Disclaimer: All characters (that you recognise) and settings belong to J.K. Rowling the author of Harry Potter. Anything you don't recognise belongs to me.
Story title: In the Beginning
Chapter 2: It's magic!
For all parties it had been a long week since they had received their letters, each had started to wonder if September first would ever come, but just as they knew in their hearts that it would, it did... eventually.
So there Lily stood, staring in wonderment at the large grey wall, that according to James, she was expected to walk through. At the time that he had told her, she had considered herself lucky, for she knew that had he not told her, she would have never discovered it for herself. On the other hand, now in her anxiety, she began to wonder how much truth there was in what James had said, after all he did have a rather evil sense of humour.
The twittering of an owl nearby brought Lily back to Earth. Her eyes immediately went to the source of the sound, a small grey owl, with large emerald eyes, much like Lily's own. The owl was called Emerald, for obvious reasons, and was a gift from Lilys' parents for having gotten into Hogwarts. Emerald had been very busy over the last week, as she and James had been exchanging regular emails.
As Lily continued to stare at the platform, to her surprise, 3 medium sized figures came hurtling out.
"Lily!!.. we were wondering where you were! James said he'd told you how to get to the platform, but obviously he didn't!" exclaimed a panting Remus Lupin. James started to protest before he was cut off .
"Oh no, he did tell me, I guess I'm just a little shocked trying to get used to it." explained Lily.
James in the mean time had spotted Lily's parents and had, in Lily's opinion rather oddly, decided to introduce himself.
"You must be Mr. and Mrs. Evans, it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm James Potter and these are Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew."
"Hello boys, please call us Sophie and Daniel" replied Mrs Evans, while Lily and her father watched in amusement at James' sudden politeness.
"In case you're concerned, I can assure you that there's no need to worry about little Lily here, we'll look after her and show her the ropes" added Remus, this time Lily had to cough to conceal the laughter that bubbled up. She, unlike her parents was well aware that it was she that would be looking after the boys, not the other way around!
"We'd better go," announced Lily, when she had sufficiently recovered from her 'coughing fit', "or we'll miss the train." "It was a pleasure meeting you" proclaimed all three boys in unison.
"Bye boys, bye Lily take care. Don't forget to write to us!" said Sophie Evans as she swiftly pulled Lily into a hug, and with that James grabbed Lily's arm, while Remus took Lily's trolley, and ran towards the wall, leaving Peter to follow in their wake.
On arriving on platform nine and three quarters, the boys were immediately swept upon by three harassed looking young women.
"Remus, where have you been young man, honestly what are you going to do without me?"
"James, come here right now, so we can load up your luggage onto the train, and find you a compartment."
Luckily for Peter before his mother could even begin to reprimand him, James cut in. "Sorry mum, but we had to go get Lily" he said, waving his arm in Lily's direction, "We weren't sure that she would find the platform, she's muggle born" he added as an afterthought.
"Yes Mrs Potter, I don't know what I would have done, if James hadn't come to find me" Lily agreed as the three boys nodded their heads vigorously.
All three womens' expressions of annoyance softened immediately." Oh, well then I suppose that's alright. It's lovely to meet you Lily dear." replied Fiona Potter turning to Lily, before returning to her son, "Now come along, lets get you all settled in."
Having found a compartment and put all four trunks into it, the three mothers turned to face their sons.
"Now you behave yourself James Potter, I don't want any letters sent home"
"Remus, work hard won't you, but don't forget to have fun. Take care of yourself now"
"Write home often Peter, it'll be lonely without you there. I love you"
And so it was with these parting phrases, and tears in their eyes that the three women, loaded their sons onto the train, ready for their first year at Hogwarts.
"I look forward to seeing you again Lily" added Mrs Potter, as the whistle sounded. All four children stuck their heads out of the compartment windows, and waved and the three adults as the train pulled out of the station and they were off.
No sooner had the eleven year olds resumed their seats that the door to their compartment opened and a thin girl with dark brown hair and a black eye entered.
Adriana had been searching for the compartment containing the red head that she had met in Diagon Alley and finally she had found it. She glanced at the girl quickly, before moving onto the three boys that shared the compartment with her. "Are the extra seats in here taken?" she asked Lily quietly, sending a shy smile in her direction.
"No," replied Lily, "your name's Adriana right? This is James Potter, Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin."
"It's nice to meet you all" murmured Adriana, before taking the vacant seat next to Lily. "I just want to say I'm sorry for leaving so abruptly on that day in Diagon alley" she added to Lily quietly.
"Oh, don't worry about it" lily said, waving her arm dismissively.
Lily desperately wanted to ask Adriana what had happened to her eye, but refrained on the basis that she barely knew the girl. The look on James' face also said that he also wished to know, and knowing that James had no understanding of tact, Lily decided to divert James' attention.
"So James, explain that sport again, what's it called, quidsnitch?"
"Its QUIDDITCH.. honestly Lily! Basically there's three chasers, two beaters, one seeker and one keeper.." and he was off, explaining the rules.
When James finally finished explaining his beloved sport, it was clear that both Adriana and Lily were falling asleep. Even Remus was struggling to keep his eyes open, while Peter had given up all pretence of boredom, and was snoring loudly, his head leaning against the window.
As James sat there, surrounded by the four sleeping children, the door to the compartment flew open again. James glanced up eagerly in the hope that it would be the cart lady. His parents had already told him there was no need for food on the train, because a little old witch would come round with sweets, so rather than giving him food they had given him money. However to his surprise it was not the infamous little old witch, but a black haired boy, with a chiselled features and a mole on his right cheek.
On entering the compartment, Sirius was quick to notice a boy, of around his own age staring at him. He glanced around rapidly and was about to exit the compartment when the other boy suddenly spoke up.
"Looking for someone?" said the messy black haired boy, "maybe I can help."
"Yes, I'm looking for the Hathway girl," seeing James' confusion he quickly added, "She's a family friend, well sort of, but I can't remember her first name."
"Well, I don't recognise the surname, but there are only two girls in this compartment, Lily and Adriana." He replied, pointing towards the corner of the compartment in which they were sleeping.
Sirius had been barely listening until he heard the names. "Adriana!, ye that's her name!" He said turning to look at her, "Man, what happened to her eye?"
"We don't know," entered a new voice, "and I'm not letting you ask, so don't even think about it James." Lily added with a yawn.
It was clear to the two boys, that Lily had only just woken up, her hair was coming out of its plait, and she was blinking sleepily at them.
"So, why are we talking about Adriana?" Lily asked after a few minutes of silence, glancing at her sleeping friend.
"I was looking for her in the train," replied Sirius, "Oh, I'm Sirius Black by the way"
"I'm James Potter and that's Lily Evans." He said jerking his head in her direction.
"So, how'd you know Adriana, you actually look kind of familiar," interjected Lily with a look of confusion on her face.
"Well.. "Sirius began, before he was cut off by a different female voice.
"I wouldn't exactly say he knew me. Lily remember at Diagon Alley that couple came up and made me leave? Well those are Sirius' parents." Explained Adriana. "They didn't approve of me talking to you, because you're muggle born, in fact I'm surprised he's talking to you now, no offence Lily." She added
"None taken" Lily replied before Sirius cut in, "Actually that was why I came looking for you, I wanted to say that it was really brave of you to stand up to my parents that day, most of my parents friends are obsessed with purity of blood" he said before turning away in embarrassment.
"So you don't feel the same way?" Adriana asked Sirius quietly, and when Sirius shook his head she continued, "Wow, I was starting to think I was the only one who disagreed."
Sirius smiled shyly at Adriana, a smile which she gratefully returned to him. In fact it was her first real smile of the day, and Lily was pleased to see her new friend look so happy, despite her bruised purple eye.
Sirius sat down, and the group enjoyed a comfortable silence, while Remus and Peter the other two residents of the compartment remained a sleep.
Suddenly an unrecognisable voice cut through their silence, "We will be arriving at Hogwarts in ten minutes, please leave your luggage on board, as this will be taken up to the school separately".
Ten minutes! Lily felt her previous anxiety set in again, while the butterflies in her stomach took flight.
"We'd better go change" said James, interrupting Lily's thoughts, "Us boys, will go change in a different compartment," he added to Remus and Peter, who had been woken by the body-less voice.
James and Sirius left quickly followed by Remus and Peter, so only the two girls were left in the compartment. They quickly pulled on their black robes, both of which were slightly too large for them, put on their hats, and were ready, just before the boys rejoined them.
As they resumed their seats, Remus felt the train slowing down, and peered eagerly out of his window, though all was dark outside and only vague outlines were visible, though there was a bright light shining from a lantern further down the platform.
When they alighted they all stuck closely together, much more closely than they normally would have done, as they not been nervous. Lily was in fact so scared, that she tripped over her own feet, fortunately for her however, Sirius, who was right behind, was able to catch her, and place her back on her feet before she hit the ground.
While they stood around waiting for instructions, the older students bustled around busily, calling out greeting to each other and ignoring the first years. Peter was very much in awe of this 'giant students' all of whom seemed extremely confident, much more confident than Peter was sure he ever would be.
"firs' Years o'er 'ere Please!' they heard a loud booming voice thunder.
They quickly made there way in the direction of the voice, however when the owner of that voice came into view Lily was so shocked she nearly fainted, and Peter let out a little squeak, which immediately caused him to turn red in embarrassment. For the owner of the voice was a giant of a man. In fact James later pointed out, he was more of a boy because in all fairness, despite his height, he didn't look much older than Caitlin, James' fifteen year old sister.
"Rite you lot, I'm Hagrid, I'll be takin ye to 'Ogwarts. But ye have to cross the lake. So everyone into the boats please. Four to a boat.
The six children now looked at each other, wondering who would go with who.
"Rite," said James, "Lily, Adriana you go together, the rest of us will go in another boat". However seeing the look of fear on Adriana's face, made it clear she would prefer to go with three members of the group rather than just the one.
"Actually change that, I'll go with Lily, and Hagrid," he added hastily, "Adriana you go with Remus, Sirius and Peter."
When the six of them had deposited themselves in their respective boats, and Lily and James were joined by Hagrid, the boats finally set off across the lake. It was a cold September night and all members of the boats huddled together in an attempt to keep warm, although this was clearly of little help as all the first years were shivering profusely.
There was complete silence, except from the lapping of the waves and the boats travelled across the lake. The moon shone brightly, and an image of it was dancing on the lake's surface, while the stars glistened peacefully.
Suddenly however a shout from the boat furthest to the right, interrupted the silence and a resounding splash indicated that something had fallen into the water, probably James suspected a student. In addition to this there was raucous laughter, both male and female also coming from that same boat.
Remus glanced from Sirius and Adriana, to Peter who was thrashing wildly about in the water. Just by looking at the pair, he knew that they had no plans to help Peter out of the water, in fact they would be lucky if they didn't fall into the water themselves, they were certainly laughing hard enough.
"Calm down Peter" Remus finally called, "Grab hold of my hand."
Peter glanced wildly at Remus, he was saying something but he couldn't hear what. 'I can't swim,' Peter thought desperately to himself. He could already feel the weight of his clothes pulling him under.
' Remus glanced again towards Sirius and Adriana for help, but it was clear to him that they would be of no assistance, till they stopped laughing.
' Oh for Pete's sake' he thought, before hurriedly removing his shoes and diving into the water to help his new friend.
He grabbed hold of Peter's arm, and started back toward the boat, however Remus was thin boy, and it quickly became clear to him that he would be unable to hold his heavier friend, and stay afloat. Remus was at loss at what to do, he couldn't just leave Peter, and Adriana and Sirius had yet to recover from their laughing fit. Luckily for Remus help was at hand.
In order to glance at the laughing pair, in a plea for help, Remus had had to turn away from Peter. However when he returned his attention to Peter, he was surprised to discover there was another figure next to Peter, desperately trying to hold Peter up, as well as stay afloat.
"Some help here Remus would be nice," shouted the messy black haired boy. "Lets get him back into the boat."
Remus grabbed hold of Peter, and between James and him, they were able to drag Peter back to the boat, which they hoisted him back into, with the help of the Sirius and Adriana who had finally stopped laughing. As Sirius pulled Remus back into their boat, and Adriana fussed over Peter, James swam off towards his own boat.
Lily peered into the lake, in the direction that James had swam off into. The boats had come to a standstill, as soon as Hagrid had realised that there were students overboard, and now they sat peacefully bobbing on the lakes, while Lily awaited James' return. In an attempt to calm her, Hagrid had told her about the baby squid and mer people that lived in the lake, however rather than reassuring Lily, this had terrified her even further, and she now waited anxiously for James to return, not just for his own safety, but in truth Lily was rather afraid of this giant , who towered over her, with his unkempt hair.
Suddenly James' head appeared to the right side of the boat, right in front of Lily who having not spotted him before, was shocked by the abrupt appearance and promptly screamed.
"Lily calm down!" James said, after recovering from her scream which had also made him jump. "Jeez.. its only me, I mean I know I must look bad soaking wet, but I don't think I look that bad" he added.
Lily smiled slightly, despite the fact that her cheeks were tinged pink with embarrassment.
"Sorry James" she replied, before Hagrid interrupted.
"The other two, back in their boats then?" he asked, and when James nodded in reply, he continued, "right, we'll be off then" before tapping the boat with his pink umbrella, which Lily had only just noticed.
As they floated onward, Lily suddenly realised that there was no one rowing the boats.
"It's magic!" she proclaimed out loud, to which in response James cheekily replied, "Well Lil, that IS the point you know!"
You know what to do ,please review! flames welcome and any questions or critiscms you have about the story. Thanx! Luv Triple Trouble
