She walked uneasily towards the barrier. Her mother's whispers in her ear told her it would be all right, but Faith wasn't so convinced. It looked pretty solid. She pushed her cart unsteadily and just when she thought she would soon come to a dead stop and crash, she closed her eyes and…nothing. She peaked one eye open, and then the other. She heard the train whistle blow and in front of her was a gleaming scarlet engine puffing thick grey smoke. She'd done it. She'd crossed Platform 9 ¾ with no help at all. She really wished her mother had been there to send her off, but she was working and her dad still felt strange around wizards.
She shrugged off her loneliness and walked towards the train. She dropped her luggage off at the luggage car and then bravely stepped onto the lavish train. It was only 10:10 and the train didn't leave until 11, so there were still very few people. Faith recalled her Mum saying families usually arrived closer to 11, which meant she'd have no problem finding some place to sit. She heaved a sigh and easily found an empty compartment. She was so afraid of her first day at Hogwarts, and yet so excited at the same time.
In the empty compartment she watched people file onto the platform, board the train and then wave goodbye out their windows to their parents still standing on the platform. How she wished her parents could have come with her that day. It seemed so unorthodox for them to not see her off on her first day of school. She was going to Hogwarts after all, the school where her mother had gone when she was just a girl. She could understand why her father had not come. It was no surprise to her that he still found the wizarding world uneasy with little to compare it to other than the Blacks next-door in the summer and fall months. She really had no idea where the Blacks went in the winter and she was curious but didn't spend too much time thinking about it.
The compartment door slid open and a girl with reddish-brown hair and emerald-green eyes stared at her hesitantly. Her complexion had a light sprinkle of freckles over her nose and cheeks and her teeth gleamed in the morning sunlight that shone in the compartment window.
"Hi," she said, sounding rather out of breath. "Can I sit in here?"
"Hello, yes of course," Faith replied.
"First year?" the girl asked, sitting down across from Faith.
"Yeah, you too?"
"Yup. It's so weird though. I never really knew this existed until about a month ago. Both my parents are non-magical." She looked into Faith's eyes. Faith could see that she was afraid. She'd been okay at making friends when she was younger, aside from the boys next door, and she had a feeling that this girl could be a great friend. She was really scared though, which Faith could understand, being similarly scared and equally alone.
"If you need any help, we can do homework together. I'm Faith, by the way, Faith Duncan." She held out her hand to the girl with red hair.
The girl smiled, looking relieved, and replied with a wide, toothy grin, "Thanks. I'm Lily Evans. Are you…oh what's it called…"
"Pureblood?" Faith suggested, anticipating the question.
"Yeah, that's it. Are you a pureblood?"
"No. I'm not. I know a few people who are, but I'm not. My dad's a muggle…er…a non-magical person. He works in the London branch of Oxford administrators. My mum is a pureblood witch though. She works at St. Mungo's. That makes me a half-blood."
Lily looked confused. "St. Mungo's? Is that a church or something?"
Faith laughed and shook her head. "Goodness no, St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries."
"A wizard hospital? Well that makes sense. Gosh I'm so new at this. Your mum must be really smart to get a job there though."
"Her favorite subject in school was Herbology, the study of plants, and she excelled in Potions. I guess you could say she is really smart."
"I don't know how I'll ever learn so much so fast. I just got my wand a week ago and I'm afraid to touch it again. In the wand shop I held it and there were fireworks that started exploding from the tip. It was so strange but the shop keeper said it was the one. Will you tell me everything, please? I need help." She was shaking all over from fright.
Faith pulled out her own wand to show Lily. "I got mine only a few weeks ago and it pretty much did the same thing. First wand is a big step apparently." She put it away again. "It'll be fine. You'll do fine. Trust me. Your wand will become your best friend. And well as for classes and those kinds of things, I'm sure we'll be in all the same classes so we can help each other out. You aren't going to alone. Lots of kids probably feel the same way today." Faith took Lily's hand and gave it a quick squeeze. "We will be fine."
A weak smile appeared on Lily's face and she said, "Thank you."
"You're welcome," Faith replied. "So what's it like learning you're a witch?"
Lily slowly began to spill her life's story to Faith, including all the wretched things that her sister, Petunia, had said to her right before she'd left to get onto the train, all the way up to when she found out she was really a witch and went to Diagon Alley.
Faith didn't like the sound of Petunia. She didn't sound like her sister at all.
"She's not a very nice sister. Well, not anymore at least. Oh do you know Severus Snape?"
"Who?" Faith asked as her eyebrows knitted at the question.
"Severus Snape. He lives close to me. He's…different. He told me I was a witch first. I didn't believe him and my sister hated him. I think he goes here now."
"I wouldn't be surprised. Have you seen him since he told you about being a witch?"
"Not really. My parents were not really okay with my being a witch at first. They only got used to the idea after being visited by someone from the school. That was when my sister got really upset. They kept me away from other people before that though, hoping to get rid of the magic somehow I guess. I never met up with Severus again. Though I kind of want to tell him that he was right and maybe say thank you."
"He sounds like he's from a pureblood family. Only a pureblood would tell someone else that they're a witch. My family is half-blood and my mum's a witch so I knew about magic since I was born. But we have some purebloods living next to us during the summer. They are dark and mysterious and just different. It's like they follow dark magic. It almost sounds like something they would say." She dropped her voice down to a whisper. "They seem to be a very dark family. The mother always shouts and the father is always talking about obedience and duty. I can hear it from my house down the hill. I feel sorry for the boys that live there sometimes."
"There are boys living there? Like their sons?"
"Yeah. They both look exactly alike, but one is taller than the other. I think one of them is starting this year because we're the same age, the older one, at Hogwarts."
"Huh, that's spooky," Lily said with a very spooky voice. She looked at Faith and then started laughing. Faith followed soon afterwards. They were both rolling around laughing when the compartment door burst open.
Faith stopped and jerked her head towards the door. Standing in the frame were two boys, one with jet-black hair, blue eyes and glasses, and the other with dark brown hair and steel-grey eyes.
"What's so funny?" the one with glasses asked. "Can we be in on the joke too?"
Lily spoke up immediately, taken off guard by the sudden intrusion. "No. It's rude to interrupt, weren't you ever taught that? What made you think we wanted more company? We were doing just fine by ourselves."
Faith's eyes were still locked with the other boys'. Knowingly he nodded his head and the corners of her mouth twisted slightly upward in a smile. It was a strange reaction seen as how she really didn't know or like the boy. He looked good though, much better than he had two years ago. He'd grown up.
"Faith," he murmured, jutting his chin out in defiance of her stare.
The boy next to him noticed and spoke up. "Oh so you know her, do you Sirius? Well that's as good as an invitation."
Faith's gaze finally detached from Sirius's and she glared at the other boy in glasses. "An invitation to what? We neither want nor asked for your company. Where does that translate to an invitation?"
"Feisty," he replied.
Lily stared him down along with Faith. "Leave now, please, or we'll have more than words with you." She threateningly reached inside her robes. She didn't pull out her wand, and Faith knew why. This bravado of hers would not last very long. She decided to help her friend and likewise reached for her own wand, actually pulling it out and laying it across her knees, pretending she knew what she was doing with it.
The uncomfortable silence and stillness in the compartment lasted only a few seconds more before Sirius spoke. "Come on James." He pulled at the sleeve of his friend's robes and they shrugged out the door. "They've had enough of us, clearly," he said. "Let's check out some other compartments, see if they are willing to have more fun."
The emphasis on 'more' and 'fun' was obviously a jab in the girls'. Faith narrowed her gaze at Sirius and he winked. Her head popped back slightly in surprise at this gesture but she quickly rolled her eyes at him and slumped back into the seat. "Ugh, boys."
Lily did the same thing on the opposite seat, slumping backwards in relief of the boys' departure. "'Yeah, did you know those guys?"
"Only one of them. Sirius, the boy with no glasses. He's the boy who lives next door to me. He's a member of that family I was just telling you about. James, or whatever, I don't know him. Must be a new friend of Sirius's."
"Oh," Lily replied shortly. "Do you…do you like him?"
"What?" Faith asked, shocked at the implication. "No. Of course not."
"Well I mean he looked really weird there for a second. Like he had almost been waiting to see you." Lily had seen it in the split second that she had looked away from James's testing eyes. It'd been written on Sirius's face plain as day.
"Yeah, I don't think so. I hardly ever see him anymore and we've only spoken maybe three times. I don't think he likes me. Do you want to know what the first thing he said to me was?"
"What did he say?"
"He said he was staring at an ugly girl."
Lily scrunched her nose briefly. "Ugh, that's boys for ya though. They are really annoying sometimes." Faith looked at her incredulously. "Ok fine. They are really annoying all the time."
Faith laughed and sat up, saying, "That's better. Now I don't want to hear any more nonsense about Sirius liking me. He's a pureblood for goodness sake. He couldn't possibly be interested in little half-blooded me."
Lily smiled but didn't say anything. They ceased talking about Sirius and James and the subject didn't come up again the whole ride to Hogwarts, a magical experience for both of them. Faith was looking out the window as the Hogwarts Expressed pulled up to Hogsmeade station. She knew that she had seen a lot of Sirius as children. She had a strange feeling now that they were both in school, in the same year; they were going to see a lot more of each other. Faith wasn't sure whether this was a good thing or a bad thing. Luckily the thought of being sorted into Houses and starting classes soon pushed the boys to the back of her mind. It was time to learn just what kind of witch she was capable of being.