Disclaimer: This story is based upon the worlds created by and belonging to JK Rowling

A/N: As I mentioned on a previous note, this is the chapter which tells Lily's story from the summer before she starts at Hogwarts to the present February day where chapter 11 left off.

12: Lily's Story

Lily woke up in her bedroom; there was a knocking sound coming from outside her window. She pulled back the curtains and immediately woke from he sleepy state. Her eyes were now wide open and she hastily opened the window allowing the brown tawny owl to enter her bedroom. Depositing the letter on the bed, the owl swooped back out of the bedroom as Lily closed the window behind it. Lily stared at the envelope on the bed. The emerald green ink reading 'Lily Potter, Bedroom Five, 12 Grimmauld Place, London, England' confirmed what Lily was thinking. She had finally received her Hogwarts letter. Ever since James had received his and she had gone to the platform with the rest of the family, she had wanted to go to Hogwarts. During James' first year, she hadn't minded too much because Albus was still there with her. During that year, they developed a bond that Lily didn't share with James.

The following year, however, Albus was eleven and he went to Hogwarts leaving Lily all alone in the huge house that was Grimmauld Place. Lily had become jealous of her brothers and her desire to go to Hogwarts grew even more. She wanted to go and knew that she wouldn't be. The time had come for Lily and it was her turn to be brought to Diagon Alley to get all her supplies for the first time. This only happened once and she remembered seeing how much her brothers had enjoyed being fitted for their robes for their first time, admiring all the books that they flipped through as soon as they owned them. She noticed how happy they were when they first received their new wands and when it dawned on them that soon, they would be getting onto the Hogwarts Express and heading to the school they had long since fantasized about attending. Lily knew that soon, all those feelings were hers.

Lily opened the letter and smiled as she read the letter which invited her to attend Hogwarts. Lily rushed down the stairs and into the kitchen where her mother awaited. She saw the letter in her daughter's hand and smiled. "Diagon Alley today then?" Ginny asked her daughter. Lily couldn't speak but simply nodded her head. Ginny smiled once more and gave Lily her breakfast; sausages, bacon, eggs and toast. Albus and James were late up, much to Lily's dismay but their mother was quick to hurry them up. By half eleven, they were ready to leave. Using the Floo Network, they arrived in the Leaky Cauldron which they passed through without hassle and made their way onto the cobbled streets of Diagon Alley. Lily, despite being here many times before, looked like she was in paradise. Lily didn't know where she wanted to go first and Ginny decided they would go to get their school books first. Ginny handed the booklists into the shopkeeper who, with a few waves of his wand, had all the necessary books in front of him. Ginny parted with her Galleons, Sickles and Knuts in exchange for the books. Imparting a feather-light charm on the bags of books, Ginny took the considerably lighter bags and followed Lily out of the shop, soon followed by both Albus and James. Lily trotted with a smile on her face to Madam Malkin's robe shop. Lily enjoyed her time standing on a small stool, despite being prodded by needled as she was fitted for her school robes by Madam Malkin junior. Lily then had to wait while her brother's got fitted for their new robes. Albus' robes bore the Slytherin crest while James' bore the Gryffindor emblem. For the first time. Lily began to consider what house she would be sorted into. Not lingering on this too long, Lily was bouncing once again, her fiery red hair bouncing as she did so. They moved on to get supplies for Lily while James and Albus picked up somethings they needed and continued to swiftly move around Diagon Alley.

"Mum" Lily moaned. James and Albus were both tired and knew that their sister was going to start her moaning. Both boys weren't fond of Lily's immature attitude and Lily was becoming increasingly aware and vowed to herself there and then to change that by time they has begun their school year at Hogwarts. "Why are we going to fast?" she asked.

"Because Lil" Ginny replied, "I have to be home soon because I'm working at two. I have to get to the Holyhead to report on the Harpies game, first of the season."

"Will dad be home?" she asked.

"Unfortunately not" Ginny replied. "You're going over to the Burrow"


Lily was counting down the days until September first. She packed, unpacked and packed again several times before she packed for the final time on the final day of August. Lily couldn't sleep that night with excitement. For the past three years, she had watched her brother's go to Hogwarts as she watched from the background but now it was finally her turn. Around half past twelve, the tiredness finally got to the red haired youngster but was awoken early the following morning and was soon almost literally bouncing off the walls with excitement. Ginny almost had to force feed Lily her breakfast but she finally managed to eat something before lugging her trunk behind her and cat cage, a gently meowing coming from its cage, and stood awaiting at the front door. Albus and James, in Lily's opinion, took far too long to get themselves readied. Albus was the first ready, followed by James. Harry and Ginny loaded the car. Lily smiled with glee and took a seat in the back of the Ministry issued car. Albus and James followed not long later and the Potters were on their way to King's Cross.

Despite having made this journey several times before, it now had a different feel to it for Lily. She was excited and could hardly sit still as she stared at the passing scenery; not much but high rise buildings and traffic. They pulled into King's Cross at quarter to eleven. Harry quickly retrieved three trolleys and placed his children's belongings on them. Lily took her trolley and pushed it through the station. Ginny looked down at her watch.

"We have ten minutes, it's okay" Ginny said as the five Potters walked through King's Cross Station, three trolleys in front of them.

"Daddy" Lily said. "Will you please tell us if you're teaching this year" Lily was dying to know if her father would be her Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher and didn't want to be kept waiting until they arrived at Hogwarts and she had been sorted. She desperately wanted to know now.

"No, I've already told you that I've made a decision but it's going to be a surprise. You'll find out later on" Harry said to his daughter. He smiled at her.

"I can't wait that long" Lily moaned.

"Look on the bright side" Albus said. Lily looked at her youngest brother "You get to start Hogwarts this year" James nodded as his brother spoke. Lily just turned and faced away from them.

"I suppose" Lily said the smile returning to her face, this however wasn't visible to either of her brothers. As they approached the barrier between the magical and Muggle worlds, Ginny told Albus and James to go on through and they were followed by Harry.

"Ready?" Ginny asked Lily who nodded. "Let's go" Ginny said as the pair walked briskly which soon turned to a light jog at the wall. They emerged onto Platform 9 ¾ and, although Lily had been there before, she saw it in a completely different light now that she would be starting Hogwarts. Lily gazed happily around the platform as Harry made sure that all the trunks and owls were placed securely onto the train. Albus did likewise but lingered a little longer as their mother spoke.

"Yeah, but I don't have any of you in the house now" Ginny said and she began to weep slightly. "You're not babies anymore, you're all grown up." Ginny said wiping her eyes. "Go on James, find your friends" James was pretty much on his way when his mother told him to go. Lily was hardly aware of the fact that James had hugged their mother, said goodbye to their father and had taken off to find his own friends. Ginny had pulled Albus into a hug. "I'll see you at Christmas. Now go on, you only have," she paused and looked at the clock, "three minutes. You have three minutes" Albus trotted away after saying goodbye to his father and hopped onto the train. He stopped, turned back around and remembered his first day. He went back and waited for Lily to finish saying goodbye to and made her way onto the train. She followed Albus and the pair pulled their belongings down the train. Albus met Scorpius in the hallway and they were soon sitting in a compartment with Luke and his brother Paddy who would also be starting Hogwarts.

Albus, Luke and Scorpius dismissed Lily and Paddy and they were soon talking like they had known each other for months or years as opposed to only having met a few minutes ago. Lily found Paddy interesting. She liked his accent, it was different and his wit made for a few laughs. The pair eventually found a carriage that housed two youngish looking people. A quick glance told Paddy and Lily that they were both first years; their robes were plain black and there was no crest. There was a boy and girl sitting in the compartment. The boy had shaggy black hair and very pale skin while the girl had red hair, not too dissimilar than Lily's and her freckled face housed a wide, welcoming smile. Paddy slid the door open. "Mind if we sit in here?" Paddy asked. "Everywhere else is full"

"Not at all" the boy said, pushing down from the middle of the seat towards the window. Luke sat beside the boy, Lily sat opposite him. "I'm Alec" the boy said, "Alec McMenamin". He shook hands with both Paddy and Lily. Both Lily and Paddy introduced themselves to Alec while the girl continued to stare out the window. "Potter, you say" Alec said as Lily introduced herself.

"Yes" Lily replied. "Lily Potter". The other girl turned towards her companions in the compartment.

"I'm Harriett Grennan" the girl said. "It's okay, I got your names. Paddy and Lily, right?" They both nodded.

"So anyway" Alec said. "Potter, like Harry Potter?" he asked, eyes wide.

"Yes" Lily said, slightly exasperated. Now she knew that Albus and James weren't lying when they said that when people first heard the name 'Potter' they would immediately ask about their father.

"Wow!" he whispered. "He was awesome" Alec said. "I'm Mugge-born and when I was getting my school stuff, I got a book about recent wizard history and nearly all of it was about Harry Potter. Are you related to him?"

Lily saw Paddy smiling out of the corner of her eye. "Yeah, he's my dad" she replied. "And the books really do exaggerate it"

"Did ya ever think," Luke said, "that he's just being extremely modest"

"The man has a point" Harriet said. It was the first time she had spoke since they had introduced themselves. They soon glazed over the fact that Lily's father was famous for saving the Wizarding World from the most powerful dark wizard of all time. Lily could feel their friendship grow as the train journey continued and Lily knew that she was making friends that would last for all her school years and possibly beyond. As the train sped past the fields, the sun set and darkness set in as they approached Hogsmeade Station. The four changed into their school robes and readied themselves as the train slowly stopped in Hogsmeade.

Lily and Harriet talked as the Potter heard the familiar booming voice of Hagrid. "Firs' years" he called. "This way now, firs' years" All the confused looking children made their way towards the huge gamekeeper. "This everyone then?" he asked, peering back over the crowd and saw that there was no one visibly trying to get over to them. He allowed everyone else to clear with the occasional shout of "firs' years over here. Come on firs' years". Hagrid waited for the older years to clear before beckoning the new students to follow him. They followed the path and Lily was once again whispering to Paddy about what it would be like.

They came over the hill and got their first look at the castle. Lily's jaw dropped so much it nearly it the ground. The castle towered on the cliff's edge as its lights shone brightly off the surface of the black lake which rippled ever so slightly. This, in Lily's opinion, only added the impressiveness of the structure. The first years were brought forward to the water's edge by the half giant gamekeeper. Hagrid instructed them to get into the boats and none of the students dared disobey the huge man they didn't know. Lily was in a boat with the same three people that she had shared a compartment with on the train.

They waited. Hagrid looked around and saw that there were no more than four to a boat. He produced his pick umbrella, pointed it towards the castle and shouted 'forward'. The boats began to glide along the icy surface of the water. The water broke in front of them as the bow of boat cut through the water. "Bend yer heads down now" Hagrid called and everyone obeyed. They passed under the overhanging curtain of ivy and into the small passageway. They got out of the boats and walked up the steps. Professor Longbottom was waiting at the open door and beckoned the first years inside.

"Welcome" he said to all the first years who looked up at him, "to Hogwarts. I'm Professor Longbottom, Head of Gryffindor and Herbology professor. In a few moments you will pass through these doors and into the Great Hall where the rest of the student body are waiting. You will be sorted into one of four houses. They are Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin. While here your house will be like your family. Triumphs will earn you points and any rule breaking will lose your points. At the end of the year, the House with the most points will receive the House Cup. The House Cup is a prestigious honour for the house. I will return when they are ready for you." he told them.

Lily stood waiting and heard some students muttering, wondering about how they would be sorted. Lily heard students, probably muggle-borns who knew very little about magic, saying that they hoped it wasn't a test of their magical abilities. Professor Longbottom returned. "It's time. They're ready for you" he beckoned for the students to follow him. In two's and three's they walked in a long line through the centre of the Great Hall. All the older students eyed them as they walked. There were murmurs coming from all directions as they reached the top of the hall and lined out in front of the dais. There was a small, old rickety looking stool on the dais and a ragged patched hat perched atop the stool. The hall fell silent. The first years looked on, not sure what was about to happen. A rip just above the brim of the hat opened and the old hat burst into song.

"I am the Hogwarts Sorting Hat
And sort you all I shall
There are four houses which
You may go to.

The founders brains
Are placed in me
I will make the choice.

You might end up in Gryffindor
Godric valued bravery, courage
As well as daring, nerve and chivalry

Or you might go to Ravenclaw
For Rowena valued wit and learning
And those with a ready mind

You might be in Hufflepuff
Helga wanted anyone who was loyal and just
Hufflepuffs are patient and true

Or it may be Slytherin
Salazar wanted cunning folk
To use any means to achieve their goals

Whatever house you go to,
You will find real friends,
Place me on your noggin
To find where you belong"

The Sorting Hat went limp on the stool once more and the Great Hall burst into applause. Professor Longbottom unfurled a roll of parchment. "Adonis, Adam" was the first name called and it didn't take long for him to be sent to Gryffindor. "Barker, Harry" and "Boole, Paul" both went to Gryffindor while "Bundy, John" was the first Ravenclaw. Most of the students went to Ravenclaw, Gryffidnor and Hufflepuff. The first person that Lily knew was Harriet Grennan. She was eventually sent to Ravenclaw. Rose wondered whether their relatively recently made friendship would survive if they were in different houses. It all depended on what her mentally towards the other houses were. Alec McMenamin was soon called. The Hat pondered its options for a while before sending the boy to Hufflepuff.

Lily watched everyone be sorted and felt Paddy brushing past her as his name was called. The silence in the Great Hall was soon replaced with clapping and cheering from the table of Paddy's new house; Slytherin. There was two people between Lily and Paddy; 'O' Meara, Rory and Patil, Ryan' both of whom went to Ravenclaw. Professor Longbottom looked back down at the list.

"Potter, Lily" he called. There clapping from the Ravenclaws turned to a hushed whisper as everyone talked about where the youngest Potter would end up. Lily walked slowly, her legs shaking, knees trembling, to the stool. She dropped onto the stool and the professor placed the hat on her head. It slid down over her eyes, stopping on the bridge of her nose.

"Ahh, another Potter" the Hat said to Lily. "I sense the same as your father and brother. It is unquestionably between two houses-"

"Gryffindor and Slytherin" Lily thought.

"Correct" the hat said. "Slytherin would suit you the best, I think but if you're like your father then you might have a say in something."

"Put me where I'll do best" Lily thought.

"Just like your brother then" the hat said to her again. "In that case... SLYTHERIN!" the hat shouted. Lily removed the hat from her head, handed it to Professor Longbottom and bounded towards the Slytherin table. She easily located her shocked brother at the table and squeezed in beside him. The Great Hall was silent as the Sorting Ceremony continued. It wasn't as big a shock as when Albus went to Slytherin but there was still an air of unexpectedness hanging around the Great Hall after Lily's sorting.

"Why are you in Slytherin?" Albus whispered. "I was full sure you would be in Gryffindor."

"It was between Slytherin and Gryffindor" Lily replied in a whisper. "I let the Hat choose. The choice isn't up to me to pick my house otherwise there would be no point in having the Hat. I was sorta nervous up there and I had no idea what was going to happen. But I think it put me in Slytherin because I'm sorta more like you than James. And James annoys me sometimes, you're always nice to me" Lily said. Albus, and Lily, were different. They shared traits with both of their parents but the cunning and ambition they possessed was enough to put them both in Slytherin.

Hugo was sent to Gryffindor and Lily sighed. The Sorting Ceremony ended and the stool and sorting hat was returned to the Headmistress' office. The feast started and finished. Professor McGonagall informed them that 'Professor Potter has kindly agreed to fill the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts professor until Halloween when the new professor will take his post.' They were dismissed and Lily and the other first years were shown the way to the common room by the prefect and seventh year Regina Turley.

She was quick to show them their dormitory and Lily took the bed at which her trunk sat at the bottom. Lily, along with the other girls, quickly changed into their pajamas and climbed into the warm beds. Lily, however, couldn't sleep and she decided to write a letter to her mother now and she would send it in the morning.

Dear mum,
I had a great first night here. I met some really nice people on the train and it was was fun on the boats. I got sorted into Slytherin... I let the Hat choose and it put me in Slytherin. The common room and dormitory looks nice. I haven't got to know anybody much yet apart from the people I met on the train. Classes start tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to it. I'll write you later when there's more exciting things happening but for now, that's all
Lily


The following morning came and their first classes. Lily was happy to learn that she would share two classes with Ravenclaw and two with Hufflepuff so she would at least see Harriet and Alec during those classes. She also got to know her fellow Slytherins. Jasmine Bletchley, Mary Zabini, Kathleen Johnson and Amy Greengrass were the other girls in first year in Slytherin. Lily and Amy became good friends on the first morning and sat beside each other in every class. Lily really enjoyed Potions and thought that Professor Kelly was extremely nice. She excelled under her father's tuition in Defence Against the Dark Arts and enjoyed all her classes in the first week, with History of Magic the obvious exception. Lily knew that nobody enjoyed that class and now she knew why.

The week and first month passed in a blur for Lily. She enjoyed being at Hogwarts and had to admit that it had been well worth the wait! As she got to know everyone, she still remained friends with the first people that she met on her way to Hogwarts. Despite the fact that Harriet and Alec were in different houses, they still spent a lot of time together.

Lily's time was uneventful and enjoyed being in Slytherin, especially when she was able to celebrate a Slytherin win in the Quidditch. She was saddened to see her father leave not long before Halloween but thought that while Professor Fulton wasn't the most pleasant woman, she was always rather fair no matter what the occasion. She wasn't fond of Professor' Williamson and Binns, mostly because she didn't like their classes.

Nothing of note happened to Lily up to Christmas, nothing like happened to James who always seemed to be in trouble yet not often receiving detention or Albus who had a very interesting first year. Lily returned with her brothers for Christmas and enjoyed spending time with her family. She had been used to seeing her aunts and uncles quite often while not at Hogwarts so it was nice to be seeing them once again. Having spent the majority of the holidays at the Burrow, Lily repacked her things and got ready to depart for Hogwarts once more. It was the train ride back to Hogwarts that brought the first major event of note for Lily. Sharing a compartment with Amy Greengrass, Paddy O' Brien and Alec McMenamin. None of them had seen Harriet Grennan and when there was a scream from the hallway, they all rushed outside. Harriet was lying unconscious in the narrow corridor, an older boy, probably a fifth or sixth year standing not far from her.

"You just never learn" he said to her. Before Lily knew what she was doing, she had withdrawn her wand and pointed it at the older boy. He laughed. "Think you can take me alone?" he said to her. Lily fired the first spell that came to mind; a full body bind. He dodged it easily. He fired two jets of light at Lily but she managed to move out of the way of them.

"Picking on first years, Westley?" James said from behind Lily.

"Get out of here Potter. You've got no business here" the boy named Westley said.

"I think you're wrong" James replied, walking forward and withdrawing his wand. "It became my business when you started duelling with my sister"

"Your sister?" he asked confusedly. James now stood in front of Lily, wand pointed at Westley.

"Yeah, my sister... and her friends." he responded. "Petrificus Totalus" he said, flicking his wand at Westley. He had no time to react as James done it so nonchalantly. His legs snapped together, his arms were stuck to his sides and he crumpled over, stiff as a board. James looked him over and ushered Lily and her friends back into the compartment. "You did really well Lil" James said. "You stopped him from attacking you" James told her, well able to hear the commotion outside. Two Prefects had just arrived and were discussing various theories as to what happened. Lily's compartment was right at the back of the train in a separate carriage to the rest of the compartments. James slid open the door and walked out into the corridor.

"Potter" Lily heard one of the Prefects say and decided to follow James out into the corridor. "Do you know what happened here?"

"I do, Mary" he replied. "Westley attacked the young one and I body bound him" he said casually.

"Well, that clears everything up" Mary said. Lily looked from the entrance to the compartment. "Why are you down here?" she asked him next.

, seemingly forgetting about what had just transpired. She looked over James' shoulder and saw Lily standing there. Mary eyed her up and down before returning her attention to James.

"I came down to see my sister" James responded.

"You know that no one is supposed to be sitting in a compartment down here, don't you?" she asked him.

"Nope, didn't know that" James told her.

"You said you came down to see your sister."

"I did"

"Is that her?" she nodded at Lily. James turned around.

"It is. Lils, come here" he said. She walked tentatively towards James. Paddy, Alec and Amy followed Lily out of the compartment.

"You're not supposed to be down here"she said to him. "Get your stuff and move up the train" Mary told the first years. "Get out of here James. I won't say anything about you, you've avoided detention for now." They gathered their things and hurried down the train finding a compartment that housed only two people; both of whom were first years.


January passed and Lily began to re-accustom herself to life at Hogwarts. Classes seemed to up themselves in difficulty since the Christmas exams in which Lily received five 'Outstandings' in Potions, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Astronomy, Herbology and Charms and two 'Acceptables' in History of Magic and Transfiguration. It was easy to tell which subjects Lily liked and which ones she wasn't particularly fond of. The incident on the train brought Lily and James much closer together just as they seemed to be growing further apart. January was a horrid month as the teachers began to pile on the homework. Lily wasn't used to such a workload but managed to keep up; it just meant less time for chatting in the common room in the evening but it also meant that she really only saw her friends from other houses at classes and during mealtimes.

After weeks of denying to explain why she had been attacked, Harriet finally gave in and decided to tell Lily, Alec and Paddy. They were in the library and had finished their homework. "It's because..." she swallowed. "It's because my brother and his brother used to be really good friends and they had a bit of a disagreement. I talked to Alistair Westley to try and get my brother and him to make up because my brother just didn't want to listen. But both the Westley's are in Slytherin and their parents are those sort of people who are all about blood purity and all that crap. Alistair isn't like that though, he judges people by what they're actually like and not their family. Dennis Westley is the opposite to his brother. All he cares about is family heritage. He thinks that his brother should just forget about my brother. He thinks then that I shouldn't have got involved and he confronted me on the train and 'taught me a lesson' as he put it."

"That's horrid" Alec said.

"Absolutely horrible" Lily concurred.

They continued to discuss what happened to Harriet when Paddy posed the question that seemed to be unanswered. "Are you a muggle-born? Or does he just not like your family?" he asked.

"My mother is muggle-born" Harriet explained.

"Makes sense now" Paddy replied.


February brought yet another Quidditch match and another one which Albus and his Slytherin team won. After the game, Lily was approached by Emily O' Malley, one of Albus' friends. "Hey Lily" she said. "Can I ask you a question about Al?"

"Yeah sure" Lily replied to her as they walked with the crowd back up the castle.

"Do you think he likes me?" Emily asked.

Lily smiled. "He definitely likes you"

"Are you sure? I want to ask him to go to Hogsmeade with me but I think he might say no and I don't want to ruin our friendship" she said, seemingly becoming more confused as she spoke.

"He definitely like you" Lily repeated.

"Thanks" she said, rushing off with the crowd. Lily smiled to herself as she scanned trying to find her friends. Her red hair was wrapped around her face as a gust of wind picked up and blew everyone several feet backwards. A dust cloud rose up and fell again. Lily saw that it masked the outline of someone running, their robes billowing but Lily didn't think much of it. She might be seeing things, dust had got in her eyes after all and she might just be dreaming. She quickly forgot about this and began moving with the crowd once more.

A few days after the Quidditch match, Albus returned to the common room looking slightly shocked. He saw Lily alone and sat beside her. "I think..." he whispered quietly. "I think Emily just asked me out" Albus whispered to his sister who smiled.

"Probably" Lily replied. "Now go to your dormitory and relax yourself." Albus nodded his head, got up and walked to the dormitory and flopped onto his bed. Lily was still sitting in the common room when Paddy and Amy joined her.