Lily found herself being shaken awake very early the next morning. Her owl was hooting softly as to encourage who ever was shaking her. Her eyes fluttered open and she yelped.
"Good morning!" said James enthusiastically.
"Is the sun even up yet?" Lily asked, as she tugged on the blankets that had been pulled away from her.
"Nope! It's only six. I thought that you'd want to wake up though." He was grinning.
Lily suppressed the urge to kick him. She sat up in retreat, and adjusted the messy bun that she had put her long hair into the night before.
"And why did you think that I would want to do that?" she asked in an almost-too-sweet tone.
"Well, I was going to go and see my friend Sirius, he's coming to Hogwarts too, and I thought you'd want to meet him!" James now looked beside himself with glee.
Lily flopped back on her bed, but then managed to sort of roll out from it. She stood up and lightly pushed James out of her room, assuring him that she wasn't going back to sleep, only getting dressed.
A few moments later she appeared in a black sweater and a pair of dark blue jeans, her hair was tied up in bun that was only slightly neater than it had previously been. She looked very sleepy. With a yawn and a tug on her arm, the two were walking down Diagon Alley.
They had reached the out door tables of Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor (which was not yet open) and found a boy looking as sleepy as Lily was. James had to be the one who'd come up with the brilliant plan to meet at the crack of dawn.
"Sirius!" he called as though the street was crowded and noisy and he was at a distance, rather than almost deserted and only a few yards away.
Lily sniggered. Sirius sat up in alarm. He shot James a sleepy smile, and then rested his head in his arms on the table.
"Come on, Sirius, get up!" James shook him, as he had Lily.
Seconds later he was struggling to get up off of the ground. Sirius had tackled him.
Lily was now laughing so hard that she had to gasp for breath. Sirius stood up and helped James up as well. He was studying her suspiciously, and giving James curious looks out of the corner of his eye.
"Who's your friend?" he asked in a demanding tone.
"Lily Evans. She's going to be a first year too. Lily was our muggle." James said smiling.
Lily shot daggers at him with her eyes. Sirius also looked thoroughly unimpressed with his friend's choice of words.
"That was badly put James. You know how some people are, you don't want your friends to start thinking that you agree with that sort of rubbish." Sirius spoke rather threateningly to his friend.
"I didn't mean… oh fine," he glanced at Lily, "Sorry."
"'Salright, "she said quietly as she slid into a seat at the table Sirius had been occupying.
Sirius sat down at the table, and now smiled politely at Lily. He had dark drown hair that was slightly longer and neater than James's, as well as blue gray eyes that were gleaming cheerfully behind something that seemed slightly stern.
"So, as our misguided friend has been led off topic," Sirius began, "We haven't been properly introduced.
"Sirius Black," he smiled holding out his hand.
Lily shook his hand gently and smiled, "Lily Evans. I'm very pleased to meet you."
"James, now that you seem to have recovered from your lack of manners, you may take a seat with us."
James sat between Sirius and Lily at the circular table. They began talking about Quidditch and about things that Lily had never seen before. She explained things about muggle life, like electricity and television. They told her about their families, and things that had been in the Wizard news.
"Yes, the Ministry's talking about electing a new Minister of Magic. They won't do anything for ages though. Take forever with the littlest thing," said James casually.
"Ministry?" Lily asked, once again feeling out of place.
"Yeah, Ministry of Magic. They're the ones who make all the laws for our world, you know, so we won't go and make it obvious we're around, and so the muggles are okay, and all that," he explained.
"Muggles would be pretty scared if they knew we were around. Trained wizards can do some very scary things. A lot of people don't like muggle born wizards, they think that they aren't 'pure' enough or some rubbish. Some even try to…" Sirius trailed off after he saw the look on Lily's face. "But that doesn't matter."
Lily tried to smile, but she now felt nervous, especially as she realized that is was becoming increasingly crowded on the street.
"Omigosh! Sirius, James! It's almost nine o'clock! The train for Hogwarts leaves at eleven!" She cried, looking at her watch.
They stood up quickly (Sirius's chair had tipped over in the process) and ran towards the Leaky Cauldron where a very anxious looking Mrs. Potter was waiting at the archway.
"James Potter, Sirius Black and Lily Evans, where on Earth have you been! Come on, take some toast and get your things!" Mrs. Potter urged them.
Lily ran up the stairs and quickly threw the last of her things in to her open trunk, then locked it tightly shut. She took the hook of her owl cage and one of her trunk handles and some how managed to inch her things down the stairs in less than eight minutes. James and Sirius were standing with half eaten pieces of toast in their hands.
About ten minutes later, they were all piled into a large taxi. Mrs. Potter was sitting in front with the nervous driver. Sirius was fiddling with the handle of a wicker work basket and on either side of him, Lily and James were peeking out the window around their birdcages. The trunk was weighted with their school things. Lily sighed wishing that she had remembered to take a piece of toast before they left.
The taxi arrived at King's Cross station with about ten minutes to spare. Mrs. Potter helped them heft their things onto a cart and walked them towards the barrier between platforms nine and ten.
"I thought. Oh that can't be right…" said Lily softly.
"Lily, dear. Platform –" Mrs. Potter had begun calling to her, but realized what she was about to say. She stood, apparently giving instructions to James and Sirius and then walked quickly over to Lily.
"Lily, I'll help you onto the platform. You need to pretend that the barrier isn't there. Come along." Mrs. Potter led her towards the barrier, and then leaned casually against it, her hand gripped firmly on Lily shoulder.
They seemed to have slipped through the wall. In front of them an old fashioned looking Platform appeared. A large, red steam engine was on the tracks, looking as though it were just about to set off.
"Have a good term!" she said, hugging them tightly. "Do write if you need anything!"
She hurried them onto the train, just as the last whistle sounded. Their trunks had been placed in compartments and their pets had begun responding to the loud calls around them. They could feel it begin to move and hear the parents outside calling their final good-byes as they searched for an emptier car.
They found themselves seated in the last car of the train, joined by a small, chubby boy who was looking quite nervous and a thin, handsome boy with very dark blonde hair and gray eyes.
"Hi," said the handsome boy to Lily, James and Sirius. "I'm Remus Lupin, and that's Peter Pettigrew. We're first years."
"I'm Sirius Black, and this lovely lady is Lily Evans," she blushed furiously, "and this lovely young man is James Potter," he took a trash at him.
"We're first years too," said Lily quietly, now feeling a bit self-conscious.
"Great, maybe we'll be in the same house!" said Remus.
Sirius and James had explained how people were sorted into houses at Hogwarts, but neither of them knew how the sorting went of what they had to do to be sorted. They all agreed that it would be a great thing to be in the same house.
They were just sitting down to a game of Exploding Snap (except for Lily who had decided that she would just watch the first round), when the door of the car slid open. A familiar boy with greasy black hair and pale skin walked in. He looked at them with a sneer.
"If it isn't Black and Potter, the two man clown act," he said with a nasty edge in his voice.
"Shove off, Snape," said James with out looking up.
"I just wanted to meet the filthy little mudblood you were dragging around London yesterday," said the boy casually.
Sirius shot up and grabbed him by the collar; James was standing behind him. Both were looking rather livid.
"Watch your tongue, Severus," growled Sirius.
He shoved the boy against the wall of the car. The boy seemed to realize how much smaller he was than both Sirius and James. A look of concern crossed his face, but he seemed to push it away quickly and drawled on.
"What? Do you two fancy her? Potter, have you got a crush on the little piece of muggle trash?" He shoved his full weight towards them trying to push them off.
Sirius slammed the boy's head against the wall.
"Better muggle born, then 'pure blood' trash that doesn't know when to keep his filthy mouth shut," James snapped as he swung a fist at Severus.
"Stop it!" Lily cried. She and Remus were trying to pull them back.
Severus gave her a very nasty glare as Sirius' hands slipped away from his neck, and he bolted out.
"Why'd you stop us! That filthy git deserved anything he got!" cried James.
Lily looked at them frowning; "You would have gotten in much more trouble than he did. I know you were just trying to stick up for me, but I didn't want you expelled before we even got to school."
They were quiet for the rest of the afternoon. Lily had lost her appetite when the witch who was pushing the snack cart came in a short while after the fight had broken up. The boys all returned to their game, eating Cauldron Cakes and Chocolate Frogs happily. Lily, however, spent the remainder of the trip watching the now stormy countryside fly by through the window.
