As soon as the silver car sped off, Mr. and Mrs. Black started interrogating poor little Lily Evans. Oh my God, where is Evelyn when I need her?! Wait.. where is that silly girl?! She's my best friend! And she just.. all of a sudden disappeared! Like I remember, just this morning when we were all going to Jeremy's house.. and like when Tuna got all angry.. and so where is she now!?!? Lily thought, as she was beleaguered with questions.

"What was that silver thing?"

"Hi, I'm Kate."

"So where are you from, Lily?"

"Do you know what magic is?"

"Hi, we're--"

"I know you two! I saw you two in the morning! Except--"

Receiving death glares from the two mischievous boys, who all of a sudden looked quite serious, Lily thought it best to keep quiet. Like what are they all freaking out about now!? Phht.. Boys... the girl thought chidingly, though she gave in.

The Blacks were now looking at her curiously; it was the first time this bright little girl had spoken, although she spoke in awe of the two rabblerousers.

"So tell me.. how do you know James and Sirius?"

Fumbling nervously, Lily didn't know what to say. James and Sirius were glaring at her really hard, and, as she was to be stuck with them for the next seven years, she didn't want to make any bad first impressions. Maybe I can be the Beauty Queen at Hogsworth! she thought dreamily.

"Um.. well.. "

Noticing that the girl was really feeling uncomfortable, Mr. Black spoke up.

"Well, I think we should get going! There are so many people there already, I bet!" Lily shot a grateful smile at the knowing Mr. Black. He, too, had once been young.. and, well.. rather mischievous. He too had once been young.. and cared about what others thought, about being Mr. Popular.

As the group hurried on, Mrs. Black chided the two children while Sirius, James, and Lily tagged along in back.

Kate spoke up. "Mom.. Sirius here has James to talk to, and Lily is finding herself comfortable with those two idiots.. so I was wondering," she said with her sweetest, most malicious smile, "Could I go off with my friends too?"

"Honey, I know you're at that age, and--"

"But Mooommm! You don't understand! Sirius is with his friends, and I want to be with mine!"

"Just let her go," Mr. Black said, annoyed with his daughter's whiny voice.

Kate happily skipped off to The Leaky Cauldron, where a few other sly-looking third-year Hogwarts students were already waiting for her. She shouted to her parents, "I'll be home around midnight!" and quickly ran off before Mrs. Black could object.

As Mrs. Black sighed at "teenagers today" and worried over her daughter's safetiness, Lily was glancing shyly at the two boys.

"So what was your name again? I didn't quite catch it.."

"I'm Lily.. and like you're.. James?"

The boy scoffed, "Hah! If I were James Potter I'd kill myself first!"

"What's that supposed to mean!?" James asked, play-punching his friend.

Lily was confused; she had thought that James and Sirius were brothers.

"You two-- aren't.. like.. ?"

"Uh, lady, we can't mind read. Wanna specify?"

"Are you guys brothers?" she asked bluntly.

The two boys roared with laughter. "YOU THOUGHT WE WERE RELATED?"

"I'd kill myself first!" the two replied in unison.

Oh.. so they're just really tight friends.. At this, Lily's thoughts wandered back to Evelyn and she wished her best friend were here with her now. Then again, she knew Evelyn wouldn't really have done anything, as she switched best friends routinely--almost as routinely as she switched boyfriends.

"So you're going to Hogwarts?"

"Yeah.. like I don't really even know what it is, but like my stupid sister forced me into all this.." a downcast expression settled on the unknowing girl's face, and she was met with indignation from the two boys, who adamantly supported their beloved Hogwarts.

"What are you talking about!? Hogwarts is a wonderful place! I've spent the past ten years of my life training for Hogwarts and wishing to be in Gryffindor and practicing Quidditch!"

"Yeah! I've spent the past two years watching my sister come home, laughing and joking about her friends in Hogwarts, even if she's in Slytherin, and about Quidditch! I mean, all the chances for playing pranks, it's the perfect environment!"

Lily cowered back, fearful she had said the wrong thing. She looked so comical, an innocent harmlessness about her face, masked with a film of confusion, that the boys couldn't resist but laugh again.

"It's okay, you'll come to like Hogwarts. It's not as bad as you'd think," James smiled and told Lily.

Conversation went like that for the rest of the day, the boys laughing and making Lily feel uncomfortable, and Lily just feeling really confused. By the end of the day, Lily had learned that Quidditch was the only sport that wizarding kids played, and therefor practically as big as religion in the magical world. She understood that there were four houses to Hogwarts, one for "nice airheads", one for "Kates", one for "quiet kids", and one for "the cool kids," according to the two boys. She learned about some of the fun tricks that James and Sirius had played on Kate and unsuspecting victims. Lily was starting to believe that Hogwarts wouldn't be so bad after all.. But it'll never measure up to Madison MS, she thought regretfully.

She had learned that balls were not frequent at her new school.. not as frequent as they were at Madison Middle School, anyway, where there were dances and celebrations almost every other week. What am I going to do!? she thought desperately. Another drawback for Lily was the total lack of fashion in Hogwarts. "We only wear these robes," Sirius had said nonchalantly; his mind was on fooling the Potions Professor, whoever he/she ended up to be.

Lily hadn't really noticed until the day came to an end, that James had been dressed in normal clothing-- khakis and a tee-- while the rest of the Blacks had been in graceful, long, flowing robes. There was a certain sense of style to them, though it was minimal. Waistlines could be fitted, but the sleeves and general form could not be helped. Well, at least I'll be saving Mum and Dad some money, Lily thought gloomily.

Lily had been particularly excited when she was fitted for a wand. Although James and Sirius had to go through quite a few wands, impatiently, before they found theirs, Lily had fit into her wand perfectly, the first time. It had been a unicorn's hair or something or other; she couldn't really remember. It sounded majestic and grand when the wise old wizard had given it to her, though, and she was happy holding it, a sort of amorphous but ever-present power clutched under her slender, pretty fingers.

The two boys raced off to the Dragon's Lair, a chain store that was also part-Muggle. The guy who had started the toy store, Lily was told, was now a millionaire, because he had cleverly mixed Muggle and Wizard elements together, to make the funniest, trickiest, and most appealing toys ever. They were "the new buzz," according to Mr. Black, who worked on the "Ministry of Magic" in a newspaper section as a reporter-sort, but with a higher status.

Lily wasn't quite sure about everything she was told; terms and phrases were swirming through her head at the end of the day, while she held a few mystical-looking books, magical jelly beans (she was told that they wouldn't lead to Heaven, or a giant's-haven, and that they had nothing to do with Jack nor his beanstalk), chocolate frogs, new robes (pink and lavender ones which were just stylish enough for her.. with the proper corrections, which she'd spend the next few days on, of course), and her wand. Her cauldron and the rest of her school supplies were apparently being shipped, or mailed, or poof-ed, off to Hogwarts, as they were too large and cumbersome for her to bring home by herself.

As the Blacks, James, and Lily came out of the last shop, Mr. Black exhaustedly asked where Lily lived. It was already getting dark, and Lily was afraid it might be well after eight by the time she got home.

After she gave the Blacks her address, she added in a worried voice, "Um, I'm not sure how long it's going to take for me to get home, but like I really need to go soon, I mean, with traffic and all that.." The Blacks and James had a hearty laugh.

"It'll take but a second," explained Mr. Black. "We don't have time to explain clearly right now, as it really is getting late and all, but basically us magical folk use a system called the Floo, and it gets us where we want to be going extremely quickly. As you're in a Muggle family, I'm not sure whether the Floo connects to your home, or whether your parents will be particularly.. uh.. delighted, that you come home that way..--"

"But there's a stop, I'm definately sure, at your neighbor's house!" Mrs. Black cut in. "Mary and I are good friends, she certainly won't mind if we use her chimney just this once!"

Lily was, once again bewildered at Wizard technology and just nodded, too confused and too lazy to ask about this Floo system of networking. "So how do I get home?" she asked them bluntly.

"Easy. Just say the name of the place-- in your case, the street. Actually.. don't say it, scream it. Might work a bit better! Here, I'll sprinkle the dust, and you just scream out the street that you live on, alright?" Mr. Black said calmly, as if it were perfectly normal. And as he sprinkled some of the tintillating Floo powder into the open fire of The Leaky Cauldron, Lily screamed at the top of her lungs--

"VOLDRIDDLE DRIVE!"