"Potter, Albus." Why do people always start whispering? First Rose now Al, as I was apparently supposed to call him. My first thought when they came in was, as i think was everybody else's was 'Aww they are so cute!' I honestly didn't realise how small they were.

Back to the whispering. I'll have to ask James S Potter later. He told me the 'S' stood for Sirius, his dad's God-father or something, but I changed it to sexy. Not that he'll ever find out.

"GRIFFINDOR!" everyone on the table cheered, a lot more than they did for anyone else. Hmm. Interesting. I whooped enthusiastically as Al came and sat next to me.

"Well done Albus!" I said ruffling his hair, much to his displeasure. "James? Will you do me a favour?"

"Anything for you Lily." James replied.

"I need to go to Professor Longbottom's office to get sorted. Will you take me there?" I asked in a sugar-sweet voice.

"Anything for you." James replied mocking me with a sweet voice. I smiled and turned to my golden plate in anticipation. I had read about this part in 'Hogwarts: a History'. And there you go. Food just appeared, all of my favourites. Pork chops and potatoes. I haven't had those in a while. I waited until everyone else started picking at the food, then I dived. Not literally. That would be weird. I grabbed a chop and a few potatoes, and nat least one of everything else.

"There is such a thing as a second portion you know." James said eyeing my mountain of a plate. I just grinned, shrugging and tucked in.

An hour later, when everyone was finished, Professor Longbottom called for silence and started talking.

"Welcome first years and other... transfers." He added after a pause, looking at me. "See Mr. Filch for the list of banned things. Forbidden forest is just that, forbidden. And don't be naughty. Give a clap for our head boy and girl Georgia Berks and Louis Pennyfield. Prefects will show you to your dormitories. Have a good night." Wow. Short.

"This way! Follow me please!" a stern voice said.

"When do you need to go Lil?" James asked, capturing my attention from the moving pictures around me.

"Now." I replied grabbing his hand and pulling him away from the crowd around us. "Which way now?" I asked.

"That way." He said pointing to where we just came from.

"Oh. Shut up!" He ran forward, still holding my hand until we reached a stone gargoyle.

"Well, here is where in leave you," James said in a mock-grave voice. "You need a password to get up so… too bad."

"Don't be rude James! I wasexpecting her remember." Professor Longbottom's voice said from behind us.

"Sorry Neville. Bye Liliana." He said turning to me. Longbottom walked in front of me and gave the password. I turned back in time to blow James a kiss and wink at his smirk. He blew a kiss back, turned round and stwaggered away. I followed Longbottom up the stairs and was seriously overcome by all the paintings in the office. I read the bottom of a few, Dumbledore, Snape and Dippet. The headmasters and mistresses.

"Ok then. Sit down Liliana... very pretty name." he added after a pregnant pause. I sat down on the chair in front of the desk and he brought over a very tattered old hat. He placed the hat on my head and I was so strong willed to be in Gryffindor, like the Wotters (Weasley and Potters) as soon as the hat touched my head it shouted "GRIFFINDOR!" I was indefinatly happy.

"Oh Yay! I wanted to be in that house!" I told him happily

"I used to be in that house. It's good there." He said with a fond smile. "Come on; i'll show you to the common room. I looked down at my robes and saw the Gryffindor crest on my chest. I smiled brightly as we exited the office and went towards the common room.

"This is the Fat Lady. The password is Thestral." At the word 'Thestral' the portrait swung open to show a very crowded common room.

"I'm sure your friends will show you where you're sleeping. Have fun this year." Longbottom said smiling.

"Liliana! Yay I knew you'd be here!" came the voice of Molly Weasley.

"Hey Molly!" I said back, walking through the portrait in a crowd of Wotters.

"Lily." James said nodding. "Was the hat harsh?" he asked with a voice that sounded like he wanted it to have been but supressed it to be chivalrous.

"No, it barley touched my head." I said with a smug voice. "Can you show me my room Molly? Professor Longbottom said you would?"

"Sure Liliana." She said grabbing my hand. I muttered a 'bye' to the group as we came to some stairs. "Up here." She said pulling me up the stairs and to the left. "When we came back I made sure we'd be in the same dorm together, there's two for us third years because so many girls got sorted! It just seemed right to have someone you knew. Your beds here next to mine." She said pointing to an empty bed, the bed next to the window. Oh good, I thought. I love to read on window seats because the views can be so spectacular and if it was hot there was guarantee of a nice breeze. My trunk was already by the side of the bed so I walked over to the bed and jumped happily on it.

"Oooooh so comfy! How can you bear to even get up in the mornings?" I asked flipping to my side and closing my eyes.

"No, no! No sleeping yet Liliana! Were going to play a game of exploding snap. But," she said, dropping her voice and edging nearer. "You should always get out of the game before nine, otherwise the firewhiskey come out and it turns into...like... a crazy... thing i dunno how to explain it but its just best, trust me. And just a fair warning. James is the best player at card games out of our whole family, so you do not want to play with him or you'll just end up… like… with no money or... nakedafter two minutes or something." She smiled suddenly and yanked me off the bed laughing at my shocked expression.

"What's 'firewhiskey'?" I asked.

"Oh it's the strongest alcohol in the wizarding world sort of like that… Urm... vodka is it? Yes, vodka, that's in the muggle world. Bad times." She said grimacing. "And in my opinion 13 is just too young to be drinking that so I'll just pull you out with me. Ok? Good." She said smiling when I nodded. I totally agreed. The only experience I had had with alcohol was champagne at my auntie's wedding and I got drunk after about two glasses. Ridiculous. At least my parents just laughed it off rather than getting annoyed like my ex-friend, Hannah's parents, they grounded her. I missed all my old friends quite a lot, but we had been... well you could say growing apart for a while, them being cool and me being a total and complete loser did change things. Even my ex-sister thought I was weird. The memory brought tears to my eyes and Molly's voice snapped me out my thoughts of my former best friend.

"Liliana are you ok?" she asked, her voice filled with concern. I wiped my eyes quickly and smiled a sad smile at her.

"Sure Molly. Just bad memories brought to the surface does normally bring tears to your eyes." After a very pregnant pause I asked, "Can I call you Mol? Its suits you so much more."

"Well...I don't normally let people but sure, if were going to be best friends, its good to have a nickname. Can I call you Lil?" she asked hesitantly.

"So true. And sure, your lucky only a few people call me that, don't tell James though he'll get jealous, I told him not to call him that. Or Lily for that matter, but I can tell he's stubborn, I've already lost that war." I said off-handily. Molly grabbed my hand and pulled me out the door. I pouted my lips and looked back longingly at the bed. Mol laughed at my lovey dovey expression as we descended the stairs.

"Ok, second round then?" said an unfamiliar voice. I looked round, to the corner, and found, James, Louis, Fred, and 1 unfamiliar face. We walked over, and Mol sighed exasperatedly as a bottle, obviously firewhiskey, came into view even though it wasn't even nine.

"What is that?" Mol asked angrily putting a hand on her hip.

"This, Molly dear? I would assume you of all people would know what this is. It is Firewhiskey is it not?" Fred said in an obivously fake puzzled voice. James laughed and I felt like I was missing something.

"Oh fuck off Fred! It's not even nine anyway! Why do you have that out? Jesus, I said we wouldn't play if you decided to introduce 'a new player' to the game! Do you not listen? Oh well, come on Lil we'll just have a girls night in the dorm. And no dirty thinking James! I can see it in your eyes pervert!" Mol said all in one breath.

"Lil? Did she just call you Lil? No fair! You said I couldn't call you that!" James whined

"Well James, since you insist on calling me Lily, why does it really matter?" I asked him laughing.

"Oh… well I suppose."

"Come on then Mol. We'll have some fun of our own! James!" I shrieked as James smiled a very dirty smile. His own cousin. Pervert. I yanked Mol away and we started up the stairs, when we got up, we both changed into our pyjamas and Molly came over to my bed and sat down on the end, pouring many sweets on my bed. We closed the curtains round the bed and Mol cast a charm 'Muffilato' she told me it stopped people hearing us.

"So, tell me about your life." She said taking a Fruit Gum, she was fascinated by these and loved them to bits that she had had nearly one pack to herself already.

"There not much really. I had loads of friends when I was young, but, I started to show signs of magic, my hair growing, running really fast, gliding off swings by accident, so as I showed magic, my friends all seemed to disappear. But one of my friends stayed loyal, or what I thought was loyal, Lola Kidston, she told off all the bullies for being mean, when really she was being a whole other level of mean herself, she stayed with me until my magic really got out of hand and I was making things fly around the room, she just exploded, told me why she had given the bullies... secret smiles? i dunno what to call them- When she told them off, they were all in on it then, it was so horrible. Then I thought to myself, obviously this would happen how could I think Lola Kidston, miss pretty, miss clever, miss perfect could ever be friends with someone like me, she was a mover and stayed in the now, not the yesterday, or the last year as I was." Tears were slowly and lightly but fast and unstoppable down my face and onto my bed. "It was in front of everyone, she liked to feel good about herself and all the praise after she ditched me was making her head nearly pop it was so bloody big, I tried to get back at her but with so many people on her side it all just fell down for me until I was worse than an intruder. I was a loner, outcast and all round loser. No one would think that though, I was normally quite confident, my parents knew nothing about any of this and still don't, I don't know what they thought happened but they just accepted my lame excuses and lies. I pretended to go out but I just snuck back into my room and read by the window. I-I was totally alone, no one to talk to or listen to. All by myself. I couldn't skip school or my parents would find out, I used to go, I got used to Lola's torments and pranks. Her boyfriend, Jack, the one I said James was like, was even worse. He was known for his bulling, I'm sure she was only going out with him for that. She was being un-necessarily harsh and I have no idea why. In was looking for another three years of her before I got my Hogwarts letter." I smiled under my tears. "I felt like my life was finally making sense and I couldn't care less what she had to say over the next few weeks of school and seeing her out. I just smiled at her and told her she was being ridiculous. Her face when I said that was just the best thing I can remember from my wholelife, I swear it was great." My face dropped into a frown. "But it just got worse. I-I really don't want to talk about it anymore. Please. Can I just sleep now? Thank you for this Mol it has helped a bit, all I had was my diary. You can read it if you want. It's in my trunk. It's fine. Good night." I know I was acting weird but I had to make her leave. She left after a couple of minutes, making sure I was ok. She grabbed my diary and sat down on her bed, a concerned expression on her face the whole way. I fell asleep quickly, tears streaming slowly down my face.

Molly's POV.

I grabbed her diary and went over to my bed. I waited til she was asleep, i felt like crying. I was always easily set off but this was just depressing. I have such a big family so I never feel alone, I can't even imagine how she feels, it would've been unbearable. I got up and wiped my eyes. I made my way down the stairs to the common room. As soon as I got down I bumped into James and Fred, they had obviously just finished there game and were coming up. They took one look at me and steered me to the nearest couch, shooing away everyone in hearing distance.

"Mollie-Polly?" Fred asked using my childhood nickname. "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing to do with me or anything. It's Liliana." James perked up at the name. It was cute how much he liked her. Such a shame one blonde bimbo got in the way. "She's just had quite a depressing past, she told me she used to get bullied… a lotI was listening and… she says she felt so alone. I couldn't imagine with such a big family, you can't possibly be alone. She gave me her diary; I'm supposed to read it. I probably should now, bye Fredstar, Jamsie." I said, using there nicknames, much to James' disgust. I went upstairs, watched Liliana sleep some more and went into my bed and started to read.

-oooo-

Dear Diary,

Something kinda weird happened today. I don't really know how to explain it but I have a feeling something bad is gonna happen sometime soon.

Anyway, back to my original point. Lola. She's been acting really weird. Impatient... and cranky with me, like she cant stand me talking to her, telling her my secrets or even looking at her. I also saw her giving Jack Hubbard a wink and a secret smile? I dont know how to explain it. Right after he called me a freak and shoved me over. I don't know what it means but I really can't doubt her because she's my only friend at the moment, the only one who knows my deepest secrets. I have bruises from when Tommy pushed me over, right into a wall. It was so painful; I started to bleed as well but as soon as I got home all the scars were gone. I'm really worried about what's happening to me. I'm so confused and scared because when Jack and all the others sees tomorrow he'll just tease me more, like always. I was worried about my parents seeing them. I really am running out of excuses now for all my bruises, only the scars and cuts heal, there's this one bruise, on my hip, its massive.

I've got to go hide you now. Ha, imagine if my parents found this, or anyone actually. I'd have even more hell for another THREE years! Oh well, at least I'm learning to joke about it now.

Love, Liliana xx

Wow. I thought. The biggest bruise I've had was about the size of a thumb, when I accidently bumped into the table on Christmas, with all my cousins running around. I could see the pages of the diary shrivelled where tears had fallen. I put down the diary and went to sleep, reflecting on what she had read the words 'secret smile'echoed in my minds' subconscious and I had a horrible nightmare that I was in Liliana's place but I had literally no one. No parents. No friends. No family.

I woke up crying again, like I had these past days. I looked over at my cloak and squinted at its bright light. Ugh, 6 o clock, I thought miserably. Half and hour before I have to get up. I went into the bathroom washed my face, paying particular attention to my eyes, trying to make the redness go away. I hated seeing Fred's face when I walked down to breakfast. I put on some make-up and a bright smile, got dressed and walked down to breakfast where I met Fred's wary eyes. I smiled at him, aware of my still red-tinted eyes and tucked in.

Liliana POV

I was faking sleep. I had seen Molly crying in her sleep but didn't wake her up, for all the times the tables had been turned. I knew she was having nightmares. No one but us two had had the privilege of reading my minds troubles and worries. I got up and copied Molly's routine. We could both still see the red-rim around each others eyes though, and the slightly shiny look about them as well. I got dressed and put on my makeup. I walked down to breakfast, bumping into James; we walked silently together even though I knew James had already eaten. We all had a silent agreement with each other since they all learned the horrors of my past; don't ask questions, no matter what.It wasnt fun but it worked for everyone to just pretend everything was ok.

-oooo-

Weeks past and still no-one talked of why Molly or I were pretending everything was ok. It was one week before the Christmas holidays. James was working up the courage to ask me if I wanted to spend the holidays at his house, Grimmauld place, being the idiot he is. He wanted it to be at a time no-one would be listening so the blonde bimbo wouldn't find out.

"Liliana? Will you go for a walk with me?" James asked giving me a hopeful look. I smiled and said:

"Sure James." I hauled myself of the red couch in the common room with James' hand. He guided me, placing his hand on the small of my back, making me smile. We both still liked each other, but James hadn't asked me out yet, like he hinted he would. Little did I know that he needed to sort out a little problem first. We walked a little more until they were out on the grounds and by the black lake.

"James? Was there a specific reason you brought me out here?" I asked looking up at him.

"No… um… yes actually. Do you want to come over to the Burrow at Christmas this year?" He asked worryingly.

"Am I supposed to know what the Burrow is?" I asked giggling. James' solemn expression turned to a happy one all of a sudden.

"It's just my family home, well, I live in Grimmauld place but we go to the Burrow on Christmas day, so you would, if you wanted to, go to Grimmauld place first. Do you want to?" He asked looking down at me with a, in my opinion, extremely sexy and cute smile.

"Well, how could I possibly deny that cute face of yours?" I asked grinning as I pinched his cheeks and wobbled them. James laughed sarcastically and grabbed my hands, pulling them down to my sides. He stared passionatly into my eyes, all traces of laughter gone. And before we knew what we were doing he leaned down up and placed his lips on mine. It was my first kiss, and I hoped I was doing ok. He pulled back quite suddenly, making me fall on him in shock, he steadied me and grabbed my shoulders.

"Please Liliana! Why wont you tell me why it was so bad?" he asked, both of us knowing what he was talking about. I yanked my arms out of his grasp, the kiss forgotten.

"You know, I'm really getting tired of this, you just don'tunderstand-!" I started, irritated.

"No! I don't understand your right. Because you won't tell me! Explain to me Liliana; explain why it causes you so much pain, when you have somany friends now!" James shouted. Albus was right, I really did have a temper, and now it was flaring up dangerously.

"I don't wantyou to understand James! I don't want to see pity, or… I don't know, I just don't want you to feel sorry for me! It's best if you just let it go Jam-!" I shouted back, desperate for a topic change.

"If you don't want pity I wont give it you, if your really that desperate for a new life, why hold onto your old one constantly, I can tell your always thinking of it and if you just tell me, everything will be-!"

"SHE WAS MY SISTER!" I shouted back, tears in my eyes.

"What?" James whispered, dumb-struck.

"She was my sister, James."

"What do you mean 'was'?" James asked slowly.

"She…" I started. I took a deep breath before starting again. "She was adopted. I never knew and neither did she, but one of my aunts let it slip one time, and she pretended she was fine with it and didn't care… that we were her real family. But she was secretly trying to find them and was blaming me for all this. And once she found them… she used the one thing against me that destroy me. Our friendship. I know… I know it sounds a bit cheesy, but at the time she was my only friend because when I was angry things smashed around me, and when I was bullied, people swore I grew just a bit smaller, but the next day I was the same height. They all thought I was a freak; the place I live is very judgemental, if a man leaves your house in the same clothes as the day before the woman is classed as a slut, even if they don't know the full story. So yeah… I was the freak of the village, a hot-spot for bullying, and as I started to get bullied all my friends turned on me, telling all my secrets to the kids in school, who I fancied, my troubles at home, 'great bullying material' they must've thought. She was play-acting all those months while trying to find her realparents. Then one day, the call came, and they wanted her back to, so she blew up in my face. Said… horrible things. And… then she left home, went to live with her real parents. Only about ten minutes away so she didn't change schools. It got way worse then, now I didn't have the popular kid on my side, now that I was all alone, and now that any kid that sympathised with me got beat up, I actually got punched a couple of times." I told him sadly, turning away from him and wiping my wet face.

"They used to push me into sharp things or on the floor. I got this one when Tommy Mitchell 'accidently' pushed me into a wall on the way home." I said lifting up my shirt revealing a big bruise on my hip, the size of a hand spread out.

"Why didn't you heal it?" James asked, running his fingers lightly over the bruise.

"Oh, because of the fantastic memories it holds within." I said sarcastically." I didn't know how idiot." I said grabbing James' hand when he accidently pressed too hard on the bruise. "So… anyway, they were all so bad, so my magic was even worse, even my parents were rejects by this time, 'for creating a freak' they all used to say to us. Then a couple of weeks later my letter came." I said, quickly moving on to the better part of the story, a bright smile on my face. "It explained everything. I was over the moon! Nothing the kids did affected me now. I could feel the magic coursing through my veins and when they tried to push me back, they couldn't touch me, if I really wished hard, they could only get an inch from my body. It was great. When they realised they couldn't touch me physically, they used all the things Lola told them, but when they went too far they lost their voice. It was great!" I said happily, but all of a sudden my smile vanished and it looked like it had never been there. "And that's why it is so bad, I haven't told you the half of the things they used to bully me with or what they used to hurt me or how many times they caused some serious harm. But... you're right. I shouldn't hold onto it all, but don't expect it to all go away in one second, it will take time." I told him looking up at James' eyes for the first time in all of my speech.

"I didn't expect it to." He said pulling me into another mind blowing kiss, but shorter this time, hugging me tightly afterwards. A dazzling smirk appeared on his face and he said:

"So are you going to come at Christmas or not?"

"Like I said," I said leaning in. "how could I deny such a sexy face?"

"You didn't say sexy last time." James said, one eyebrow lifting.

"Well, do you want me to change it back to cute then?" I said raising my eyebrow up as well, with a smirk.

"No, no. I'm fine with sexy. So, what's happening now? Do you want to go out with me?" James said, realising he came at it the completely wrong way when a mischievous smirk crossed my face.

"Well, James, who would've thought, you having a bad memory, or do you remember what I said on the train? James, I'm... different, kooky if you want, you'll have to be better than that!" I said in a fake-sweet voice. I turned on my heel and walked away from the plan-making James.