when the hat yelled out, "GRYFFINDOR!"
"I'm not sure," he said honestly. "My Gran thinks I'll be sorted into Hufflepuff."
"RAVENCLAW!"
"Hufflepuff. That's the 'Just and loyal' one, right?"
"SLYTHERIN!"
"Yeah. Which one do you-"
"Longbottom, Neville!" the Professor called, and the Hall went silent again. Neville froze.
...
Neville had gone to Gryffindor. Lexi couldn't really say she was surprised, really, she didn't have the right, since she didn't know anything about the houses other than what the Sorting Hat had sung about, but still. "Brave of heart" and "daring, nerve, and chivalry" weren't the first words she'd use to describe Neville Longbottom. She'd be just as surprised if she made it into Gryffindor.
The hat didn't even want to go on one boy's head, yelling "SLYTHERIN!" before it even cleared the rim, and that kid looked horribly proud of it. She wasn't quite sure of the "using any means to achieve their ends" part either. Honestly, she agreed with Neville; she was probably going to be put in Hufflepuff. At least she had patience.
She was lost in thought for a while, imagining what it would be like to be in each house, nervously awaiting her time on the bench, when suddenly the whole room went dead quiet. No whispers, no titters, nothing. Lexi looked up automatically, because whenever that happened in class before it'd meant she'd been caught spacing out and everyone was staring.
Well, everyone was staring, all right, but not at her: at the boy making his way up to the platform where the hat waited.
"That's Harry Potter," one of the first years whispered nearby, and the other nodded emphatically.
Lexi didn't know who "Harry Potter" was, but he was up there for a long, long while, much longer than any of the other kids. Even she now was watching, wondering why everyone was so intent on this one first year's Sorting, and jumped when the hat finally drew in a breath and yelled out, "GRYFFINDOR!"
The Great Hall dissolved into chaos, each House freaking out in it's own way, although Gryffindors were certainly the loudest. She resisted the urge to cover her ears, wondering what was even going on, why was everyone panicking, but eventually the teachers- professors- managed to get everyone back under control enough that they could hear the next couple names be called, and eventually he hype died down.
She paid attention for a few people more, especially when, as one boy's name was called, a voice yelped, "Sam?!" in the quiet all the way from the Slytherin table. The boy in question, Samuel, looked over in that general direction, and then his face split into a grin as he sat and he pointed, yelled "Ey!" back at whoever it was.
Barely half a second before the hat yelled, "GRYFFINDOR!"
Nothing quite so interesting happened after that and, eventually bored, she stared at the talking hat as it bobbed about and tried not to think about to being her turn eventually to be Sorted. This all still felt like a dream, but that didn't change her crippling stage fright in the slightest...
"Talbot, Alexandria!"
... Oh.
Carefully, she stood, paying careful attention to her feet and where they were stepping, and made her way up to the stage. Funny, it hadn't seemed so quiet in here before... the stool looked kind of flimsy up close, too small, and she felt like a young child sitting down on it, and that feeling only got worse when the hat actually dropped down over her eyes. Of course it'd done that to most of the other kids, too, but...
Well.
Lexi flinched.
How interesting.
She thought, what's interesting? and flinched again when it actually answered.
Humble. Loyal. Kind. Patient.
Hufflepuff? she thought.
No, no. Smart. Sly. You do know your way around a lie, don't you? Hmm, yes. You'll save your friends, but you'll save yourself. Lonely. No- alone.
Uncomfortable, Lexi shifted. She was well-aware the hat had already taken longer than usual. It was sifting through her thoughts, though; that cut through her embarrassment. It was going through her mind, through her memories, she could feel it in the way she remembered odd moments of deceit, of lying little white lies to her parents, that she'd remembered to turn in a book or paper that she'd forgotten about and could turn in the next day, about walking the dog after she'd forgotten, about sitting alone at the lunch table, sleepovers with one, two friends... Being bullied, being praised.
So what? she thought at last.
You would make a very good Hufflepuff, it said, but there are good hearts in Slytherin, too.
"SLYTHERIN!"
If she could be any more speechless, Lexi probably would have swallowed her tongue.
The Professor pulled the hat off, and immediately the memories seeped away. Now she could see the whole of the Great Hall staring at her, the Slytherins having burst into raucous applause, but she could pick out Neville's face, Hermoine's face in Gryffindor, and saw the shock on their faces.
Somehow she managed to stand, knees wobbly, just kind of relieved to be going to sit at a table and disappear, but still. What? As she sat on the edge of the table, an older boy grinned at her with a lopsided smirk.
"Welcome to Slytherin," he said conspiratorially. "Best House in Hogwarts!"
"Um, y-yeah," she stammered.
An older man in at the teacher's table stood, and the Hall quieted somewhat as he held out his arms in a jovial way. "Albus Dumbledore," she heard one of the students mutter, probably to a first year.
"Welcome," the man said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!"
...
She was taking this in stride, this appearance of food from thin air. But, really, that was mostly because of the lamb chops.
"Does this mean the dishes do themselves?" she asked distractedly whilst piling her plate with several meats. It all looked amazing, and it all hadn't been there two seconds prior. Lily wondered if it would clean up this easily, and if she could learn to make food appear on a regular basis.
But there wasn't an answer. She'd been welcomed into the crowd happily enough- although it seemed more like these students were trying to make allies than friends- but soon enough the word had spread like wildfire from the focal point that was Draco Malfoy, and suddenly it was like she was poisonous to look at, save for self-righteous glances and glares over noses.
It seemed like school was the same whether she was magic or not.
So she ate in silence for the rest of the meal, completely ignoring the other Slytherins like they were ignoring her, listening to their conversations, and the general noisy chatter of the entire hall. Anything she said went completely ignored, or scoffed at.
Eventually it was just too ridiculous, Sam was at the Gryffindor table, and all her food was gone. Ignoring the way her food scraps vanished off her plate as she stood, Lily huffed, straightened her robes, and stalked away toward the red-and-gold covered table with the bursting laughter, also ignoring the looks she could feel on her back, the comments she couldn't hear just out of earshot.
Sam's curly blond head was easy enough to spot, and so she stepped in that direction, walking briskly between the tables until she was hovering just behind him. H didn't notice at first, engrossed in a conversation about rum and smoke and tea with the boy beside him, but he definitely noticed when she wrapped her arm around his throat in what she hoped was a familiar enough gesture.
"Guess who!" she exclaimed gleefully when he jerked, grinning widely.
"Damn, I hope it's my favorite redhead in the woorld!" he sang without turning around, and waved his fork a little.
"Hey, Blondie, move over a bit," she ordered the boy with the charred goblet and singed eyebrows and let go of Sam. "I wanna sit next to my friend."
Apparently too stunned to argue, he did, and she sat down, feeling vastly more comfortable than she had at her House table. Sam grinned easily. His plate was still half-filled with a mangled-looking lava cake and a few pretzels, and offhandedly Lily realized that the contents of the plates on the tables had changed to desserts. "Soo, how've you been? Y'know, besides getting sorted into Slytherin? ... You have fun with that."
"Eh. Honestly it's not any different than regular school." She waved a hand dismissively and grinned wickedly. "They'll soon learn their place."
"See, this is why I love you. You don't take people's shit." Like her, despite his young age, Sam had a sailor's mouth, and used it well. This was why they got along so well. They were cut from the same kind of cloth. Only, making two very different garments...
"Oh, and before I forget," Lily said, and took a deep breath. Sam, suddenly looking suspicious, leaned away slightly. "I knew there was something up from the start, I knew it wasn't just luck. Because nobody can survive a firecracker to the face!"
"To be fair, a firecracker to the face would've killed me," he said reasonably. "I just, moved out of the way. Very quickly."
"Bullshit. You used some fucking magic shit!"
"Well, well, well," a voice cut before he could reply, and glancing over, Lily saw a pair of grinning identical ginger twins, older than her at least a year or more, freckled and wearing equally identical robes.
"It seems like a little snake has slithered into the lion's den," the other added, but strangely it felt like a continuation of the first twin's comment.
"Well, this snake doesn't mean any harm," she replied quickly. "But press me, and I will bite."
"Take her word for it," Sam replied lightly, leaning forwards over his plate. "The last time I saw her mad, she beat a kid over the head with a water bottle and got him kicked off our table. That was at my muggle school, by the way."
"Sounds fantastic," replied one kid.
"It was," she said back proudly, but was distracted when she noticed the quickly disappearing carrot cake on the table. While she grabbed a slice, the others continued talking like she hadn't interrupted in the first place.
It seemed like lifetimes passed while they ate and caught up, but eventually, the last of the plates were cleared, the last of the food eaten. Almost instantaneously, the Headmaster Albus Dumbledore stood once again.
"Ahern - just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you. First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well." There was a knowing pause.
"I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors. Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch. And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."
"Is- is he for real?" she asked uncertainly.
Sam shrugged. "Probably."
"Are- are we sure he's a Professor? Because this is the same guy who broke into my hospital room."
"Why were you in the hospital?"
"I was in a coma after blowing up the school."
"That was you?" Sam exclaimed delightedly. "Everyone thought that was like some Dark Wizard terrorism! What did they do?"
It said a lot that he automatically assumed- correctly- that she'd blown up the school because of a them. "They cut my hair, and then I don't remember. They cut my hair, I cut their lives."
"... Wait, did you kill someone?"
"... Um... that's a good question..." Lily frowned. "Maybe that's why I'm in Scotland..."
"Lily, what the fuck," Sam groaned, but still he was smiling. A few Gryffindors on either side of them looked nervous, she noticed now as she finished off her carrot cake.
"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" Dumbledore cried suddenly, and flicked his wand. A long, golden ribbon spat out of it, rising above the tables and twisting like so many snakes, and Lily realized they were forming words, craning her neck to see. "Everyone pick their favorite tune," Dumbledore finished, "and off we go!"
And the school bellowed:
"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,
Teach us something please,
Whether we be old and bald
Or young with scabby knees,
Our heads could do with filling
With some interesting stuff,
For now they're bare and full of air,
Dead flies and bits of fluff,
So teach us things worth knowing,
Bring back what we've forgot,
just do your best, we'll do the rest,
And learn until our brains all rot."
Everybody finished the song at different times, with different beats, Lily one of the first ones done, done to her own beat once she realized what was going on. Eventually there were only the two red-headed twins farther down the Gryffindor table, singing the last few lines to a funeral march, and when they finished, Dumbledore clapped with the rest of the Hall, Lily joining in, too.
"Ah, music," he said, wiping his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"
The Slytherin first years, which Lily had to hurry to catch up to, followed a boy with a badge who seemed to know what he was doing- people with badges tended to know what they were doing, in Lily's experience, at least usually- and they marched downstairs, winding through a few long corridors, under archways and through large rooms that looked suspiciously like dungeons, until they reached one wall in particular.
"Right then," the boy said. "This here's the entrance to the Slytherin common room. You'll need a password to get in; that changes every fortnight. Right now the password is 'Ouroboris,' so don't forget it, or you'll be trapped waiting for your friends."
As he said "Ouroboris" the wall shifted and rumbled, dropping a bit of dust as a doorway opened in the middle of the wall, like it'd been left there all summer without being opened and only now was it being disturbed. He gestured impatiently with one hand. "Well, get a move on. Your bunks'll have your names on the doors. You can figure out who sleeps where."
It was just as cold inside the "common rooms" as it was in the dungeons; chilly. It was a little dark, so in the time it took for Lily's eyes to adjust, most of the first years had made it inside and spread about to get a better look at the place. No matter how much her eyes adjusted, it was still a little dim. It still looked like a dungeon- a more ornate dungeon, but a dungeon- with snake emblems carved and decorating the stone walls and floor. There was a fireplace flanked by windows, he flue covered in snake skulls.
The furniture was something she would expect from an abandoned aristocrat's house, heavy-looking an old, with a few tables, chairs, and rugs scattered throughout the room, along with two or three fancy chess sets and candlesticks.
Aside from those, the only lights seemed to be coming from the floating green orbs scattered around the room and the large glass windows, which seemed to ripple with green, and Lily thought it was some kind of magical effect- like the ceiling of the Great Hall, until the boy with the badge they'd been following added from behind after the dungeon door closed, "The Slytherin rooms're under the Black Lake- the one you'd have crossed getting here. Sometimes you can see the Giant Squid or the mermaids."
Lily froze in her tracks, eyes darting to the window, and thought she saw something dark flicker past.
I've made a terrible mistake, she thought, with no small amount of horror. I should've gone Gryffindor.
...
It was too much and too little at the same time, or maybe just too awkward. But no more than a half hour after being brought to the dorms, Lexi couldn't deal with the chattering and party-like atmosphere that was nice and probably really welcoming to the other kids except she was sitting off in a corner absently moving chess pieces on a set because apparently they were voice-activated, and wanting to read a book or something and not sit there like a self-conscious loser when no one was even talking to her.
So eventually she scooted off to the girls dormitories, which were made up of several rooms, a lot of which had names pinned to the doors for new first years. It took a minute to find her own, too nervous to let anyone see her failing at finding her own name on a door so leaning against the wall like she was doing something on purpose whenever another Slytherin went by, but eventually she did.
The most numbers on any door were four, so she was assuming there were either four beds or two bunkbeds or something to a room, but theirs only had three names: Pansy Parkinson, Lillian Cendrillon, and Alexandria Talbot. It must have been the overflow. She was curious about how they had managed to sort them into rooms only hours after being sorted, though.
Either way, once she opened the door, she knew she would like it there.
It was dark, done in the same stone detailing as everywhere else in the dorm, with the same softly glowing green spheres and a large glass window with black lines tracing out the Slytherin emblem. Wavy dark green light drifted in through the window, shifting with the water, and as she walked up to it, she realized that even though it was night, she could see the shadowy outlines of sea life.
Turning, Lexi took in the bunk-beds, tall and somehow regal for a bunk-bed, with silver bed frames and a deep shade of green that reminded her of forests in North Carolina. Green drapes of curtain were tied on each post, even the top beds, which were al four-poster. And it all looked rather shimmery and soft, like it was made with silk, but the blankets looked thick and the pillows soft.
There was a single chair just a little from the door, a big plush looking thing like the others in the common room, and a soft white-silver shag carpet that didn't quite reach the last three or four inches to each wall.
Their luggage was piled in the middle of the room, so hurriedly she picked out her trunk and suitcase and terrarium. The trunk had her school supplies and other knickknacks that fit, like reading books and shoes and decorations. The suitcase had her muggle clothes, a pillow and a light blanket both for the plane ride to England and in case it was cold here, her stuffed bear, a few other books, and a few more odds and ends that she couldn't recall.
She would have to get a stand or table for her terrarium, Lexi realized as she pulled it away from someone's cat, who she stopped to coo at. It was as big as a ten gallon fish tank, with brown dirt on the bottom, a few mossy rocks and sticks, a small plant like a tiny tree she didn't recognize that she'd bought from Magical Menagerie, and a small puddle like pond in one corner. There were already food dishes inside. Iris croaked at her as she moved the tank.
Quickly, in case anyone else came in and not up for trying to explain which bunk she wanted, Lexi moved all her luggage onto the bottom bunk on the right side of the room, closest to the window, the one bunk that got direct light from the Black Lake, which was actually pretty green for a Black Lake.
She also took Iris out of her tank and settled her on the bed, since the woman at the store had promised she was well-behaved and trained not to go hopping off away from their owner. Finally, after pushing her trunk to the foot of the bed and shoving her suitcase to the end of it, she went to her trunk to pull out the book she'd been planning on reading.
And paused.
The stuff was gone from it. The textbooks, reading books, cloaks, scales and vials and other things were gone, but that wasn't the alarming part. No, the weird part was that it had bottomed out- by which she meant there wasn't a bottom to her trunk, only a rung of a stepladder that stuck out of the wall of her trunk a foot below where her trunk stopped existing, and it lead down, down, down, impossibly, to what looked like a cellar or basement, all wooden like her trunk.
And, at the bottom, lit with a few candles and glowing torches on the walls, sat another first year boy dressed in his robes but no hat, wand out and swinging experimentally.
She didn't scream, nor did she gasp. Lexi just stared, blinked once, and took a deep breath, reaching up a hand to brush off the pointed hat she wore. Magic, she told herself sternly. Don't be surprised by magic. This is probably normal.
It still took a second before she could bring herself to speak. "U-um... excuse me... where are my things?"
The boy with blond hair startled, head whipping up from where he sat criss-crossed barely in her line of sight, and gaped at her. "Oops!" he yelped. "It was only supposed to affect my trunk! Hi, by the way, I'm Sam!"
"Um, hi." Okay, now she saw her stuff, it was a pile on the ground at the bottom of the stairs. She hoped desperately that the scales and glass vials weren't broken. "Did you use a spell?" she asked hesitantly. "Is it permanent?"
The door opened suddenly just as she finished the words and Lexi flinched, a hot tremor shooting through her body, and turned to see who it was. She recognized this girl- either Lillian or Pansy- she was the one from the train she'd seen for a split second before moving on while looking for Trevor.
"... Is what permanent?" the girl asked quizzically. "Maybe I can fix it."
The heat from adrenaline turned into heat from embarrassment that traveled across her face and neck as she realized her roommate thought she was talking to a trunk. "No, no," she said quickly. "Um- I- there's a-"
"Something wrong?" Sam called from below. "Who's there? Please don't let it be a Professor-"
"Wait..." The girl narrowed her eyes. "I know that voice. Sam?"
"Lily! We meet again!"
The redheaded girl- Lily, it must have been Lillian- threw her cloak down on the other bottom bunk and rushed over to stare down into the trunk over Lexi's shoulder and gasped. "What are you doing in a trunk? Wait. What are you doing in my dorm?"
"I'm not sure, actually," he replied with an easy shrug and a grin, looking not at all sheepish. "Oh! I should probably introduce you two. Random girl whose trunk I accidentally spelled, Lily. Lily, random girl whose trunk I accidentally spelled."
I would think that's obvious at this point, she thought, but only fidgeted where she sat on the floor and raised her hand halfway in what was almost a wave, the sleeve of her robe dropping to her elbow. "Hi."
"Hey, I know you," Lily said suddenly, gaze snapping to hers. Her eyes were dark, but she couldn't tell what shade. "You're the girl from the train! You were looking for a toad! Did you find it? Are you American?"
Lexi shrank slightly from the onslaught of questions, still knelt on the floor in front of the trunk. "Um, yeah," she said quietly. "Actually, Hagrid found Neville's toad... yeah, are- are you?"
Before she could answer- it was a rhetorical question anyway, of course Lily was American, she was the only person aside from Sam that she'd met thus far without a british accent- the doorknob turned, not quite as suddenly as it had when Lily opened it.
At the noise, Lily started, and slammed the top down on her trunk. A faint, "Hey, where'd you go?" echoed up, but Lily banged the top and it went quiet just as what could only have been Pansy- Lexi forgot her last name- opened the door with an audible huff. "I can't believe that I managed to get the only room with only mudbloods," she sniffed, more to herself than them.
Lexi frowned slightly, mouthing 'mudblood' to herself under her breath, knowing it was probably an insult but not getting what it meant. But she just stood and took a step away from her trunk.
"Hello to you too," Lily said amicably. "And what are you some kind of pug transfiguration gone wrong?"
"Hmph! I don't have to listen to trash like you. Now get off my bed, I'm getting a bottom bed."
"That's my stuff, and I'll kill you," Lily retorted blandly, and Pansy flinched where she'd been picking up her trunk. "Okay, lets get one thing straight. It's obvious we don't like each other, but I'm willing to make a compromise. I won't touch your stuff, I won't bug you, and in turn, you do the same. We're stuck with each other for at least this year, and if you bug me, I'll be sure that you regret it."
Lexi said nothing, almost hoping she wouldn't be seen, going again for her bed. Never mind. She'd get hr book in the morning. Somehow.
"Besides, we've already touched the beds," Lily continued with a deprecating smile, waggling her fingers in pantomime. "Wouldn't want to get some muggle disease, would you?"
Pansy Parkinson took the bed above Lexi's, to say the least.
Later that night, they compared timetables and realized they were exactly the same. Potions, Transfiguration, Charms, Lunch period, free period, History of Magic and Herbology on Monday, History of Magic, free period, double Herbology with Hufflepuff, lunch, Defense against the Dark Arts, two free periods and then Astronomy at midnight on Tuesday, Potions, Transfiguration, Double charms with Ravenclaw, lunch, free period, Defense against the Dark Arts and Herbology on Wednesday, History of Magic, two free periods, lunch, Defense against the Dark Arts, Herbology and Flying class on Thursday, and Double Potions with Gryffindor, Transfiguration, lunch, Charms, and the rest of the day off on Fridays.
Lexi was curious and excited for all of the classes, but particularly for a few, like Defense against the Dark Arts and Potions, and especially for flying classes. When Lily didn't know what that meant, she'd asked around a little until someone finally told them it was broomstick practice, which didn't dampen her excitement at all. Flying? She couldn't wait for Thursday.
It was a weird schedule, and she wasn't used to having more than one class. Back at her elementary school, it had been the same class every day, with the subject always taught in the same order throughout. This was... going to be difficult.
...
This was going about as well as she'd expected it to, but that didn't make her any less flustered as she hurried up and down the hallways, running now that there wasn't anyone about now that classes had started up, schedule in hand.
Why was this castle so big? Why did everything look exactly the same? Oh, God, oh, God, she thought as she scrabbled about, glancing at room numbers and down dark hallways and through archways, I'm so late, I'm so late, I'm so late.
She had no idea what time it was, but it was definitely past nine fifteen, which was when her Potions class had started. She'd woken up early to go and look for it and missed breakfast and still couldn't find it. This wasn't how she'd wanted to start today. It was supposed to be different here.
Being magical apparently didn't make her sense of direction any better...
Suddenly she heard a shout and skidded to a stop, robes and hat askew. "... course, this would only happen to me!"
Lily. She'd still been sleeping when Lexi left. She followed the angry bellowing down two hallways until it all opened back up to the staircases she'd climbed before realizing Potions was in the dungeons, which apparently was right next to her dorms. Her teacher was going to hate her...
Looking up, she saw a staircase stopped oddly in the middle of the floors, the bottom not connecting to any platforms. She couldn't see Lily from this vantage point, but if she was on that stair- which she was- then she couldn't get down any more than she could find the classroom.
She cupped her hands around her mouth. "Lily!" she called, voice despite trying to get her roommate's attention a harsh whisper out of habit. "Are you okay?"
"No! The stairs broke!" came her angry wail.
"What do you mean the stairs broke? They're magic!"
"I mean they broke! I've been stuck here for like twenty minutes! Go get a Professor!"
"But I'm lost!"
There was another long-suffering wail from the stairs. It echoed through the stone halls. "Lexi, I'm about this close to trying to make the jump and I know I can't make that jump."
"I say. What is all this noise?" a bored, irritated voice came from behind, and maybe it was the dungeons but she jumped and whirled around fast enough to trip on her robes, and banged her shoulder into a wall catching herself, yelping. "Owww..."
And then she straightened like a lightning shot. It was the ghost from the Slytherin tables, with the bloodstained silver robes and permanent scowl. They hadn't yet spoken, but he seemed maudlin and constantly annoyed. Heart pounding in her throat, Lexi couldn't quite make herself say anything.
"Bloody Baron!" Lily yelled. "Can you please get a professor, I've been stuck here for twenty minutes!"
Finally the breath left her throat, and Lexi muttered, "I can't find Mr. Snape's classroom."
The Bloody Baron huffed in exasperation, then turned and started to float away in what Lexi hoped was the way to Professor Severus Snape's Potions room. She called up to Lily that she would come back soon with a teacher and bounded after the ghost, textbooks clutched to her chest.
It wasn't like he could get her any more lost.
...
The rest of the day went smoothly enough, despite the embarrassing spew of stutters as she'd attempted to explain to Professor Snape that she'd gotten lost from the dorms literally two turns away from Slytherin dorms and that Lily was stuck on the charmed stairs that had apparently stopped, and she'd been docked five points from Slytherin and glared at the rest of the all-Slytherin class.
She stuck with Lily like glue, and between the two of them they managed not to be any later than ten minutes to any given class, an event that most of the teachers were sympathetic to because muggle-borns and purebloods alike had troubles for the first month or so.
Transfiguration was as interesting as she'd thought it would be, and for the first time she'd taken diligent notes before they started. Professor McGonagall had turned the desk into a pig and back like it was nothing, but, she realized on their first tries, turning things into other things wasn't as easy as saying the spell correctly.
They were supposed to be turning matches into needles. She'd gotten hers to turn silver by the end of the second class, but that was it. Mrs. McGonagall had still seemed pleased, though.
Charms class was just... fun. Trying out a new spell every day, and once the directions were given- how to move your wand, how to speak the spell- she could actually perform most of them, because unlike Transfigurations, where the warm rush needed to be contained and shaped, in Charms a lot of spells just needed a proper outlet to be released and that was it.
Lily seemed to be pretty good at it too- they were the only two to consistently be capable of performing spells after one or two classes' worth of practice, give or take a few spells and Lily blowing things up sometimes, a common occurrence in all of their classes, not just Charms.
History of Magic was interesting- in the way that maybe reading the textbook was interesting because there were really cool stories in it, but Professor Binns was the dullest anything on the face of the planet. Even the fact that he was a ghost couldn't catch her interest. She spent most of the class reading, and took notes on her own time at the library or from her textbook during free time.
Herbology was fun as well, interesting and stimulating, one of her favorite classes. They were hands-on with plants that walked and screamed or did nothing at all but have various magical and medical properties, and she learned how to care for them and what they did. This as a class sometimes shared with Gryffindors, so she got to hang out with Sam and Neville as well, even if Neville was scared of a few plants.
Defense against the Dark Arts was all that she'd ever expected a wizard school class to be like. Filled with supplies more varied and interesting than the gross pickled things in the Potions room, with demonstrations of various creatures as well as spells on how to ward them. The textbook for that class was by far the most interesting and ominous of all of them. But she loved the class and was decent at it, even doing well on the essays and tests, not just the spells.
Astronomy was cool, but hard. Back at home, her bedtime had always been eight thirty, no exceptions, and now she had to stay up until midnight and then get through an entire class and take notes once a week. If she could've fallen asleep on her telescope, she would've, but the tables were to small to do anything but give your papers a backing to write on.
Lunch was spent together, time during which Lexi realized she and Lily had a lot of interests in common and could babble on for hours. And Lily didn't mind it when she was too shy to speak, or only wanted to read instead of talk. Quickly, they became partners in everything: in Potions, in Herbology, in any group project. Dinner was the same, but with dessert, and sometimes they hopped over to Gryffindor table when the older year slytherins got too much to bear.
Flying classes didn't start for another week, so there was that to look forward to.
A few classes in particular were the most memorable, like when Neville was put to sleep by mandrakes or the time during Double-Potions with Gryffindor when Mr. Snape completely tried to destroy that poor boy Harry Potter and docked two points from him by the time it was all over, and she and Draco at least won back all the points Lily lost Slytherin by coming in late and answering a question about Wolfsbane the teacher had been trying to use to humiliate Harry by making passing potions the first attempt. And between the two of them- her in particular, but they both had them- they had enough fantastical getting-lost stories to ease some of the tension in Slytherin and Gryffindor house alike at their presence.
On the weekends and free periods, they hung out, sometimes working on homework assignments and sometimes not, a lot of times convening in Lexi and Sam's trunk when Pansy wasn't around, trying to figure out how to put furniture in it from the common rooms without anyone noticing and recreate Sam's wild spell to include Lily's trunk as well.
At night she read or just passed out, and just as she did at her old school she found herself drifting into the same habits despite her various promises to herself, staying just as disorganized and messy as she had always been, and frustrating some of the teachers despite being among the better students in all her classes.
And everything was better, because her father was a continent away and still trying to figure out how to use owls. It was freer, nobody pointing out her mistakes every day of the week, nobody to get angry if she did her History of Magic essay on Uric the Oddball two days before it was due instead of five. Lily was exhilarating, all energy and reckless abandon and sarcastic cursing; Sam a rush of spastic movement and words and sounds.
The got odd looks, Slytherins and a Gryffindor, but Lexi was learning to ignore it.
...
She'd gone to sleep to the gentle swishing of the Black Lake, after seeing the eye of the giant squid for the first time. It was a weekend, a Saturday, so there were no classes to worry about, and aside from a spell she needed to be able to use by Tuesday, nothing to work on.
And now she was waking up rather violently to the frantic urging of Lily to "get up and eat, and go, because the early bird caches the worm and I sewed Pansy Parkinson's nightgown to the bed while she was sleeping so let's go get breakfast before she wakes up!" and being dragged out of the dorm room.
And somewhere between classes, hallways, dungeons, wands, textbooks, angry Housemates, and giant grounds, Lexi found herself a home.
...
...
..
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HEY GUYS IT'S ME! I'M PROCRASTINATING!
So I dunno how many of you ever went to Lily's "We are not ninjas" but NEMCET is much the same thing: our headcanons about being in the Naruto verse. I write everything, therefore this is on my account, however I'm usually sitting with Lily as I do so, so a lot of the things she says and does are her own.
Sam is another one of our friends, but he's not coordinating, so hopefully we pin this correctly...
OMG I WAS SUCH A SHY ELEVEN YEAR OLD. Holy shiet. I had no self confidence at all. And Lily cursed like a sailor.
We WILL finish this, as this is my story rather than hers, and I can write more and faster than her. Anyway! All questions will be happily answered! This will span all seven books but hopefully be no more than thirty chapters or so! More characters will be introduced! We will provide answers for being in a british school eventually!
I will finish FOW's next chapter!
Ciao! Review!