Chapter 2
4 Years Later, September 1st
James and Al rushed past Lily with their trolleys, racing towards the Hogwarts Express. Lily had always imagined herself running towards the scarlet engine alongside her two older brothers...or ahead of them actually. It was common knowledge that Lily was the fastest of the Potter children. But now, she couldn't seem to get her legs to move. The only thing she really knew of the magic world was Quidditch. Sure, she had seen her parents use magic around the house and she knew the different types, but Quidditch was the only thing she really cared about, and she couldn't even try out for the house team until next year. A whole year with no Quidditch. Great.
"Lily? You're still standing here?" her father teased.
Lily blushed. "I remember James' first year you were so excited you nearly boarded the train right then to go with him. You aren't getting cold feet are you?"
Lily shrugged and shook her head. "I guess I'm just nervous, that's all," she admitted to her father, after looking to make sure her mother wasn't around. Lily always had a special sort of relationship with her father.
Harry looked at her, concerned. She hated when he looked concerned. She bit her lip nervously, trying to think of something to calm him. "Lily?" It was her mother. Harry held up a hand to her, gesturing that it would only be a minute.
"Are you nervous about what house you will be in?" he asked her quietly, grabbing her shoulders.
"No," she sighed. "It's more of the fact that I don't know anything about magic really. What if...what if there is nothing I'm really good at? Like Al is really good at Charms and James is really good at Defense Against the Dark Arts. Rose is good at, well everything. What if I just don't have anything I'm good at?"
"Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. I never used to be good at Potions, I'm still not really, but I've just learned to deal with that and to pay extra attention while brewing them. Your mother still has trouble with some Transfiguration spells," he said.
Lily breathed a little easier. "If your dreadful, you can always come and live back at the house with your mum and I forever. We'd be glad to have you!" he laughed.
"Dad! I'm not living in the house with you and mum forever!" she moaned.
"Well then study up kid," her father laughed squeezing her shoulder. "Come say goodbye to your mother and then we'll get you onto the train."
Lily nodded and pushed her trolley over to where her mother was standing. Her father grabbed her trunk and lifted it aboard the train, leaving Lily and her mother alone. "Are you okay sweetheart?" she asked.
"Yeah, I'll be fine. I'll have James and Al to look after me, yeah?" Lily said, smiling.
Her mother smiled in return. "I was actually hoping that you would look after them. Those two, I never know what stories they tell me are real, and which are fake," she said, shaking her head.
"Sure thing mum," she said, giving her mother a hug.
"Good. You should probably get on the train now. James and Al are towards the middle with Rose, Hugo and Domenique already. I think your older cousin Victoire is a prefect again this year, so she will be sitting in the front of the train. If you ever need anything, she's always there for you, okay?"
"Yes mum. I'll write as soon as something interesting happens," Lily said, walking towards the train.
After giving her dad one last hug, she started to move towards the train. "Oh and Lily?" her dad said suddenly, serious.
"Yes daddy?"
"No boys," he said.
Lily gawked at him for a moment before he started smiling. "Yeah sure dad," she laughed back as she turned and stepped onto the train.
She took in several deep breaths as she walked down the narrow train corridor. Many of the compartments were already filled with her soon to be class mates. Some she recognized from her father's Ministry gatherings, others from the neighborhood. She waved politely as she passed Alice Longbottom, a third year whose father taught Herbology at Hogwarts, and Joselyn Bell, a fourth year that Lily used to sit with during Quidditch season.
Lily reached out to open the dividing door to the fourth car when the handle slid out of her reach. Instead of a door in front of her, there stood a thin, blonde boy who was about her height. She looked at him for a moment before he smiled hesitantly at her. She smiled back, slightly confused, as she stepped around him, thanking him for holding the door for her. He looked strangely familiar, but she didn't have time to think about it; she was abruptly yanked by her elbow into the first compartment on the left. "Ouch James!" she cried.
"Geeze Lils, you took forever," he complained, mockingly.
Lily made a face at him and took a seat next to her favorite cousin, Domenique, who was also a first year at Hogwarts. Domenique was the youngest girl born to her Uncle Bill and Aunt Fleur. She was slightly taller than Lily with long, straight brown hair that Lily had always envied. She had escaped the Weasley curse of having flaming red hair. She and Domenique were almost complete opposites. Domenique treasured each opportunity to don a fancy dress and pair of strappy sandals, she always had a crush on a boy, and most importantly, she was the best at keeping secrets, which was something Lily was never able to do.
On her other side was her cousin Hugo, another first timer at Hogwarts. Like Lily, Hugo had inherited the Weasley hair, along with his mother's waves and curls. He usually kept to himself at family events, not daring to get into the kind of trouble that James ans Al got into. The reason for this was sitting directly across from him; his older sister Rose.
Rose never grew out of her bossiness she had as a child. This probably had to do with the fact that she was the oldest of our little group added to the fact that she was extremely tall for her age. She was smart and had a knack for memorizing everything and anything anyone ever told her. She had admired the oldest Weasley girl, Victoire, ever since she started Hogwarts.
Next to her was her complete opposite, Lily's eldest brother James. James was, by all definitions, a troublemaker. He always seemed to be everywhere at once, and always where he wasn't supposed to be. He usually dragged Al along to be his accomplice. He wasn't the brightest one in the family, but he made up for it with his skills on the Quidditch pitch. Just last year he had made the Gryffindor team as a beater, something Lily was extremely jealous of.
Al sat next to his brother, closest to the door. At a young age, Al accepted the fact that whenever James got into trouble, so would he. He found it to be unfair at times, but looking back, he always had fun running around with his brother. He, much to his parent's dismay, was the only Potter child not interested what so ever in Quidditch.
Differences aside, they had all grown up as a close family. They were the only friends that Lily had. It was comforting to know that they would never be far away during the school year. They sat in the compartment talking about classes, warning Lily, Hugo and Domenique about Peeves the Poltergeist, the care taker Filch, and all of the awful essays they would have to write in A History of Magic class. There was some teasing about the three ending up not being sorted into Gryffindor, as well as some mean bragging by James about not being old enough to try for the Quidditch teams. It was during this particular discussion that Lily excused herself to get some air.
She closed the compartment door, silencing the all too familiar laughs of her family. She headed off down the corridor, not knowing exactly where she intended to go to get said fresh air. She really just wanted some time by herself, but all of the compartments were probably full by now. Lily was about to turn around when she saw a door at the end of the corridor that was propped open by a piece of black cloth. Turning around was no longer an option, curiosity always dominated over her sense of reason.
She reached the door, looked around and slipped inside when no one was watching. She stifled a scream as she saw trees moving quickly around her. She clutched to the door handle, terrified. "Now who's stealing who's hiding place?" a voice said playfully somewhere on her left.
Lily turned her head slowly, knees shaking. "What?"
"I said it looks like this time you are stealing my hiding place," the boy repeated.
She looked at him confused. "We met while playing that muggle hiding game a few years ago. You yelled at me for taking your hiding place," he explained.
Lily thought for a moment. "You're the boy from the Christmas party?"
He nodded. There was silence between them. "Why are you out here?" Lily gasped suddenly, remembering her current surroundings. "You could get whacked by a tree branch, or fall off at a tight turn, or get swept off by the wind! Are you mad?"
The boy laughed. "It's bewitched."
"What?"
"If you come near the edge-"
"Oh there is no way I'm coming any closer than this. In fact I think I'm going to just turn around and go back to my family. This is too dangerous, even for me," Lily protested.
"You can't fall off or get swept away. If you'd listen to me, you'd know that there is an invisible barrier right here along this rail," he explained quickly. "Here, I'll show you."
The boy walked towards the rail, pulling a bronze coin out of his pocket. He looked back at her and proceeded to throw the knut at the area above the metal railing. It bounced back, landing near Lily's feet. She stared down at it for a moment before, "Wow! Neat! I'm totally going to get James and tell him about this! Then we could threaten to push Al off, except nothing would happen because of that awesome invisibleness!"
"But then this wouldn't be a secret hiding place anymore. It's probably the best on the train," the boy said quickly.
Lily laughed. "Oh we stopped playing that game a long time ago."
The boy nodded. "Why aren't you back with them? I saw you all sitting together when I was passing to come here."
Lily sighed, relaxing her grip on the doorknob while moving closer to the boy. "Can you keep a secret?" she asked.
The boy smiled. "Yes, I still haven't told anyone your last one."
She looked at him questioningly before continuing, "I don't know anything about magic. Nothing. Zero. I don't want to be a failure because everyone expects so much of me with my last name being Potter and all. James and Al are doing fine in their lessons. Sure, they slip up in some classes, but over all they are really smart. James is on the Gryffindor Quidditch team and still manages to get good marks. If Quidditch was a class, I'd be fine, but unfortunately, I can't play until next year. So, I have nothing to be good at this year. What if they kick me out? And why are you laughing?"
The boy stopped laughing and was silent for a moment. "You just say so much so fast," he said.
Lily opened her mouth, and then shut it, blushing. "But I guess I can see why you're nervous. I don't know a lot about magic either. Sometimes when I was little, I would make things happen, but my father would always tell me to try not to. He said young magic was dangerous and uncontrollable. He said Hogwarts will teach us all how to control what magic we already have inside of us," the boy said.
"I used to be able to make things move. Like I could make the float across the room into my hands. I also managed to change a pair of my shoes black once. They were a hideous bright purple before, and there was no way I was going to wear those," Lily remembered.
"Well then I'd say you will probably be good at Transfiguration and Charms," the boy said.
Lily's stomach rumbled. "Yeesh, do they ever feed people on this train?"
"You probably have missed the trolley by now. It has a whole bunch of sweet snacks on it. Usually the woman stays in the middle of the train when her rounds are over with."
Lily nodded. "Well I think I'm going to get something to eat."
The boy nodded. "I would suggest the Pumpkin Pasties."
Lily smiled as she grasped the door knob again. "Thanks."
She took a step out of the door before turning back. "Hey what was your name?"
"Last call for the trolley in this car dears!" a woman's voice rang out from the near distance.
"Ah food!" Lily gasped, remembering.
And she was gone with a sparkle of red hair. "My name is Scorpious Malfoy," the boy whispered, looking out once more at the passing scenery.
Xxx
It wasn't until her third year at Hogwarts that Lily learned the identity of her blonde hide and seek friend. It wasn't until her fourth year that she saw past her family's old prejudices and began to see him as a male version of herself: a young wizard who was defined by a past he was not alive during nor had any control over. They used this as a platform to build their friendship. In the middle of her fifth year she began to notice the beauty of his eyes and the sweet caress of his voice. By the middle of their sixth year they were madly in love. At the end of that year, Lily learned the power of words and selflessness, and played a significant role in the breaking of her own heart.
A/N: Well that was chapter 2! I hope you all liked it! This will be the last one of them being younger. I feel that I should probably clarify some ages since I have changed them from the epilouge a bit. I will put all of the ages in context with this chapter, so Lily's 1st year. Teddy has graduated (about 19 or so). Victoire is in her 7th year. Rose and James are both in their 4th years, and Rose is a bit older than James. Albus is in his 3rd year. Hugo, Domenique, Lily and Scorpious are all first years. Lily's other cousins are not really important to this story line, but I imagined Lily being the youngest of all of them. I think I may have messed this up in the first chapter, I'll just change it later. Thanks for reading!