Her First Day

Lily Evans's first day at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She's rather nervous too, since she doesn't even know where platform nine and three quarters is. Oops.

Ch 2 Summary: Lily is helped up by James and Mrs. Prewett and recognizes Platform 9¾. Some nasty passersby make crude remarks at a very confused Lily. She proves her magic with her wand from Ollivander's. James apologizes for causing such a ruckus since he assumed Lily was a Muggle who accidentally found Platform 9¾ and helps her onto the Hogwarts Express...

Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter or characters. Don't sue, please. Used a bit of JKR's HP7 in this; no copyright infringement intended!

The Other Boy and the Ride

Lily dragged her trunk and suitcases down the aisle of the train. Most of the compartments were already full. If that boy had not stopped her, she would have gotten a compartment for herself. But she was lucky enough to have accidentally found the platform. She had almost been late.

She walked through some more compartments, muttering apologies for disturbing people. She saw the blond boy who had so kindly reminded her of her new school's name. He had glared at her, only to continue talking to his friends.

Lily was rather glad he hadn't said anything. The black haired girl from earlier had been worse. She had called Lily filth and scum of the earth, though Lily had no idea why. A younger blond girl had laughed along with the first girl. Yet a third girl in the corner with the same hair as the black haired girl and the same eyes as the younger blond girl had told "Bella" and "Cissy" off. Bella and Cissy had only glowered at their middle sister. The Bella girl had opened her mouth to start yelling at Lily again when Lily's instincts finally kicked in, and she ran to the end of the compartment, closing the door. She could hear shouts within the compartment.

Lily hurried along the train. She opened another compartment door to find the boy from Spinner's End. She had met him at the playground; he had snuck up behind her and Petunia and told her she was a witch. Both sisters thought he had been joking at first, but Lily talked to him some more once Petunia had begun ignoring her.

"May I sit here?" Lily peeped.

The boy grunted, "Sure."

"So, Severus, how was the rest of your summer?"

She was apparently not that great at making conversation.

"Okay," he grunted again.

"Great."

"Yeah."

Lily began, "That's—"

The compartment door slammed open as the blond boy came in. "SNAPE! What are you doing? Associating with Mudbloods, now are we? You're half-blood and not much better, but if you really want to make friends in Slytherin, you shouldn't hang out with this kind of… filth," he spat.

"But he's not in Slytherin yet," stated Lily.

"Shut up, you... Let's go, Severus. You can sit in my compartment, if you really want to."

"It's okay, I'll leave…" Lily said, as the older blond boy's friends started coming into the compartment. She dragged her stuff as fast as she could, out of the compartment, out of the door, out of their reach.

The next few compartments were really crowded. She apologized quietly and kept going.

Then she came upon the boy with the ebony hair in a compartment with three other young boys. There was one with familiar hair that she recognized from somewhere, a skinny one who looked rather tired, and a third sitting in the corner with his back turned.

"May I sit here?" she asked them. "The rest are full."

The black-haired boy raised an eyebrow and nodded. Lily pushed her trunk and suitcases aside then sat down next to him. She looked up to see him staring at her.

"Wow, your hair is red."

Lily had a bad first impression—no, second, the first impression was that he was nice enough to help her out with her trunk—of him already. She wondered if all boys were this stupid.

"Way to go, James. As if she couldn't tell," the weary-looking boy next to "James" said. "Oh, and I'm Remus Lupin."

"Hi. I'm Lily, Lily Evans."

"James Potter. I believe we met earlier." He did not imply that anything out of the ordinary had happened.

The third boy squeaked, even better than Lily did, "And I'm Peter Pettigrew."

She merely nodded. The last boy did not say anything. He kept sulking and staring out the window. She now noticed he seemed to be rather skinny and tall with nice black hair down to his chin.

After a pause, Peter whispered, "We were just talking about Quidditch. What's your favorite team?" Amazingly, he had tried to strike up a conversation, even though his voice was barely audible.

"She's Muggle-born, Peter," James said matter-of-factly.

"Oh."

Remus smiled. "Do you know what Quidditch is at all?"

Lily shook her head. "I tried to read up about wizards, but I couldn't find much..."—"obviously," James had muttered—"though Severus had told me a bit and—"

"Severus? As in Snape?" James suddenly asked. Lily nodded. "Don't talk to him, please." Lily cocked her head to the side a bit, as if in question, but James said no more.

"Anyways," Remus said, breaking the silence, "Quidditch is a sport where wizards fly on broomsticks…"

"Flying isn't that bad, don't be so frightened," James added, noticing the shocked look on Lily's face.

The boys talked about Quidditch until a red-headed prefect came in. Lily didn't really say much at all. She had been thinking how happy she had made some friends—or acquaintances, really, since her mom didn't want her to be extremely close to boys. As a matter of fact, her only friends or acquaintances, basically people she knew the names of, happened to be boys. She had yet to befriend some fellow first year girls; she had not caught Bella and Cissy's middle sister's name.

Ah, that's where Lily recognized the boy's hair, the one sulking quietly in the corner. He had the same hair as Bella and her sister, Lily just knew it.

The red-headed prefect suggested that we change soon.

"Got it… Weasley?" James said as the three boys and Lily stood up, leaving the last boy in the corner of the compartment.

"Who was that, James?" Lily asked apprehensively.

"Bilius, Bill, Will, something Weasley, I think. Prefect in fifth or sixth year or something, though he seemed like an unlikely choice. Pretty cool guy… our parents know each other, probably. He had an older brother here a few years ago, too."

Lily smiled and listened while making their way to the bathrooms. They parted and changed into their uniforms.

The three boys were back in the compartment by the time Lily had changed, still talking about Quidditch.

Lily was content with staring out the window at the beautiful countryside scenes when she was really thinking about leaving Tuney behind. She didn't know anything about Quidditch anyways.

The fourth boy was also changed out in a new-looking uniform, although he gave it a depressing aura, not unlike himself. At least he had started talking now, even if it was only about Quidditch.

He was saying, "I don't like the Wimbourne Wasps much. Just because…" when the door opened.

It was Severus Snape.

All four boys immediately turned their backs to the newcomer and continued their highly educational conversation regarding the European Cup for Quidditch.

Lily quickly glared at him and turned back to the window. She just realized she had been crying over Petunia. She thought it was strange how she felt so horrible about leaving Tuney "behind" since Petunia was older than her… and that just sounded unusual. Usually, the older sibling would leave the crying younger sibling at home without any form of contact. Lily could not bear to think about her sister.

Of course, seeing Severus Snape while she was reminiscing childhood memories with Petunia definitely did not help.

So she said thinly, "I don't want to talk to you."

"Why not?" Severus asked dumbly.

"Tuney hates me," Lily stammered, tears welling up in her emerald eyes. "Because we saw her letter… that letter… from Professor Dumbledore."

"So what?"

Oh, Lily was not about to put up with this sort of arrogance from a wizard. If she hated one thing, it was unfairness like inequality and bullying. If she hated a second, it would be arrogance, which happened to be common in many males. Severus was getting more and more annoying by the moment. Soon, she would probably be calling him by just his last name in a tone of deep dislike.

"So she's my sister!" She tried very hard to refrain from adding on many inappropriate words at the end of that exclamation.

He began, "She's only a—"

Lily was sniffing now; she did not hear the start of Severus Snape's sentence.

"But we're going! This is it! We're off to Hogwarts!"

Well, duh. And Lily was off to leave her sister behind. She could not deny that she was not excited though. She smiled weakly at the greasy-haired boy.

"You'd better be in Slytherin."

"Slytherin?!" the boy James exclaimed, saying the word with great distaste. "Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"

The fourth boy—who had not said a word until Quidditch came up—looked up at James and Severus. "My whole family has been in Slytherin," he said monotonously, without a smile.

James looked extremely surprised. "Blimey! And I thought you seemed all right."

"Maybe I'll break the tradition," the boy with dangling black hair grinned. "Where are you heading, if you've got the choice?"

Lily thought of Slytherin since her only real friend was determined to go there.

Gracefully, James lifted an invisible sword. "'Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart!' Like my dad," he said with admiration in his voice.

Lily decided Gryffindor wouldn't be that bad either. Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall had been Gryffindors. And the way James had said it was kind of charming… along with the boy himself.

Severus slightly gagged at James's choice. Remus and Peter were still silent, probably wanting to stay out of this.

The other boy turned to face Snape. "Got a problem with that?" he demanded.

Severus snickered, "No. If you'd rather by brawny than brainy—"

"Where're you hoping to go, seeing as you're neither?" the boy with Bella's hair had inserted.

James almost fell over laughing.

Oh no. Lily's two favorite and most friendly Hogwarts boys not only wanted to be in rivaling houses… they also had already started a rival between themselves. Now she really couldn't choose between them.

She picked Severus Snape, the greasy-haired boy. Even though James Potter was better looking by far, Severus was less of a prick, unless that counted towards Tuney. But Petunia wasn't being very nice to Lily now, either.

"Come on, Severus, let's go find another compartment," Lily ordered as she stood up angrily.

James and his newfound best friend mocked her and Snape by imitating her voice.

Severus stood up and joined Lily, but James even tried to trip him up.

Lily tried very hard to hate James. Very, very hard.

She left the compartment with Severus, presumably heading towards the front of the train because all compartments would be taken. They were almost at Hogwarts, anyways. She could see a slight outline of the school in the distance.

"See ya, Snivellus!" James's voice traveled as someone slammed the compartment door shut.

Yet Lily Evans could not stop herself from noticing James Potter was rather cute… even if all he did was make fun of Severus and brag about Quidditch.

A/N: Thanks for any reviews, guys; love those:) This chapter was considerably longer (more than the first two put together!) since this had to include the train scene from Snape's penseive in HP7. :P I liked this chappie 'cause it's all from Lily's POV.