Sirius was cheeky, smart and a rascal. James always liked a good prank and got in some trouble at home for this. He and Sirius kind of had the same mind when thinking about doing stuff. They were already planning some first pranks for teachers, depending on how strict they might be. But first they had to see the teachers. The red-headed girl had accompanied them in their compartment and James helped her getting her trunk in the overhead compartment. "Thank you!" She smiled at him, but the smile did not meet her eyes. And those eyes James noticed. They were emerald green, looking at James as though she could see through his soul. They were beautiful. She sat down next to James, sighed and looked out the window to the moving landscape. Her back was towards James. He wanted to ask her name, but Sirius punched him to get his attention. He turned around and started talking with Sirius. Soon they were accompanied with a few other boys. A tall, skinny boy named Remus Lupin, a small, fatter boy named Peter Pettigrew and some others. The compartment slit open again and a tall, skinny and pale looking boy was standing in the doorway. He was already in his Hogwarts robes. His eyes fixed on the girl with the red hair and he took the place across of her, ignoring the others. James did not pay much attention to it. Apparently they knew each other since the girl smiled at him. After a few sentences James attention was being caught by something that the skinny, pale looking boy said.
"I don't want to talk to you," she said in a constricted voice. "Why not?" "Tuney h-hates me. Because we saw that letter from Dumbledore." "So what?" She threw him a look of deep dislike. "So she's my sister!" "She's only a …" He caught himself quickly; Lily, too busy trying to wipe her eyes without being noticed, did not hear him. "But we're going!" he said, unable to suppress the exhilaration in his voice. "This is it! We're off to Hogwarts!" She nodded, mopping her eyes, but in spite of herself, she half smiled.
"You better be in Slytherin," said Snape, encouraged that she had brightened a little. "Slytherin?" James had shown no interest at all in Lily or Snape until that point, but now looked around at the word. The difference between James and Severus was big. James was slight, black-haired like Snape, but with that indefinable air of having been well-cared-for, even adored, that Snape so conspicuously lacked. "Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I would leave, would you not?" James asked Sirius lounging on the seats opposite him. But Sirius did not smile. "My whole family have been in Slytherin," he said. "Blimey," said James, "and I thought you seemed all right!" Sirius grinned. "Maybe I will break the tradition. Where are you heading, if you have got the choice?" James lifted an invisible sword. "'Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart!' Like my dad." Snape made a small, disparaging noise. James turned on him. "Got a problem with that?" "No," said Snape, though his slight sneer said otherwise. "If you would rather be brawny than brainy." "Where are you hoping to go, seeing as you are neither?" interjected Sirius. James roared with laughter. Lily sat up, rather flushed, and looked from James to Sirius in dislike. "Come on, Severus, let us find another compartment." "Oooooo…" James and Sirius imitated her lofty voice; James tried to trip Snape as he passed. "See ya, Snivellus!" a voice called, as the compartment door slammed.
They soon forgot about the two. When the lunch lady appeared they bought a lot of candy and the compartment was filled with roaring laughter. When they night fell they changed into their robes and stuffed the leftovers in their pockets. At one point they saw Hogwarts getting closer. "There we are, mate. This will be our home for the upcoming years." Sirius stood next to James as they both watched the castle coming closer.
Lily and Severus had found another compartment and moved their trunks with them. "Do not listen to them, Severus. They are just annoying and stupid!" Lily said to Severus. "I am used to it now, Lily. Nothing I have not heard before." Lily felt bad for Severus. He has always been a good friend for her. She did not understand why people would bully someone just by the way they look. It was not Sev his fault that his parents do not have a lot of money. Her parents were not rich either, but at least they had money to buy her nice clothes and provide her with enough food. Usually she would start getting allowance when she would turn twelve, but this had to change now. She could not leave to Hogwarts with at least some pocket money. Her parents gave her some money to get through this year.
There were a couple of four girls probably first years as well in this compartment. "Hi, could we maybe join you guys in here?" Lily asked. They nodded. "Are you starting at Hogwarts as well?" One of the girls asked. Lily nodded. "My name is Lily Evans and this Severus Snape." The girls all smiled. "Hi, I am Mary McDonald and these are Alice Pescus and Marlene McKinnon. We just met here on the train." Severus looked a bit taken back. Lily grabbed him by his sleeve and dragged him to the couch. Soon they were engaged in conversations about themselves and their expectations of Hogwarts. Mary and Marlene already had siblings at Hogwarts. Alice was an only child, but she came from a pureblood family. She already heard many stories about Hogwarts from her family. The more Lily heard from the others, the more exited she became. This was going to be great! At one point she had to ask: "So, how much magic do you already know? Nobody in my family is a wizard or a witch, so I have zero experience. There is a big chance I will be worst in our class, maybe even in our year." "That is rubbish!" Mary said. Lily looked at her with big eyes. She was not used to someone being that blunt. "Do no mind her. She says what is on her mind." Marlene said. Lily smiled, feeling a little bit better now that it was not personal. "Well, why is it rubbish then?" "Because even if you grew up in a wizard family, you are not allowed to do magic. I never touched a want and performed a spell. Probably we will have more knowledge about the magical way of living, but not of anything else. You will be fine!"
Lily felt relieved. Severus would never answer her questions about his home and magic there. Lily knew that there was trouble there and money was tight. His parents would fight a lot, yelling at each other. She felt bad for him, he did not deserve this. That was why he was so happy to finally go to Hogwarts. He hated it back home and now he was gone for 10 months. She was just excited that she would be able to discover her abilities, making new friends. Lily would still miss her family, but she could return in the holidays if she wanted. But after that fight with Tuney she was not sure if she wanted to anymore. Maybe some time apart would be for the best.
At one point an old lady showed up with a trolley full of candy and food that Lily had never seen before. "This is mainly what I was talking about, you see. I grew up with this." Mary explained her. "But I doubt that we will use them as ingredients for our potions." Lily laughed out loud. She liked these three girls already. Lily bought some candy with the advice from Mary and Marlene. Alice and Severus were engaged in a good talk about something with plants and their expectations about the lessons. The afternoon flew by and when the evening fell, they changed into their robes. At one point Alice gasped and said loudly: "Guys, you can see the castle! It is beautiful!" Everybody hurried to the windows and pressed their nose to the glass. Lily was amazed. The castle was lit and in contrast to the dark sky it was beautiful. After another 15 minutes the train came to a halt and they slowly made their way out. There was a big man waiting for them, his hair bushy just like his beard. "First years, come with me!" He shouted. Lily, Severus, Amy, Marlene and Alice walked towards him and after he counted the heads they walked towards a stairs. They descended the stairs and after the last curve Lily saw small sloops waiting for them. "Make groups of four and step into a sloop." Lily and Severus stepped into one and were accompanied by Mary and Alice. Marlene was in the boat next to them. Everybody was in awe of the castle and how impressive it was now that they were this close. After a 15 minutes they arrived at a small harbor and everybody left the sloops and followed the big man up the stairs. They arrived at the doors and a strict looking witch was waiting for them. Lily recognized her, it was professor McGonagall. "Good evening, first years. My name is professor McGonagall and I am a teacher here at Hogwarts as well. I teach Transfiguration. Also I am head of the Gryffindor House. Shortly I will bring you to the Great Hall where we will enjoy our start of the year feast, but you cannot eat yet. You will have to be sorted into a House here and the Sorting Ceremony will happen first. After that you will enjoy the feast at the table of your House, just like every meal of everyday for the rest of the year. Tomorrow at breakfast the class schedules will be distributed. After dinner you will be escorted by the prefects to your common room, so just wait for them to call you after dinner. Now please follow me." She turned around and started walking. Lily had to process all of this. A Sorting Ceremony? Did they already expect her to perform spells? Or was it some kind of test they had to do? Lily was getting nervous and knots appeared in her stomach.
Authors note: Just like the last chapter I used the parts from the books. This is of course Queen Rowling's work and not mine. I do not intent to make money of this, this is pure for the story. All characters and everything else belongs to her. But it helps me write the story, it is something you readers will recognize and it so well-written. Way better then I probably ever could, but it is good to have her standards to try and live up too!
And yes, they finally arrived at Hogwarts! I thought four chapters about their lives before Hogwarts would be nice. A little bit about their youth and how I imagined it. But now James and Lily are at the same school and starting to get to know each other. I will stick to the true story, so they will not fall in love with each other until the last year. James develops a crush on Lily in his fifth year, but I think he kind of noticed her already before. He was just too young to understand that he was starting to like her. The same goes maybe for Severus. He is definitely in love with Lily already, but he does not know it quite yet. He is a bit too young to understand his feelings. But I think in their second and/or third year this should become quite clear.