The Potter's Daughter
Year One, Sorting
Lily Potter was nervous about starting Hogwarts, despite what she had been saying on September first for the past four years, ever since her brother James started Hogwarts. Her parents seemed all too willing to see her and her brothers off of platform nine and three-quarters and onto the steaming Hogwarts Express: they said their farewells quickly, and Lily's mum merely gave her a tight hug and a wish of good luck before pushing her towards the train after her siblings.
She glanced back at her parents as she boarded the Express. It was a nervous glance, and her parents met it with encouraging smiles. Lily knew that both of her parents had loved Hogwarts, back in their day, and she was determined to do the same. However, as the train's whistle blew and it gathered speed, leaving her parents on the platform and herself in the train's corridor, she couldn't help but recall the tales Albus and James had told her of muscular seventh years lying in wait for first years to board the Hogwarts Express for their first time. She glanced around fretfully as she made her way down the hallway, waiting for said students to jump out and hex her. The new, ten and three-quarter inch ebony and phoenix feather wand was clutched tightly in her hand, and she peered into the carriages on either side of her, looking for a brother she could sit with.
Then again, her brothers probably did not want their younger sister sitting with them. Albus, at least, had made this clear to her yesterday, while they were packing their trunks for school.
"I don't want my mates thinking I like hanging out with first years," he said annoyingly from the bathroom that joined his bedroom with Lily's. "My little sister will destroy my new image."
Albus was all about image. He would be a third-year student in Slytherin house – the only Potter ever to be placed in Slytherin. Except, Lily realized, for the fact that she could be placed in Slytherin as well.
She had always heard that Slytherin was the worst house to be in. Slytherin had spawned dark wizards, scores of them, including the darkest wizard of them all, the wizard whom her own father had defeated twenty years ago, Lord Voldemort. Of course, Albus knew of this as well, and James was very keen on pointing this out to him as soon as he was sorted into the evil house. Albus insisted that the bravest man their father knew was in Slytherin, and stuck by this story, though Lily and James had never heard this piece of evidence from their father.
Nevertheless, Lily hoped that she was sorted into Gryffindor. This was the House that her mum, dad, Aunt Hermione, Uncles Ron, George, Percy, Bill, and Charlie, as well as both sets of grandparents had been in. Lily was very proud of her family roots, and wanted to continue the Gryffindor tradition. She wanted to follow in her father's Auror footsteps after Hogwarts and live at home until her parents kicked her out. She loved her family…well, maybe not Albus, because he always pulled mean tricks on her, especially since he had been sorted into Slytherin house. James, on the other hand, was her favorite person to be around, even out of her cousins Rose, Hugo, Freddie, Victorie, and Teddy, who wasn't really her cousin, but they called him a cousin anyhow.
She had a lot of relations like this, it seemed. Take, for example, Auntie Luna and Uncle Neville. She had to call him Professor Longbottom at Hogwarts to show respect. She was fine with this because she did respect him, very much so, and she was willing to go to some lengths to prove this to him; after all, he was the person who had taught Lily her first spell: Expelliarmus.
It was going to be strange seeing most of her cousins so frequently at Hogwarts. She hoped that the sorting hat would choose to put her in Gryffindor, away from Slytherin Albus and Ravenclaws Rose and Victorie, and with James, Teddy, Hugo and Freddie. Rose was too much of a know-it-all, in Lily's opinion. Usually, at family gatherings, Lily, Rose and Victorie were stuck hanging out together while the boys played Quidditch, which infuriated Lily to no end. While she was trapped, listening to Rose rambling on about books and facts and Victorie talking rapidly in French, to make Lily feel inferior, Lily's brothers and cousins soared around the yard on their broomsticks. Sometimes she joined in when they were a player short, but she mostly flew by herself, when her brothers were elsewhere. Other times she persuaded her parents into flying with her, especially this past summer, because she was training to be on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. James reminded her that they didn't allow first years on the team, but her father had been an exception to the rule and so, Lily decided, would she.
There were no empty compartments on the train, but Lily found James in the last one. Four other boys were gathered on the benches with him, laughing and playing around. She wondered if she would allow her to sit with him and his fifth year friends. She hoped he did because she certainly did not want to sit in a carriage with strangers. James and his mates looked towards her as she slid the compartment's glass door open timidly.
"Lily—hi!" James greeted warmly. "Come in, sit down! Guys, this is my little chum, Lily. Sorry, Lils," he said, turning to her, "I forgot you don't like to be left alone."
She felt her cheeks burn red with embarrassment at his annoyingly accurate statement, but she sat down next to her brother all the same, not looking around at the other boys. "All of the compartments were full," Lily mumbled, her face tilted towards the floor.
"You don't mind if she joins us, do you?" James inquired to the carriage's contents, flashing his sister an inviting smile.
When the boys decided that they were fine with Lily sitting with them, Lily ventured a look up.
If she had been a few years older, all of these boys would be rather attractive to her. As she was not a few years older, she merely found them intimidating fifth year boys. James introduced the group to her, but she wasn't one for remembering names, and they slipped right out of her head.
The ride to Hogwarts progressed and the sun sank lower in the sky. Still, Lily's nervousness had not subsided. The impending sorting was drawing closer, and she was afraid that, no matter what house she ended up in, friends would be difficult to come by.
She didn't participate in the boys' conversation, (though she was very grateful for the fact that James allowed her to sit with him), and she slipped out of the compartment to change into her robes as they neared the castle.
Back in the compartment, she admired the sleek, new black robes that would soon be adorned with a house badge. Her parents would want to know, right away, what house she was sorted into, so she'd have to compose a letter tonight, before classes started and she became too distracted with school work to write to them. She kept trying to reassure herself that her parents would be proud of her no matter what house she was sorted into, but she still cringed whenever she imagined being in Slytherin.
When the train slowed to a stop and the students started filing out, James told his friends to go on ahead so that he could help lead his sister to where she needed to go.
"James, you don't have to do this for me," Lily said, feeling embarrassed again as they were left alone in the carriage.
"Lily, I know this year is going to be difficult for you, without Mum and Dad," James said. He was smiling at her. "I know you're worried about the sorting, but no matter what house you end up in, I'm still your brother."
She smiled back; she knew that he was telling her he was there for her, through thick and thin, whenever she needed to talk. James was always good for that, no matter what the situation. "Thanks, James." She gave him a hug, and he glanced around, making sure no one was watching, before he wrapped his arms around his little sister. "And don't worry; I'll make my own friends." She was trying to convince herself as much as her brother.
He led her out off of the Hogwarts Express and onto the platform in Hogsmeade. From there, she headed to the boats with the rest of the first years and boarded one with a girl and a boy in it. Their faces were covered in shadow, the only light being cast by the single lamp hanging from the bow of their boat. Lily's instinct was to cower into the stern, and that's what she did, allowing the darkness to hide her shyness. The other two, however, were eager to meet new people and make new friends. They introduced themselves as Garrett and Lucile. Apparently the two were already friends, and had been since birth. Lily had the notion that it was going to be difficult to become friends with them, but as they approached the castle and told Lily about themselves and their lives, she got the feeling that they were willing to welcome them with open arms into their friendship.
Lily walked with them into the castle, and she could see them more properly there. Garrett had a fair complexion, with blonde hair and light eyes, while Lucile was the exact opposite, with dark skin and hair. They laughed easily together and tried to join Lily in their conversation as they were ushered into a room off of the Great Hall by a teacher. Lily laughed at their jokes and attempted, against her normal personality, to talk with them until the sorting began. They were led into the Great Hall, the magnificent ceiling stretching out above them, the four house tables surrounding them, the teachers table before them, right behind the stool with the Sorting Hat placed upon it. Lily's heart started thumping noisily against her ribcage as the rip in the brim of the Hat opened, and it began to sing. The words were lost to Lily, who was focusing on the beating of her heart and her possibly impending doom.
Garrett and Lucile were both called up to the hat before her as Blume and Moore, respectively. When Lily Potter's name was read, she wove her way through the crowd of first years and sat on the stool, facing the rest of the school of Hogwarts.
Her father had told her of when he was sorted and the name Potter was a surprise to the whole of the Wizarding World. She was glad that there were two Potters in school before her, and that the reputation of her father had been worn down with time, so that there wasn't much attention specifically on Lily Potter as she sat on the stool, under the Sorting Hat, in front of the entire school of Hogwarts.
It must have been only a moment before the Hat decided where to place her, though it seemed like long, stretching minutes before it shouted "Gryffindor!" amidst the hundreds of Hogwarts students. Applause erupted from the Gryffindor table, and Lily could distinctly hear her brother and her cousins cheering the loudest, welcoming her to the table. She sat amongst her new Gryffindor friends, Garrett and Lucile.