Chapter One

Lily Evans looked around at the crowded train station and swallowed hard. It was teeming with people, who all seemed to be in an inexplicable hurry. Glancing down at the ticket she was clutching in her hand, she managed to decipher that she was supposed to be headed to platform 9 and ¾. She shook her head, sending her long auburn hair into her face.

"I must be going mad," she said to no one in particular. The last few weeks had been a blur. Not only had she received a letter telling her that she was not, as she had always thought, a normal 11-year-old, but a witch, but that the train that was supposed to take her to her new school obviously didn't exist. A balding man carrying an enormous briefcase sprinted past her, looking at his watch instead of where he was going. The heavy leather case was swinging wildly as he dashed through the station, and it hit Lily square in the stomach, knocking her over. She fell backwards against the gigantic trunk her mother had packed for her, scraping her back. Swearing loudly and struggling to disentangle her limbs from themselves, it took a moment for her to realize someone was looking at her.

"Need a hand?" asked a tall, dark haired boy about her age.

Although Lily was only 11 years old and had not quite reached the stage of life in which one starts to notice people of the opposite gender, she could not help but think that the boy, whoever he was, was very, very handsome.

"Thanks," she said, reaching out her hand. As she gripped his outstretched hand, a shock went through her body, causing her to fall back down and drop her ticket. The boy, laughing hysterically, disappeared into the crowd.

"Here, dearie," said a kind voice behind her. Lily managed to roll over and found a pleasant-looking middle-aged woman standing her, arm outstretched. Lily tentatively took her hand, unsure if this was another trick. The woman pulled her to her feet, and was starting to walk away before Lily remembered that she had absolutely no idea where she was supposed to go.

"Excuse me," she called after the woman. "Do you know where Platform 9 and ¾ is?" The woman looked confused and continued on.

"Damn," swore Lily under her breath. It was almost 11 o'clock, and after that she would have no way of getting to her new school.

"Did you just say Platform 9 and ¾?" asked someone behind her, making her jump. Lily turned in relief.

"Do you know where it is?" she asked desperately. The speaker, a girl her own age with long, dark brown hair and dark blue eyes, nodded.

"Follow me," she said, grabbing Lily and dragging her through the crowd.

Lily could feel herself start to relax. Finally, she thought, someone knows how to find the platform. Everything's going to be okay now.

The girl stopped in front of the barrier between Platform 9 and 10.

"You've got to run through it," she explained. "I've done it before, my older brother Adam goes to Hogwarts."

Lily looked at her skeptically.

"Run through the barrier?" she asked incredulously. "It looks pretty solid to me."

"Watch, I'll go first," replied the strange girl reassuringly. Dragging her trunk she ran straight at the barrier, disappearing the moment she should have collided with it.

Lily stared at the barrier in disbelief. Well, if the other girl could do it…Closing her eyes, Lily ran straight at the barrier, and when she finally dared to open them, she was standing on a platform in front of a huge, red train. The other girl was there, smiling at her.

"That wasn't so bad, was it?" asked the other girl. "I'm Scarlett Lundgren," she said, extending her hand.

Lily took it, still not entirely sure it wasn't another prank. When no shock arrived, she smiled back.

"Lily Evans."

7th year Lily Evans sank into one of the overstuffed armchairs that cluttered the Gryffindor common room and sighed with despair. Despite it being her 3rd day back from the summer holidays, she had already been assigned 5 essays. On top of the enormous amounts of homework her teachers had insisted on piling upon them (maintaining that these were, after all, N.E.W.T. level courses), Lily was supposed to write a report for Professor McGonagall, the head of Gryffindor house, on the ways that she, as the new Head Girl, would improve Hogwarts. While the previous Head Girls that Lily had known had been pompous, enthusiastic, and overjoyed at the thought of this assignment, Lily found herself wishing that she had never been made Head Girl. Glancing at her watch, she realized with horror that if she didn't start on her homework now, she wouldn't be able to sleep for the next week. Wearily, she pulled out her Potions book and began the very long essays that Professor Slughorn had assigned about Antidotes.

She had only written a few lines when she realized that black drops of ink were appearing on her parchment, and they were not coming from her quill. She watched in horror as the ink drops became rude words and vulgar drawings.

"DAMMIT!" she shouted, throwing the parchment into the fire and startlingly some second years. James Potter had replaced her parchment with his trick ones again.

"I have a proposition to make Hogwarts a better place," she muttered under her breath, "Get rid of James Potter!"

"That's hardly Head Girl language," said an amused voice behind her. An amused voice that Lily knew very, very well.

"And replacing someone's parchment with stuff that creates drawings of naked women in the margins of your Potions essay is hardly the way a Head Boy should act," she snapped.

"So hostile, Evans," James Potter said innocently.

"I'm not in the mood, Potter," she said, purposely not looking at him. James Potter, despite being her worst enemy from the day he had shocked her at the train station, had become a very, very, handsome young man. With his dark hair, beautiful hazel eyes, and (it was rumored) very fit body from playing Quidditch, James had girls throwing themselves at him right and left. This of course, had done nothing for his less-desirable trait, his enormous ego.

"You know you want me," he said teasingly, sitting down on the arm of her chair. "Why won't you go out with me, Evans?"

She shoved him away, but it was too late. Lily could feel her face getting red, one of the pitfalls of being a redhead.

"Potter, if you don't go away in the next 5 seconds, I will hex you so badly your mother won't recognize you,"

"Come on Evans, one date won't kill you," he pleaded.

"3….4…."

"Suit yourself," he said, and went over to join his best friend, Sirius Black at the other end of the common room.

Lily dug in her bag and found a new piece of parchment. After making absolutely sure that it was normal, she started on her Potions essay for the second time. This time, however, her thoughts were on anything but Potions. A certain dark-haired, hazel-eyed and very obnoxious 7th year was all that she could think about. Why did her knees go weak whenever he smiled? Why did her face go bright red whenever he talked to her? If it had been any other boy, she would have said she was falling for him. But James Potter, bane of her existence? That was impossible.

"Why so gloomy, Prongs?" asked Sirius Black, a Gryffindor 7th year who was not only James Potter's best friend, but also his rival in both looks and egocentrism. James was lying on his bed, leafing through a Quidditch magazine and looking dejected.

"Why is the only girl who refuses to go out with me also the girl who I'm in love with?" he asked sadly.

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "You don't seem to be the type to moon over a girl," he said. "This must be serious."

One of the boys' other close friends, Remus Lupin, nodded in agreement.

"Normally," he remarked drolly, "it's the other way around."

"Shut up, Moony," snapped James, throwing the magazine at him.

"I personally am of the opinion that our dear friend Mr. Moony is also in love," said Sirius. Remus looked at him sharply.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, trying (and failing) to sound nonchalant. In truth, his heart was racing. Although Remus was considered to be the kindest, smartest, and most mature out of the group, he did not have the female following that his friends did. Normally, he was fine with this, but now, he couldn't help but feel a little jealous. Remus closed his eyes and imagined the girl who had been haunting his dreams for weeks now…red hair, bright green eyes…

"Lily Evans," said someone. Remus jumped, then realized that while he had been daydreaming the conversation had continued.

"James, James, James," said Sirius knowingly, "Pranking her right and left and making her miserable is not the way to win your fair lady's affections." Remus felt his heart jump into his throat. James liked Lily? James? Suddenly he was aware that the conversation had stopped.

"Are you alright, Moony?" asked James, looking concerned.

"I'm fine...I've just realized that…I left my Transfiguration notes in the library," he hastily lied as he headed for the door on shaky legs. James looked at Sirius in confusion.

"Was it something we said?"

"Lily! Wait!"

Lily turned in exasperation. She was going to be late to Charms, and unless whoever was calling her had something that absolutely could not wait, they were going to find themselves sprouting tentacles. However, jinxes were not necessary. Scarlett Lundgren, Lily's best friend since their first day at Hogwarts, was sprinting down the corridor. Lily could not help but notice that although it was likely that Scarlett had run all the way from the Astronomy tower, where her previous lesson had been, she was not out of breath or even sweating. She was a natural athlete, and the best keeper the Gryffindor Quidditch team had ever known.

"Sorry, Professor Sinistra let us out late," Scarlett explained. "Sirius transfigured poor Letty Craine's telescope into a boa constrictor, and she fainted from shock." Lily rolled her eyes. It was just like Sirius to play a prank on Letty, who was known for her weak nerves and phobia of anything that had less than two or more than four legs.

The two girls arrived at the Charms classroom with 20 seconds to spare. However, there were only two seats left open…one next to Remus Lupin, and one next to James Potter.

"Please, Scarlett…" Lily whispered. "Can you sit next to Potter?" Scarlett sighed, and shooting her friend a "You Owe Me Big Time" look, plopped down next to James. Lily took her seat next to Lupin, and thought she saw him go slightly pale when she smiled at him and said hello.

The lesson had already begun when Sirius Black walked into the room, looking sheepish.

"Sorry, Professor," he said to Professor Flitwick, who let out a little squeak of annoyance at the interruption. "I had to go pay a visit to Professor McGonagall." He paused, looking around for an empty seat. Seeing that there were none, he conjured a chair with a sigh of fake humility. Lily could hear several of the girls in the classroom twitter in admiration and heard Lupin mutter something that sounded decidedly like "showoff."

As the lesson progressed, they were required to break off into pairs. Lily was starting to get up to go get Scarlett when Remus nervously cleared his throat and asked her if she would like to be his partner. She was a little taken aback, but accepted. Although he was best friends with Potter and Black, he lacked their enormous egos.

They got to work on their Protean Charms. Nothing seemed to be amiss until there was a loud explosion from the other side of the classroom. As the smoke cleared, Lily saw Sirius and Scarlett, both lying on the floor with looks of shock on their faces. As Flitwick tried to restore order in the classroom, Sirius helped Scarlett up and began to dust himself off.

"What were you thinking?" squeaked Flitwick indignantly. "This is a very advanced charm and if you continue to act like a child, Mr. Black, I shall be forced to give you detention!"

For once, Sirius looked unsure of himself.

"I'm sorry Professor…I don't know what happened…." Lily gaped. Sirius was one of the best students in their year, it was completely unlike him to mess up a spell so badly that he caused an explosion. As the class gradually got back to work, Lily couldn't help but watch Sirius. He seemed dazed and distracted…

Suddenly it hit her. Scarlett. Every time Sirius attempted the charm, he was looking at Scarlett with a strange expression on his face instead of the object he was trying to charm. So that's it, though Lily. Sirius Black, who has broken at least half of the girl's hearts at this school, has fallen for Scarlett. She smiled to herself. Black was going to have a hell of a time convincing Scarlett to go out with him.

She was so wrapped up in her own thoughts that she failed to see both Lupin and Potter looking at her with the same expression that Sirius was currently wearing.