Just Another Year
A month ago if you had told her that there were goblins that ran a bank in London, or that you could walk through walls to secret train platforms, Lily Evans would have felt your forehead for fever and asked what was wrong. Well that had changed the moment she received an acceptance letter to a school, unknown to her, where you learned magic. It was called Hogwarts. A goofy name, in Lily's opinion, for a school. The first thought that had come to her head was that this was some silly joke the neighbor kids had played on her. But as she read and reread the letter it seemed far too professional for a six and seven year old to have written. Her parents inspected it carefully when Lily showed it to them and after much pleading they had agreed to take Lily to Diagon Alley, much to the dismay of her obviously jealous sister Petunia.
Now as Lily sat on the Hogwarts express, waiting for it to sweep her off to her new life of wonder, she thought about how happy she had been when her family had walked through the archway into Diagon Alley confirming the fact the she was a witch. She sighed happily and turned to watch the other students through her window. Of course she would miss her family, not so much Petunia who had never been the most pleasant person, but Lily felt a little lonely sitting there by herself. She had never done well being away from home for long periods of time, though she wouldn't have missed this opportunity if you had promised to shower her with gold for the rest of her life.
Lily was brought out of her daze when a knock sounded softly on the door, and a head, covered with shaggy black layers and bangs that hung over deep blue eyes, poked itself into the compartment shyly.
"May I sit with you?" the head asked timidly,
"Most of the other compartments are filled with older students."
Lily smiled and nodded. The girl which the head belonged to stepped into the compartment dragging her luggage behind her. She wasn't exceptionally tall, but defiantly higher than average, her hair that was pulled into messy pigtails reached just past her shoulders. After packing away all her stuff she sat across from Lily. And decided to try and start conversation.
"What's you name?" she asked while twiddling her thumbs.
"Lily Rose Evans, what's yours?" Was her reply. Lily was happy to finally be meeting someone. Friends were defiantly good to have. She felt less lonely just talking to someone who happened to be named,
"Bonny Black."
Lily and her new found friend Bonny made small talk for a while until the were rudely interrupted by the compartment door being slammed open by another… Bonny? No, this one was a boy who looked exactly like her, but more, well, manly and with shorter hair. Bonny scowled at him as he took the seat next to her. Her shyness seemed to melt away as she listened to him, her scowl deepening.
"Has ickle Bonny found herself a friend?" Her twin, as Lily assumed he was, taunted her.
"You can't call me ickle, Sirius, seeing as you are only two inches taller and three minutes younger,"
she retorted. She had made a good point so Sirius decided to ignore her and talk to Lily instead. After a few sentences she could tell this boy was mental.
A minute or two later Sirius sniffed the air and cried,
"Dungbombs! On the train, bloody brilliant, James!"
With that he ran out the door. Lily sniffed the air, too, only to be meet by a sickening stench.
"That is defiantly not brilliant," Lily said and laughed a little.
Her hand was clamped firmly over her nose as was Bonny's. By the time the smell had cleared the train was moving along the countryside. Bonny was rummaging through her trunk and Lily was staring out the window when the compartment door was slide open once again. In walked a small Japanese girl whose black hair reached her shoulders and had green eyes. She stuffed her baggage away and took the seat next to Lily.
"Hi, hope you don't mind me sitting here. Most of the compartments still have the smell of dungbombs in them… Oh! I'm Arina, by the way, call me Ari."
Bonny looked up from her trunk holding what she had been looking for, her wand and a book of charms. She and Lily introduced themselves, and Bonny started flipping through her book, while Lily and Ari started talking. After a few minutes the subject turned over to the girl sitting across from them.
"Bonny's awfully shy isn't she," Ari whispered. Her comment was answered not by Lily, but a boy standing in the doorway.
"Oh, you just wait! In a day or two you'll see she's an absolute nightmare," His brown eyes twinkled behind glasses. His messy hair, that had been black when he walked in, was now hot pink, compliments of the girl he had been referring to. He didn't know this of course. Lily and Ari were giggling when Sirius strode in behind him. He double took on the boy's hair.
"James, just because you play with Barbie dolls doesn't mean you have to try and look like one…" He said with an eyebrow raised.
"What are you on about?" James then caught a glance of his refection in the window. His eyes widened and he looked around the compartment looking for the culprit. His gaze feel on Bonny who had her wand at her side and was looking innocently at him. "Turn it back!"
"Why should I?"
"Because you did it!"
"And why did I do it, James?"
"Because I called you a nightmare…" He paused as he realized where this was going. "I'm sorry I called you that, will you change my hair back yet?"
"Thank you for the apology… but I don't know how to change it back," she smiled up at him from her seat. James sighed and grabbed the charms book that was sitting next to her and sat at the other side of the compartment, and started flipping through it looking for the counter curse. Sirius beamed at his her,
"Bravo Bonanza! You out witted my apprentice."
This earned him a kick in the shins from James, who had just turned his hair back, though there was still streaks of pink in it.
Lily enjoyed the most of rest of the ride. The compartment had a few more interruptions before they got there. One had been by a girl with blonde hair, blue eyes, an exceptionally high-pitched voice and a cat named Mr. Paws. Her named was Arabella Figg. When she had left the boys had commented on what a moron she had been, but Lily thought she was nice. Ari on the other hand had taken an instant dislike to her, most likely because of her cat which Ari was allergic to, and Bonny had just sat there quietly, it was hard to tell what she was thinking.
The other guests, well not really guests seeing as they weren't invited, were far less friendly. Severus Snape and Lucius Malfoy. They had been rude after learning the Lily had come from a muggle family, and were shoved out of the compartment by James and Sirius. Lily didn't quite understand what was wrong with being muggleborn and James had told her not to worry about it. About an hour after this incident the train began to slow as they arrived at the station. Lily, Ari and Bonny who had changed on the train into their robes, now hoped off and followed the group of first years down a path leading to, as it turned out, a great lake. Their first glimce of Hogwarts took their breath away. Lily hadn't known it was a castle, this raised her excitement even more.
The first years boarded boats that took them across the lake to Hogwarts. They waited skittishly as the monstrous man, Hagrid, who had lead them to the door knocked. It opened to reveal an entrance hall that was huge, but their way was blocked by a stern looking young witch, who's hair was pulled back so tight that Lily winced just looking at it. When she spoke her tone said clearly that if you set a toe out of line you would regret it dearly.
"Welcome to Hogwarts please follow me to the Great Hall where you will be sorted," she said shortly and strode off towards large doubles that lead to the Great hall. The first years hurried to keep up. As the doors to great hall were thrown open the first years gasped. Hundreds of students in black robes were seated at four long tables, and at on high table the staff was seated. The first years followed the stern witch to this table where there was an old hat seated on a stool. Lily saw Ari crinkle her nose, she obviously wasn't too happy about the prospect of touching the filthy hat. At this point Lily didn't care what she had to touch she just wanted to get into a house.
I'm so sorry that took me so long to post, you can all kick my lazy ass (uh… mentally) if you want to. I didn't get all the characters into the first chapter, only two, I think. I was going to have this story checked over by someone before I posted it, but it had been so long since they agreed to that, that I decided not to bother them. So what I'm saying is sorry for any stupid mistakes I made. If you like the story and want me to continue just review and let me know. Oh and MERRY HOLIDAYS! Hee hee!
-cheesepuff
disclaimers: I don't own Harry Potter. Ari belongs to SSJ Diana, and the personality and appearance of Arabella Figg that I'm using belong to Deirdre of the Sorrows.