Gryffindor Girls: Year 1, Ch I
Don't ask me how I came up with this...please read.

To the casual observer, there was nothing but the faded grey wall between platforms nine and ten. Lily, whoever, knew better; unfortunately, she didn't know exactly what else was there.

"Platform...Nine and Three Quarters, honey?" A maternly, middle aged woman peered again at the ticket. "You're sure?"

"I told you she made it all up," a small, wiry girl piped in maliciously. "There's no such thing as magic, really..."

"Petunia, be quiet. We have more imprtant things to focus on right now," her mother admonished. Petunia scowled. Lily primped.

By now there were other people with odd looking packages of trunks, cats, or owls crowded around the wall. Two families, and one lone girl, who stood out admist the crowd of muggles just as much as the orange cat perched on her shoulded. Well, it wasn't quite orange, more of a hazy blond, and she wouldn't have stood out so much if she wasn't so tall. But as was, long, unkept hair full of blonde and brown and just a tiny bit of red kept her from being normal, and green eyes that provided the unseen depths of the ocean to the imagination.

"Excuse me?" The girl turned to find a smaller, slightly mousy girl behind her. "I was wondering... do you know how to get to platfrom nine and three quarters?"

"No." Something forced the taller girl to give a small smile. "I was hoping maybe you knew."

"No, no one in my family ever went to Hogwarts." The girl sighed. "I'm Lily, by the way. Lily Smith."

"Amara Emerain. No one in my family went here either," she finished with a small, ironic sort of smile.

"Oh, you're muggle born too! Thank god, I was worried I was going to be the only non wizard here." Lily smiled, an award winning prep school girl smile, but a smile that came not only from good breeding and politeness but also from a certain amount of truth.

"Lily?" Some one called through the crowd. "Oh, there you are. Who's you're friend?" Lily's mother, followed by a sulky Petunia, pushed throught the crowd.

"Oh, mum, this is Amara." Mrs. Smith smiled, and extended a gracious hand to the girl.

"Amara... 'from the sea', right?" Mrs Smith asked. "I used to take Latin in school...my teacher's never approved though."
Again Amara smiled the ironic half smile. "Yeah, actually. I'm from Greece, so it's a pretty accurate description."

Mrs. Smith sighed dramatically. "Greece...I always wanted to go there. Not today, though. We really should figured out how to get past the barriar."

"You just walk though." The group turned to see a scholarly looking man standing behind them, dressed in dark brown robes. Next to him, his daughter couldn't have been more different; she small and blonde, with a certain mischeavous light in her brown eyes. "I know, magic seems slightly forgien to you, but you get the hang of it eventually." His tone was only slightly condescending.

Lily and her mother looked doubtful, but, after watching the new comers-and Amara- walk though, they in turn dissappeared past the barriar, followed unwillingly by Petunia.

Their new enviornment seemed like an alternate reality to the the new arrivals. Outside, there had been dreary, sour faced, busibodied muggles in dull, effiecent clothing. Here there was a bright mix of color in the showy robes. To top it off, in contrast to the ugly trains at all the other platforns, a large, shiny train resiliant in gold shimmered ahead of them, reading HOGWARTS on the side in imprinted letters.

"Nothing Mugglish about this platform," the unknown man commented with unintended superiority. "Aurgus Silkin, and this is my daughter Esmera. This will be her first year at Hogwarts," he added proudly.

Mrs. Smith tried to figure out whether she had been insulted, while Esmera frowned slighlty. Outwardly, she had the appearance of a good little school girl, with pinned back hair and shiny black robes, but there was something darker, mysterious in her eyes. But in the next moment she smiled; not nessicarily a real smile but a smile nonetheless, and said,

"We should probably put our stuff on the train...bye dad." Out of daughterly duty, she hugged her father. Lily followed the suit, causing her mother to become misty-eyed. Amara stood there, trying not to look put out; she wasn't jealous, really, but she felt sort of awkward.

The train had a an antique look to it, with wooden, gilded comparments and chesnut seats and tables with large purple cushions. Fininding an empty compartment, Esmera plopped herself onto on one of the seats, while Amara and Lily slid into the other. Amara's cat curled up underneath the table, but not before giving a reproachining look at Esmera's large barn owl, who looked at the feline suspiciously as though deciding if it were prey our predator.

" My dad is sooooo overprotective," Esmera complained, scratching Alpin's beak.

"He seemed nice," Lily volunteered. Esmera gave her a slighlty disgusted look, but said nothing. Someone knocked on the compartment door, and it slid open to reveal a boy, tall and muscular with dark brown hair. He seemed slighly taken aback by finding three girls.

"Um...can I sit here? All the other compartments are full... or have older people." He smiled shyly.

Before they could reply. "Hey, um, Jim, Jake, whatever you said you're name was is there room over there?" Another face appeared behind the first boy's; this one had much darker features. "Hey, what do you know, there's girls!" He slid in next to Esmera, who didn't make an attempt to move further down the seat. The boy smiled charmingly, asking "Bad day? You don't look like you're in a good mood. I'm Sirius Black, in case you were wondering."

"I wasn't," Esmera muttered, but Sirius chose to ignore her.

"I'm James, James Potter," the first boy told them, sitting down next to Amara. He smiled, looking for all the worl like a lost puppy.

"I'm Lily, this is Amara, and that's Esmera," Lily said, smiling at James winningly. "You're dad's Norman Potter, right? The Quidditch player?"

"He was," James said, blushing slightly. "Now he just coachs."

Esmera, for the first time, looked slighlty intrested. "Do you play? I've heard it's really hard," she said, leaning forward.

James blushed again under the blonde's gaze. "A bit. I'm not very good... but it's fun."

"Maybe you could teach me." Having said this, Esmera leaned back into her seat.

"First year's aren't allowed brooms," Lily said, tossing her hair with a slight spitefulness. "We're supposed to focus on studying."

"You sound just like my dad," Esmera told her, lifting an eyebrow. "And I already told you what a prick he is."

"Well, some people are pricks, and others aren't worth mentioning," Lily said, standing upo and thrusting here face at Esmera's.

"Cat fight," Sirius said, smiling.

"WHO ASKED YOU?" Esmera and Lily said simultanously. They looked out eachother, a confrontation which lasted for several moments while James and Amara looked on nervously.

And then they laughed, relieving the tension.

"From my point of view, you both owe me." Sirius said, looking maddeningly superior. Suddenly he yelped, and looked down at his leg. "You're cat bit me!" He told Amara accusingly.

Amara smiled for the first time since the two boys arrived, and scooped the cat up in her arms. "That's Jaqueline's way of telling you to let good enough be. And I would advise you to do the same."

And everyone smiled. For a time, at least.

Okay, that was the first chapter, they won't all be that long but i couldn't stop, so please r/r.