CHAPTER FOUR – ONE CUNNING LITTLE GRYFFINDOR

I woke up early before everyone else in the dormitory. It's quite weird because I always used to wake up late. It's probably because of the hubbub and excitement. I'm really looking forward to classes, especially Defense against the Dark Arts. I've learned a few spells from reading on my DADA book and dad told me some spells, especially because he was the one who've written our course book.

I went to the bath room to wash my face to and gurgle my mouth with water. I looked at my reflection in the mirror. My hair is slightly wavy and almost reached to my waist. My hazel eyes were ablaze with excitement at the prospect of the next few hours finally crept on. I looked into the skin of my face. It's still freckle-free. From my face, I looked down to my reddish lips and up on my straight nose. I've seen a picture of my grandma Lily from an album of my dad. From what I've seen there, I was likely to look like her if when I've grown up, except for the eyes. I put my hair in a braid at the right side of my face and went back to the dormitory to find all four girls stretching and rubbing their eyes out.

The other two girls in our dormitory aside from Kat and Des are Denise Creevey and Jasmine Finnegan. Denise is short with long, curly black hair, blue eyes, and pale skin. Jasmine has straight, shoulder-length brown hair, dark eyes and also pale skin.

"Good morning!" I greeted them all jovially as I began to rummage in my trunk to get my uniform and school robes.

"Good morning!" they all greeted back.

"You're up early," Kat commented. "It's quite unusual, you know. When I sleep over your house, you always get up so late."

"Yeah, I know. It's quite weird. I guess I'm just excited," I said with a shrug.

"It can't erase the fact that it's strange, you know."

I didn't respond. I just continued to dress and took one last look on my face before asking the two, "shall we go down to breakfast?'

"Sure," Des said.

"You two coming?" Kat asked the other girls.

They shook their heads before Jasmine said, "You go now, we'll catch up later."

"Okay."

When we went down to the common room, I was greeted unceremoniously by James who came out in front of me and almost ruffled by hair. Luckily, I stamped on his foot before he could go any closer to me.

"Ouch, what the heck was that for?" he complained. The three of us laugh at him, standing on one foot while clutching the other in his hands.

"For almost ruining my hair," I said, still laughing.

"How do you know what I was gonna do?" he asked with raised eyebrows.

I rolled my eyes at him. "You're my brother, right? You've done that to me for the past eleven years."

"Did I?" he asked innocently.

"Yes you have, now if you'll excuse us, we're just going to go down to breakfast.

"You want company?" he asked, now on two feet again.

"Nope. You can go down with your friends, it's not as if we'll get lost or something."

"Don't be silly Lily, "he said sarcastically. "You know how enormous this castle is. You three might be holdup by Peeves."

I ignored him. "Come on girls, I'm starving already. See you later, Jamie!"

When we went out of the portrait hall, Jess said, "You're really close to your brothers, aren't you?" It was a rhetorical question, but I answered anyway.

"Sure."

It wasn't hard to find the Great Hall, but the problem is James's prediction. When we were at the third floor corridor, we were holdup by Peeves, throwing raspberries in our direction. We ran from him and by the time we reached the Great Hall, we were clutching our stitches and catching our breath.

"We-should-have-let-your-brother-come!" Desiree said, still breathing hard.

"I totally regret turning him down," I said when I was breathing evenly again. We sat down half way on the Gryffindor table and I piled some eggs, bacon and pumpkin juice onto my plate. Just then, James sat on the table across us, between his friends Dominic and Alexander.

"So you must be my best friend's little sister," Alexander said casually to me. "I'm Alex by the way, Alexander Creevey.:

"I'm Dominic Thomas."

"And I'm You-Know-Who," I said sarcastically and they all laughed. When the laughing died out I said seriously, "you know who I am. That's what I meant, not Voldemort."

"We know, but it's funny. You can be really sarcastic when you wanted to," Desiree said.

"Oh, and Little Ms. You-Know-Who, may you introduce us to your lovely, new friend, since we already know that the other one is Katrina Alice Longbottom, daughter of Neville," James stated and drank some pumpkin juice, looking from me to Des.

"I'm Desiree. Desiree Zabini," she said, waiting for their reaction.

Dominic and Alexander's eyes widened while James choked on his pumpkin juice, coughing hardly and finally, he said, "You're that Brett Zabini's sister?" He said this quite rudely but Des didn't look offended and instead, she smiled.

"Surprised I'm in Gryffindor, aren't you?" she asked with that typical Slytherin smirk.

"I guess so," James said with a shrug, returning to his normal tone.

"So," I intervened, "I guess that these three fourth years aren't listening to the sorting." I scrutinized their expressions and shrug.

"Well," Dominic began, "we were listening until your cousin Hugo was called and sorted into Ravenclaw and after that, we engaged in a conversation so we didn't know who the last to be sorted were."

"Well, that would be me and my twin," Des said.

"Your twin? Is she in Slytherin?" James asked.

"Nope. And she's a he and a Ravenclaw," Des answered smugly.

"Well someone must not be too happy and must be murderous, too, seeing as though he would burn you by the looks of it," I commented, staring ahead at Brett Zabini who was glowering at his sister agitatedly. They all turned around who I was looking and laughed. Though handsome he might be, the look would have been hilarious to anyone who's in Gryffindor.

Albus suddenly sat in front of me, beside James. "What's so funny?"

"My-brother," choked Desiree.

"Who?"

"Brett Zabini," Kat pointed.

"Oh." He looked over to where we pointed, and laughed with us.

"Let's eat now, we're gonna be late," I said after we all stopped.

I ate my bacon and egg and toast fast. We all ate our breakfast in silence for a while before Neville, or Professor Longbottom, came into our side of the table and handed us our schedules. I looked at my schedule. We'll have DADA, Transfiguration and Charms at morning and double Potions at afternoon today and Thursday and Friday while we'll History of Magic, double Herbology and Astronomy at Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I hastily finished my breakfast so that I would have time to get my books and materials for today. I don't want to be late on my first day of class.

"I'm going to go get my things," I told them. "Would you like to come?" I asked my two friends.

"Sure."

We ran to Gryffindor Tower, to our dormitory and back outside. Suddenly, Kat said, "Wait! Do you have your maps?" she asked anxiously.

"Nope," I said. "But I know the way. My dad have a special map of Hogwarts at home and I've been perusing it ever since. The DADA room is at the third floor. Come on."

We reached the third floor with a minute to spare. Not everyone are there yet. Unfortunately, what I've seen quite disgusted me. I recognized the dork Goyle's brother which means that we're having this class with Slytherins. Well. this could also be good to prove something to the prat house.

"Look what we've got here," a rather good-looking girl with dark brown hair and blue eyes jeered, looking directly at me. I rolled my eyes at her, knowing what would come next. "Lily Potter, the useless little daughter of the famous blood traitor Harry Potter! What do you feel about that?"

"Who are you?" I spat at her confidently. "You know me and I don't have a clue what your name is. I rather have a clue of what your parents might be," I sneered back at her, "Death Eaters, aren't they? Or maybe just one of them." I smirked at her, imagining myself look like Desiree when she does that.

"H-How dare you!" she yelled at me, while two short girls, one rather pig-like, one just a simpleton, edge closer to her, looking at me. Their movement were mimicked by Kat and Des. "Y-you don't h-have any right to i-insult me!"

"I can clearly see that what I said is true then," I taunted her more. "So, who are you again?"

"I'm Stella Selwyn you banshee!" she shouted in a high-pitched voice that made me cringe slightly.

"Who's voice is like a banshee now?" I mocked sarcastically, still enjoying myself. She was clearly getting more murderous at the moment and would happily launch herself and tackle me, but luckily, the professor arrived and cleared his throat and indicated us to enter the class room. I sat on the back with Kat and Des with a huge grin on my face.

"Lily!" Des exclaimed. This was the first time she called me that. I grinned even wider and turned to face my friend. "You really should have been in Slytherin by that attitude you know. It's usually the snakes to provoke others.

"I haven't started it," I said defensively.

"Well," Kat muttered under his breath because the professor reached the front of and faced the class, "you're one cunning little Gryffindor Lils! Well done."

"You know what? Couldn't you just say I'm the most noble and brave Gryffindor girl in first year. I might take that as a good compliment," I said without acid in my voice and smiled. The professor cleared his throat and all of us turned to listen.

"I am Professor Butler Griffiths and I will be your professor in Defense Against the Dark Arts. In your first term, I would like to focus you on disarming spells, body-bind curses, jelly legs and everything related to it. In your second term, we will proceed to protective and defensive spells. In your third term, we will repeat the spells you've learned for you to learn it thoroughly. For today," he flicked his wand and writings appear on the board, "copy the notes on the black board. Do it quietly."

I thought that the most eventful to happen in out class was my argument with Selwyn, but I was wrong. On our way to Transfiguration, we found our way blocked by five boys. I recognized the four as Nott, Goyle, Zabini and Malfoy. The other one look older than them and look like he was ready to hex me.

"What have you just said to my sister?" he asked coldly.

"Oh, so you must be Selwyn's brother," I said coolly without a trace of fear. "I just told her that your parent's a Death eater." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the Brett talking to Des on the other side, Des looking cool while Brett looking flushed with anger and Kat stepping behind my back.

"How dare you, you filthy blood traitor!" he yelled furiously at me, but I just raised my eyebrows innocently at him.

"Better blood traitor and muggle-born lover than a prat son of a Death Eater," I said to him with equal anger.

I saw him raise his hands so I acted instinctively, raising my wand before he did and said the first spell that my dad thought me to protect myself, "Expelliarmus!"

His wand flew high up and out of sight in an empty class room beside were they stood. He was raising his fist now, not caring even if he's wandless, but luckily, Professor McGonagall appeared behind me and bellowed, "What is this, Mr. Selwyn, Ms. Potter?" Her mouth was thinned into a dangerous line that Selwyn stopped on his tracks and composed his expression.

"Nothing Professor."

"Well I can't see that this is far from nothing Mr. Selwyn. Ms Potter?" she turned to me.

I bit my lip for a moment, deciding on what to tell her. I decided on the truth. "Well, his sister Stella was taunting me earlier in Defense classes so I taunted her back. She got a bit pissed off, I think. And Desiree, Katrina and I are on the way to Transfiguration when we found ourselves blocked by these five Slytherins. Zabini talked to his sister, I think and his buddies hang around behind him but Selwyn was furious with me because his sister probably told her what happened. He shouted at me and asked me what I've done to my sister so he got angry. He insulted me so I taunted him back. He raised his wand and before she could hex me or anything, I disarmed him so his wand flew to the empty classroom. Well I guess because he doesn't have a wand and I'm just a little girl, he raised his fist at me and that's when you came in and saved my life, Professor."

"Very well then. Is she telling the truth?" she asked Kat and the other boys. She look dangerous so they nodded, not bothering to lie. "Fifteen points from Slytherin. Mr. Selwyn, proceed to my office after dinner. We shall be talking about your detention." She looked at him angrily and added, "I can't believe that you will fight a first year out of your sister's provocation when your sister have started it! I expect better from older students like you. Go back to your classes now. And now you three," McGonagall said to us, "I shall escort you to your class room."

Transfiguration went like Defense against the Dark Arts. Professor Miranda Hawk discussed about the importance of the subject, how we are starting first at small objects to big ones and made us take notes. During Charms, tiny little Professor Flitwick, standing on a large pile of books to see us, made us take notes us well. The only difference was that he wasn't so strict and didn't mind if some students were talking.

After the morning class, we went to the Great Hall to eat lunch and talk to our other friends from the Ravenclaw table - Maxine, Hugo and probably, Nathaniel.

Note: I was thinking of skipping most of her first to third year at Hogwarts but I decided to write about all her first year before managing to write a sequel about her teenage life. I hope I get this all right :)