Year One

A/N: First prompt; enjoy!

Prompt: Lily is in Diagon Alley, amazed by the world of magic since she's been raised in a muggle family. Amazed by one book in particular she forgot to look where she was going and ran into an unsuspecting fellow first-year.

Disclaimer: I have decided to sue J.K. Rowling for the characters, seeing how I can afford better lawyers because I have so much more money than her. But until the case is settled, all I have is my imagination.

This past week, Lily Evans was in awe.

She had only felt this once before, the first time she produced magic. Her mother was taking her to the salon to get her hair cut and she refused. They got into a great argument and Lily became so mad her hair turned a shocking shade of purple. Since then, Severus had always told her she was a witch, but she never quite believed him until Sunday, when a ministry of magic official came knocking at her door.

"Hello?" Mrs. Evans said as she opened her front door. She stared at a tall man wearing black trousers and a crisp ivory suit jacket. He had a kind face, lined with age, and his brown hair was slicked back with what looked like a full bottle's worth of gel. The man looked much to fancy to be at their door on a sunday morning while everyone was still in their pajamas.

"Josephine Evans? Married to Douglas Evans and mother of Lily and Petunia?" the strange man asked.

"Yes?"

"Hi, I'm Arnie Hopkirk, I'd like to speak to you about your daughter Lily."

He explained to Lily, Petunia and their parents that Lily was a witch, and was invited to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. After repeatedly reassuring Mr. and Mrs. Evans that not all witches were evil, they accepted her place.

And now they were standing here, the five of them, in Diagon Alley. What a wonderful place! The hustling, bustling streets were filled with aromas of potion ingredients, parchement and animals. Lily had already gotten all of her supplies, and was now heading to the Magical Menagerie to get a cat, while her parents and sister paid rapt attention to everything Mr. Hopkirk said. However, she was engulfed in her book, The Secrets of Hogwarts: The Unnoficial Guide To Everything You Need To Know About Hogwarts That Your Teachers Won't Tell You by . She had already read through half of Hogwarts: A History when she saw the tattered book on the pavement. She figured learning how to manage your homework, quidditch, and social life! would be useful, and hadn't stopped reading since. She found the author, Ralfie Randoll, quite funny if not accurate. For example, she didn't quite believe that "Slytherins are moronic prats who you would try to see their point of view, except you can't stick your head that far up your arse."

However, that one made her laugh so hard that she ran into one James Potter, pureblooded quidditch playing boy wonder according to himself. Although he didn't look much like one when he had an elbow thrust right into his nose.

"Oh my gosh! I'm so, so sorry! Here, let me fix that bleeding for you, I think there's a spell in here for it somewhere..." Lily said, scrambling for her copy of Standard Book of Spells.

"Are you mad? We can't perform magic out of Hogwarts until we're seventeen! And anyways, I'll be fine," James said proudly.

Lily stared at him, in awe of his knowledge, "I'm Lily Evans by the way. And you are?"

"James, James Potter. You must be a muggle-born, I haven't heard of any purebloods named Evans. Here, let me help you with your books..." he said, picking them all up in seconds.

"Oh thank you James - wait...drat! I lost my seven galleons I needed for that cat!"

"Here, have some of mine-"

"No, don't worry, I'll just get a toad-"

"Take it!" he said, shoving several galleons into her hand, "Merlin knows he have enough."

"Thanks! Here, have this book, it's the least I can do," the muggle-born said gratefully, handing him the book that started all this mess.

James scanned a few pages quickly. "Looks awesome!"

"JAMES POTTER, WHERE IN THE NAME OF MERLIN ARE YOU?"

"Coming mom," he sighed, waving goodbye to Lily as he ran back to his mother, "Hey Sirius! Look what I got!"

Lily sighed as well. She had a feeling this wouldn't be the last she saw of that Potter boy.

A/N: Everytime you rate and/or review, James and Lily kiss.