Every compartment they passed through was already full when they got into the train, they were gonna be lucky if they found any space left for them after the long goodbye session with their parents at the platform. They were lucky they even got into the train in time in the first place.
"Scorp and Rose have to be somewhere over here" Albus, her older brother, muttered. Lily could barely hear him over all the screaming kids around them.
Today was the first of September, the day she'd been waiting for since forever, today she would finally get away from her numerous family – except for the handful of Weasley's that were still attending Hogwarts – and start her first year at Hogwarts and the first year of the rest of her life – and no, she was not being overdramatic, thank you very much -, it was an understatement to say she was excited about the whole thing.
Her elder brother, James, had disappeared as soon as they got there, dragged in a sea of fourteen year old boys and leaving the younger Potter siblings looking for a compartment on their own, which was easier said than done. It was even more uncomfortable with so many students staring at them and whispering to their friends as the siblings passed through them, after so many years since the war happened one could only hope the obsession the whole wizarding world had with her family had wear off, but alas, that hadn't happened.
"We would've found a compartment already if someone hadn't delayed us this morning." she complained after a while, looking pointedly at Albus' back, who had the wondrous idea of starting to pack all his belongings that same morning.
"And we would've gotten into the train earlier if someone hadn't cried on dad's shoulder for ten whole minutes at the platform" Albus counterattacked. Lily huffed, crossing her arms over her chest, so what if she was a bit of a daddy's girl? sue her for it.
Her feet were starting to get sore when finally, after what felt like years but was probably only a couple minutes, Albus found the compartment he was looking for, their cousin Rose and Scorpius Malfoy, Albus' best – and only – friends were sitting in a corner talking quietly, and with them were three younger kids, from whom Lily recognized her cousins Hugo and Lucy, who were starting their first year alongside her.
"Lily!" The two of them rushed to greet her, she couldn't get a word out before her cousins were onto her, talking excitedly over each other.
"Can't believe we're finally going-".
"... And we'll share a room and-".
"...Do you think they'll let us join the team?".
"Let her breathe" Rose scolded them from her side of the compartment.
They both send a sheepish smile her way.
"Sorry, Lil" Lucy apologised, sitting down again with Hugo following suit.
Lily waved her hand dismissively "It's okay. Hi to you two." she was as excited as them after all.
Lily found herself sitting in the only empty space left, right beside the girl she didn't know, she looked young, probably the same age as her or even a little bit younger, with black hair barely reaching her shoulders and pale skin, she was looking distractedly at the hallway through the window, so Lily couldn't see her face properly.
Scorpius Malfoy cleared his throat and gestured towards the girl "This is my cousin Emma Nott, Emma, these are Albus and his sister Lily."
Then the girl – Emma – turned her head and light blue eyes met Lily's brown ones and Lily felt awkward all of a sudden, her tongue dried out and her chest felt heavy, she could barely hear Albus greeting Emma, Lily was perfectly aware, however, of the uncomfortably long time she's been staring at the other girl and the too awkward silence starting to surround the two of them, but she just couldn't get the words out.
"Hi, I'm Lily," she finally said, "I mean, you already know that, Scorpius just told you." Emma was staring funnily at her "I'm going to stop talking now".
Emma kept staring at her, a barely there smile on her lips, "I'm Emma" her smile grew a little bit "I mean, you already know that." she added jokingly.
Was she making fun of her? In any other circumstance Lily might have taken offence of her mockery, but this time she just laughed along with Emma, her face warm and a weird desire starting to grow in her: she had to be friends with Emma Nott.
The rest of the afternoon was pretty uneventful, the hours dragged on between playing exploding snaps and chatting with her cousins. Lily had to fight the urge to keep talking to Emma, who sat in silence beside her for most of the day, looking through the window or dozing off with her head resting on it. She couldn't understand why she wanted to be friends with the quiet girl, she knew nothing about her and judging by the way Emma proceeded to ignore her after their short interaction, it didn't look like Emma wanted to be her friend anyway.
They were in the middle of yet another "In Which House You Think You'll Be Sorted Into" talk, the third one in the last two hours, she may add (what was the point in asking that? They all knew they'd be sorted into Gryffindor anyway) when Hugo turned Emma's way and asked:
"Oi, Nott, in which one do you think you'll be sorted?"
Emma seemed startled by his question, half awake and slightly surprised at being addressed for the first time in hours. "Dunno, Slytherin, Probably."
Lily pouted in disappointment "Really? I was expecting we'd be housemates."
"You were? Why?" Emma looked at her with a confused frown.
"Because you seem cool and I'd like to get to know you better" Lily answered shyly, feeling like she said too much somehow, her cheeks were getting warm for some reason – What was wrong with her today? –. The other girl opened and closed her mouth a couple times, unsure of what to answer, and Lily feared that yes, maybe she had said too much.
Lily was starting to feel awfully self-conscious when Emma finally said "Oh, okay." she was playing with her hands over her lap awkwardly "And, uh, you seem cool too" she complimented back without looking at Lily and Lily breathed a small sigh of relief.
She didn't have time to say anything else to Emma because right then she was yanked back to the world where other people existed too.
"Alright, we'll get to Hogsmeade in a couple of minutes" Rose was checking the watch on her wrist, she then pointed at the three boys in the compartment "you three have to get out of here while we get dressed."
Her earlier excitement came back full force now, she was really about to start her Hogwarts years, hell, her whole body was shaking just thinking about it, she couldn't wait to get there already.
The next hour and a half passed in a blur between putting on her black robes and getting out of the train. In the blink of an eye the massive castle doors were staring back at her, Lily could barely contain her excitement and nervousness, all the first year kids around her looked more or less the same as her, shaking and with huge smiles or nervous faces as a professor guided them right to the front of the Great Hall, where, after listening to a talking hat singing for what was far too long for her taste, finally, finally, the sorting ceremony began.
One by one the first years were called, Lily didn't pay attention for most of the ceremony except, of course, for when Emma was called and sorted into Slytherin just as she said she would, to Lily's disappointment. Soon after she was called too, she was uncomfortably aware of everyone's eyes on her as she made her way to Neville – or Professor Longbottom, how she was supposed to call him from now on – who was waiting for her, an encouraging smile on his face and the sorting hat on top of a stool beside him, she made the conscious decision of only looking at the huge illuminated ceiling as she reached him, turned around and sat on the stool, opening her eyes just as the old hat covered them.
"Gryffindor!" the sorting hat announced not even a second later and then it was removed from her head as quickly.
Lily let out a sigh of relief, up there she couldn't help but fear for a millisecond she was going to break the tradition and be the first one sorted into a different house. The Gryffindor table cheered loudly as she ran towards it, her face warm from all the attention, and sat beside James, who was waiting for her with open arms.
"Welcome to Gryffindor, sis" he said, putting an arm around her shoulders, she felt like burning up from the inside out but even then she couldn't help smiling contently, Her stomach was rumbling, now that her nerves had calmed down a bit she became aware of how hungry she was, there were still some kids left to be sorted, Lucy and Hugo among them, so she had to sit and wait for the ceremony to end so she could finally eat something. She watched absent-mindedly as the ceremony dragged on, half paying attention to James and Fred's conversation beside her.
"Mate I'm telling you, Hugo's a Hufflepuff through and through" James was saying.
"No way," Fred laughed from across the table.
"Wanna bet?" James asked, wiggling his eyebrows challengingly and pulling out five galleons from his pocket, leaving them on the table.
"Oh, you're on" Fred smiled widely, pulling out five galleons too.
"Weasley, Hugo" just then Hugo was called.
The small redhead ran nervously to the stool and sat on it, putting on the sorting hat, Lily watched him, curious to know if James would win the bet, James and Fred watched him too, the both of them with identical confident smiles on their faces. It felt like an eternity passed until the hat spoke:
"Ravenclaw!"
The Ravenclaw table cheered from the far right but Hugo just sat there on the stool, dumbfounded, the Weasley's stared at each other from the Gryffindor table, mouths open in surprise. Hugo stayed there for a couple of seconds, then got up and walked almost robotically to the Ravenclaw table.
"So, close enough?" James smiled charmingly Fred's way, the surprise wearing off of his face.
"You wish." Fred pocketed his five galleons back as James sighed dramatically.
"My dad's going to have a heart attack" Rose lamented from somewhere on Lily's right.
"Could've been worse," Molly shrugged beside Fred, "he could've been sorted into Slytherin."
And just then.
"Slytherin!"
Lucy had been called while they were distracted. The girl stood up and walked calmly to the cheering Slytherin table, sitting next to Emma Nott as her family stared at her with wide eyes.
"My dad's going to have a heart attack" Molly lamented.
...
Emma watched anxiously as the kids who would be her classmates from now on were getting sorted one by one. Why did the sorting ceremony have to be so long? and why did it have to be in front of everyone, couldn't it be a private thing? There was nothing she hated more than being the centre of attention, and now she had to stand in front of Merlin knows how many people while being judged by a talking hat, just splendid, she felt like throwing up just thinking about the whole thing. The minutes dragged on insufferably slowly until her name was finally called.
"Nott, Emma!" She walked as fast as she could to the stool, a nice looking professor waiting for her beside it, holding the hat.
Her legs felt like jelly as she sat down, feeling hundreds of eyes focusing on her while the professor helped her put on the hat.
"Slytherin!" It announced as soon as it touched her head.
She took it off and ran straight to the Slytherin table, her now housemates clapping politely. She sat down next to Scorpius, who was waiting for her with a big smile on his pale face, her heart was still beating loudly, nervousness still not wearing off of her. The rest of the ceremony passed on in a blur as Emma barely paid any attention to everything happening around her, she could only daydream about being alone in bed – or as alone as she could be sharing a dormitory with at least four other girls, but she'd rather not think about that right now – away from prying eyes.
"Man, can't believe I'm in Slytherin now" her thoughts were interrupted by a voice be her right, she turned that way to find one of the redheads from the train sitting there, Emma had no idea when she got there.
"Is that a bad thing?" asked Emma as plates full of food aparated in front of them, Finally, she thought.
"Oh, no, it's not that." the redhead (Lily? or was it Lucy? Emma couldn't remember) answered, biting into a piece of chicken, she chugged on it slowly before speaking again "It's just, I don't know anyone here, y'know? all my cousins are spread around the other houses, but here there's only me."
Emma hummed in understanding, opting for digging into her food as she didn't know what to say.
"I'm Lucy, by the way." The other girl said after a while, maybe she read her mind and noticed Emma couldn't remember her name.
"Emma." She answered shortly, Lucy nodded awkwardly and got back to her food.
They didn't talk any more after that, it was not – entirely – that Emma sucked at talking to new people, she was just too tired to even think of what else to say, and they had seven whole years to make awkward small talk and get to know each other anyway. Before long they were all sent to their common rooms and then she went straight to bed, too spent out to try to socialize with her roommates.
Being in Hogwarts felt strange, after a whole night and half a morning since arriving Emma couldn't decide if she liked it or not yet, sure, it was great not having her father breathing down her neck every second of the day but it felt so strange being around so many kids close to her age, she was only used to being around Cass, her little sister, with some sporadic visits from Scorpius, her aunt Astoria and her husband Draco, so being thrown into a castle alongside hundreds of kids, kids she didn't even know, it was a huge change, to say the least.
That's why she had spent the day alone, sitting with Lucy during their classes out of necessity, she had to sit with someone after all, and up until now they hadn't shared any lessons with Lucy's cousins so it wasn't like the redhead had anyone else to sit with either, they didn't even talk most of the times aside from shy hello's and she was quite satisfied with their silent arrangement. She was expecting more of the same entering her first potions lesson of the year that afternoon, but Lucy was already sitting with someone else.
"Emma!" Lily Potter waved her way as soon as she entered the dungeon, "Sit with us?" Potter was patting the seat at her right hand, with Lucy smiling at her sheepishly from Lily's other side.
They shared potions with Gryffindor so the dungeon was neatly divided with the Slytherins on the right side and the Gryffindors on the left one, with Lily being the only exception, the redhead was seated on the Slytherin side. All her morning lessons (which she shared with Hufflepuff) were more or less the same, no one was willing to sit with students from a different house, it seemed.
Emma looked around, searching for any other free seat and sighting mildly disappointed as she found none, she walked quietly to Lily and Lucy's table and plopped down beside Lily.
"How are you liking Slytherin so far?" Lily asked her with a warm smile "Lucy says your common room is too cold."
Emma shrugged, getting her cauldron ready for the lesson "It's just like this dungeon, not that bad." she said without looking up, still she could feel brown eyes on her, so she added: "I can see the depths of the Black Lake from the windows, so I think it's nice."
"It makes the whole room look so cool, all green and stuff." Lucy nodded in agreement.
"I can only see the sky from Gryffindor's tower, it's so boring." Lily pouted "Maybe you can show me around Slytherin's common room some time?" Emma only hummed non-committal as professor Sinclair, head of Slytherin and their potions' professor, entered the dungeon.
Emma couldn't help but to sigh in relief, it wasn't that she didn't like Lily, she was okay, as far as Emma could tell, and it was nice talking to her in the train, Lily seemed genuinely interested in whatever Emma had to say and that made her slightly uncomfortable, someone wanting to talk to her? a nightmare.
They didn't have much time to talk as Professor Sinclair explained what their potions lessons were going to be about, going on and on about the wonders of the potions making process and a lot of stuff she couldn't care less about. Her dad, Theodore Nott, had his own business making and selling potions, business that she was going to inherent someday far in the future, so naturally she spent most of her life with her dad in a dungeon smaller and colder than this one, observing him as he brewed and mixed ingredients in a cauldron and sometimes even helping him do it, every single time she helped him it ended in disaster, with potions exploding or catching fire somehow. Needless to say, she sucked at it.
So, naturally, she didn't pay attention to anything the professor said, opting to watch Lily from the corner of her eye, the other girl was writing down everything the professor said, clinging onto his every word with genuine interest.
"Do you like potions?" she couldn't help but to ask quietly.
Lily looked at her for a second before turning back to her parchment again, "I think it's fun." she said, making sure the professor couldn't hear her "Like, you have instructions to do something specific, right? But if you do things slightly different you can end up with something way different and better, or it can explode right on your face, it's so cool."
"Fun, eh?" Emma snickered "That's one way to put it."
"I take it you don't like it?"
Emma shook her head "I hate it." she answered honestly "Some time ago I helped my dad make this potion, right? And I had to add some dragon's teeth and after I did it it shot a ball of fire right to my head, and let me tell you, having no eyebrows for weeks is no fun."br /
Lily laughed loudly, covering her mouth with her hands in a failed attempt to be quieter, soon all heads turned to them, professor Sinclair crossed his arms over his chest, a strict expression adorning his tanned face.
"Is there something you'd like to share with us, Potter?"
"No sir, sorry sir." she apologised, face red from embarrassment and from how hard she was trying to contain her /
The professor still looked at her angrily "I'll let it pass just because this is the first day, okay? But I don't want any more interruptions" he said, now looking at the rest of the students.
"Yes sir." they all said as the bell rang, Sinclair waved his hand dismissing the class.
Lily got up quickly and exited the dungeon with Emma following suit.
"I'm so sorry for that" she apologised profusely.
"For making me laugh? It's okay, I'll survive'' Lily's face was so red she couldn't tell where her forehead ended and her hair started, but still she had a big smile on her face.
"For getting you in trouble" Emma clarified, Lily only shook her head dismissively, still smiling.
Just then Lucy reached them, panting lightly and carrying her bag between her arms, "What was all that about?" she asked curiously, gesturing towards the dungeons direction.
"Emma said something funny" Lily explained shortly.
"She did?" Lucy shot a quick glance her way, "So she can talk after all?"
Emma felt a pang of annoyance, of course she could, what did Lucy expect her to tell her if they barely knew each other? She was debating on telling her just that but Lily beat her to it.
"Lu, that's rude" Emma could only imagine the look Lily threw Lucy's way as the redhead's face got slightly red.
"You're right. Sorry Emma."
"It's okay." Emma shrugged.
Now that it wasn't just Lily with her she didn't feel like talking anymore. Funny how less than two hours ago the idea of talking to the Gryffindor seemed strange to her, but now after their little chat she decided that yes, Lily was a good enough person to talk to. Maybe she could even get her to help her with potions, that would be nice, too.
"What'd you have next?" Lily asked, turning Emma's way, clearly trying to dissipate the awkward silence lingering after Lucy's comment.
Emma groaned internally, remembering which one would her next lesson be, "Flying." She said, she sucked at potions, but with a broomstick she was a whole new level of useless.
Lily's eyes lit up "Me too!"
Great, they've known each other for barely a day and she was already going to make a fool of herself in front of Lily. Yay.
When they got to the grounds (after changing into flying-appropriate gear) almost all their classmates were there already, Madame Hooch arrived a couple of minutes later, barking at them to take a broom and get ready. Emma couldn't help but to look at her broom with distrust, that thing was gonna make her fall, she was sure of it.
And that's exactly what happened when it came to it, Emma mounted the broom, hands slightly trembling, and hit the floor hard right when Madam Hooch indicated it. She flew a couple metres before losing her balance and falling straight to the ground, her right foot hitting the floor first, ankle twisting itself into an awkward angle when the rest of her body fell on top of it. She stayed still on the ground, groaning painfully as Madam Hooch rushed to her side.
"Are you okay, kid?" she kept groaning as an answer, barely aware of all her classmates hovering over her.
"That doesn't look right" one of them pointed at her twisted ankle.
Hooch threw a glance at it "It looks sprained," Of course she sprained her ankle on her first flying lesson, fucking brooms "you'll have to go to the hospital wing."
Someone from her left raised a hand, "I can take her there" she heard Lily's voice.
"You'll come back immediately after, understood?" Hooch stared hard at Lily's direction as Emma was being lifted from the ground.
Lily made an affirmative sound, putting her arm around Emma's waist as Emma supported her weight on the redhead, Lily was the slightest bit taller than Emma so it wasn't all that uncomfortable. They walked in silence for a while, Emma paying great attention to every step, she didn't want to fall and sprain her other ankle, after all.
"Does it hurt a lot?" Lily asked just as they reached the castle's doors.
"A little" it hurt like hell.
Emma let out a sigh of relief as soon as the hospital wing was on sight, they hurried the last couple steps and Emma sat on an empty bed carefully while Lily explained to the nurse what happened. The nurse retrieved a vial from one of the shelves, handing it to Emma.
"Drink that and you'll be as good as new in a couple minutes." she explained, and then she turned Lily's way "And you, go back to your lesson."
"Hooch said I can stay with Emma until she feels better" Lily said with innocent eyes.
The nurse fixed Lily with a stern glare "I'll let your lie pass for now, but I want you out of here in a couple minutes." and then she went to her desk, giving the two of them some privacy.
Lily smiled victoriously, sitting in the bed beside Emma, "She's Alice, our herbology professor's wife and a family friend" Emma nodded without looking at her, her eyes fixed on the small vial, its content was green and thick, it looked quite disgusting. "Are you going to drink that?" the redhead asked after a minute.
Emma nodded again, opening the vial and drinking the liquid in one setting, and, yes, it was disgusting.
"It tastes like feet" She said, sticking her tongue out, her pain was starting to fade rapidly, so it did the trick.
Lily laughed lightly "So, you're bad at potions and at flying, eh?"
"I swear I'm not bad at everything," Emma was quick to say "it just so happens that we share all the lessons I'm bad at."
"What are you good at then?"
Emma took a moment to think, what was she good at? "I might be good at herbology, I can't be sure because my first lesson is tomorrow, though." Lily raised an eyebrow, silently urging her to elaborate "My dad has this huge garden back home, right? and he harvests all the ingredients he uses in his potions, I've helped him do it since I was little so I'm quite good at it."
"That's cool, if I tried to take care of a garden it would all just die the next day" Lily chuckled.
"Oh? so there is something you're bad at after all"
Lily laughed, "What do you mean? I'm not good at everything."
"You sure?" Emma raised an eyebrow playfully, "You're good at potions, right? and I'm guessing you're good at flying if you're here with me instead of out there."
"That's just two lessons out of ten." Lily noted "Potions is not that hard if you follow instructions, and my mum is an ex professional quidditch player, so Hooch can't teach me anything I don't already know anyway" she said, rolling her eyes "You wouldn't think I'm good at everything if you had watched me in transfiguration this morning, there's no way I can turn my cat into a cup."
"I had that lesson this morning too, it's not that hard."
"Well, maybe you could give me a hand with that" Lily looked at her hopeful.
Emma pretended to think about it, "Only if you help me with potions." she proposed.
"Deal." They shook hands, sealing the deal, "And maybe I can help you with flying lessons too."
"Yeah, there's no way I'm getting into a broom again" Emma chuckled, thinking that yes, Lily was definitely a good person to talk to.