"Wait up!" Lily yelled, as the boys sprinted off towards the castle. She attempted a drying spell that had been mentioned in one of her textbooks, and succeeded in changing her robes from dripping wet to extremely damp. Obviously she needed to practice that one. Without further ado, she ran after the boys, Rebecca at her heels.
When they reached the castle they noticed a strict looking woman in her late 30's or early 40's. Getting on her bad side did not seem like a wise idea. Suddenly James stopped and whipped the shimmering length of cloth that he had had on the train out of his robes .
Sirius and Rebecca grinned excitedly when they saw the strange object. Lily stared at it curiously, suspecting it had something to do with the way that James had been able to appear and disappear, but reluctant to believe a piece of cloth could be that powerful. Her pondering was cut unceremoniously short as Rebecca dragged her closer to the boys, and James through the cloak over them all.
Noticing Lily's skeptical expression, James hissed, "We're invisible."
She doubted him, until they managed to creep past the stern woman unnoticed. Lily supposed that this must be a rare magical artifact, as it nothing like it had been mentioned in any of her school books.
After climbing a staircase and turning into an empty corridor, the coast was clear to take off the cloak, which was very cramped for four people, as small as they were. As they walked down the corridor, the empty suits of armor saluted them. Lily was so fascinated by the talking portraits on the wall that she absentmindedly wander up the next staircase, wanting to see them all.
This proved to be a bad idea for two reasons. One, the staircase started to move of its own accord, and two, her feet were stuck in one of the stairs. When the others saw her predicament they leaped onto the stairs before they were out of reach. Well at least Sirius and Rebecca managed to. James on the other hand was the last to jump and almost missed entirely. He clung to the railing for dear life, which was a difficult task with the staircase's movement.
Rebecca struggled to pull Lily out of her staircase prison, only managing to slow her descent, while Sirius hauled James over the railing with relative ease. Lily was waist deep in the stair by the time James and Sirius finished high fiving each other.
"Help!" She hissed, softly but menacingly. Rebecca was badly losing the bizarre game of tug-of-war she was playing with the staircase, and Lily had no desire to suffocate in a staircase at the age of eleven. James and Sirius came to her rescue, and with the combined effort of the three of them, Lily was soon free.
At this point, Lily wanted nothing more than to end this little adventure and catch up with the other students, but they needed to find different way back to the entrance hall, since the staircase didn't seem like it was moving back anytime soon. It probably would have been wiser just to wait, but between the four children their was little patience to be found.
The only option ahead of them was to climb yet another staircase, and as soon as they they reached the landing their staircase swiveled away. The other end of the corridor similarly lacked an available stair, so they opened a door and set off down a random hallway, which was a dead end.
Growing frustrated, Sirius began rapidly pacing back and forth. Muttering to himself about all the food their classmates were probable eating at the moment. James went over to clap him on the shoulder reassuringly, but stopped in his tracks as he saw a door appear in front of his eyes. Sirius saw only the potatoes and pork chops that he wanted to be eating, and crashed into James, knocking them both to the ground.
Lily stepped over the pile of boy on the floor, and entered the mysterious room. The smell inside was incredible, like every delicious food one could possible imagine. She looked around for the source, and saw only a table with four large pieces of parchment. They were all blank. She picked one up and a map of the castle appeared before her eyes. The others caught up to her, and each picked up their own paper.
James quickly tucked his into his pocket, while Sirius and Rebecca started with confusion at the blank papers they each held. Lily's map had a dot that said, "You are here," at about the middle of the castle. She found that helpful, and wished that the map would show them where they needed to go. She gasped as another dot appeared, marked simply with "Destination." She only had to wonder what route to take as a line emerged, showing them exactly where they needed to go.
"Let's go!" She exclaimed, eager to taste the food, after smelling how delicious it would be.
By the time they made it down to the Great Hall, the sorting was over and the feast had started. All heads turned their way as they burst through the door, hoping they wouldn't be expelled for their tardiness.
"It seems we have found our missing first years." Dumbledore announced, patting the arm of a tear-stained Hagrid. "I believe some of us owe the Giant Squid an apology. Ah, you four must be sorted now. Who's first? Don't all volunteer at once now! Miss Evans, would you be as kind as to step up here?"
Lily walked over to the stool feeling numb. The frustrating yet exciting trip around the castle made her forget to be nervous for the Sorting. She became so afraid that she started to wonder if her black robes would conceal it if she wet her pants. After was felt like eons, she was sitting on the stool. An old hat was draped over her head, and covered her eyes. 'Hmm,' a voice said in her head. 'This one is a bit difficult, brainy yet brave. Hmm. Ah yes, there seems to be one clear choice, welcome to' "GRYFFINDOR" the hat said, shouting the last word for the entire hall to hear. She walked over to the Gryffindor table with a relieved sigh. It appeared full at first, but she noticed a section with about four empty seats, and sat down next to a girl who looked her age.
"Hullo! I'm Alice!" the girl said cheerfully.
"Hey I'm Frank," the boy across from Alice said, reaching over the table to shake Lily's hand. "Welcome to Gryffindor."
"Are you both first years?" Lily asked.
The girl nodded while Frank shook his head. They both seemed like nice year people, this was going to be a fu- "GRYFFINDOR" the loud shout interrupted Lily's thoughts. This was met by many boo's from the Slytherin table, and she was joined at the table by a pale Sirius. She realized that the hat had been deciding for the minutes she had spent talking to Frank and Alice.
"You OK?" Lily asked.
"Yeah, fine I guess. Why aren't you eating?" he asked.
"Because its rude to eat while others are still standing, Rebecca and Ja-"
"GRYFFINDOR"
"Ok FINE then, Rebecca is still stan-"
"RAVENCLAW"
"Now I can eat in peace," Lily mumbled as she watched Rebecca join a cheering table. She looked at the empty seat on the other side of her, wishing her new friend was with her.
"Hey where did that Remus bloke go?" James asked.
Frank replied, "After he was sorted he went to Madam Pomfrey. He was a Gryffindor though, and so is some kid named Pettigrew."
The feast seemed to end too quickly. All too soon, a prefect named Arthur Weasley called for the first years.
"I'm going to show you the most direct route to the Gryffindor common room." he said. "Why were you guys late? Hagrid was moaning something about the Giant Squid."
"SOMEONE decided it would be funny to jump into the boat," Lily answered glaring at James, "the boat tipped and we ended up in the water."
"Then the Giant squid took us across the lake REALLY fast!" Sirius added.
"And when we were in the castle Evans got stuck in a stair." James sniggered.
And then Sirius added, "and we almost didn't find our way until we discovered-"
"That we could smell our way to the feast." James lied. Lily understood his motives, she wasn't ready to share their discovery either.
"What a tale! Anyway, here we are. The password is 'Chaser' Girls dormitory is on the left, Boys on the right."
Lily staggered up the stairs with Alice and the other first year girls, and fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
A/N Reviews? PLEASE?
Also this chapter used to be first person, but I decided to stick with third, apologies if I missed any I, me's, or we's
