I Solemnly Swear
Chapter 1
'The Beginning'
By Silkistija (silkistija@hotmail.com)
~*~
"Oh, darling Lily! I can't believe you're grown up so quickly! Going away to school! Oh, I'm going to miss you so much," sobbed Mrs Evans, giving her eleven-year-old daughter Lily a tight hug and trying to kiss her.
"Mum, please, don't," said Lily, avoiding her mothers kiss. She wrested herself from Mrs Evans and turned to her father. He smiled proudly at her and hugged her.
"Goodbye, Lily, see you at Christmas."
Lily turned to the last member of her family, her big sister Petunia.
"Well, have a nice term, 'Tunia," she said, giving her a smile. Petunia just stared at her with cold eyes. It was really odd, Lily thought, because the two sisters had always liked each other, enjoyed each other's party, but now... Petunia had been so cold towards her little sister in the last month. Ever since Lily had received that letter from Hogwarts...
Lily watched her family leave before turning to the barrier she, according to the Hogwarts letter, had to go through. It looked massive. Could it really be true that a solid barrier was the way to Platform 9 ¾? Lily looked at her watch. She had plenty of time; the train wouldn't leave in twenty minutes. She could wait here for some other wizards to come and then watch what they did.
As somebody had heard her thoughts, a group of what could only be wizards came, pushing a couple of trolleys, onto the platform. Lily forgot her manners and stared at them. It was two boys, looking like they were at her age, a girl at about fourteen, and four adults, probably their parents. The girl and the smallest boy, both with fair hair, were wearing Hogwarts robes, and they were both carrying an owl. The girl looked supercilious, the boy very anxious. The other boy, on the other hand, had black hair, was wearing a bright blue, oversized T-shirt and jeans and was looking excited, bouncing around to examine everything. He quickly caught sight of Lily.
"Look, you, Paul, there's a girl over there, let's walk over and say hello!"
"My name's Peter," said the fair-haired boy with a squeaky voice.
"Oh, sorry," said the other boy. He turned to Lily and yelled: "Hey, are you going to Hogwarts too?"
One of the women, apparently the boy's mother, looked shocked.
"Sirius, calm down, what if she's a Muggle?"
"She's not. You're not a Muggle, are you?"
Lily shook her head hesitating. The boy called Sirius turned to his mother.
"See, I told you. Well, Patrick - sorry, Peter - let's get on the train. Bye Mum, bye Dad, Mrs... Er... -"
"Pettigrew," said the other woman, a plump, fair-haired one, smiling.
"Pettigrew. Peter Pettigrew, then?" he asked the other boy. Peter nodded.
Sirius got hold of his trolley, waved a goodbye to his parents and went through the barrier. Lily blinked. So that's how it worked. You just disappeared. She watched the boy named Peter disappear together with the girl (who probably was his sister), then looked around to see if anybody was watching before moving towards the massive wall. She didn't run, it would just make it worse if she crashed. But when she reached the barrier, nothing happened. A moment of darkness - and she was standing right in front of an old locomotive. "The Hogwarts Express" was written in black letters on the engine. Lily looked at the train and smiled happily. She was a witch! A real witch, and she was now leaving for a school where she would learn real magic. She could barely believe her luck.
Lily was about to seize her trunk and bag when someone suddenly ran into her. She turned around and found herself facing a boy with jet-black, untidy hair and glasses. He looked like he was trying to escape from someone.
"Sorry," he muttered, looking nervously around. "You haven't seen a girl around thirteen with black hair and a rubber chicken, have you?"
"No," Lily replied in accordance with the truth.
"Oh, great, I've shaken her off. James Potter, by the way," he said, outstretching his hand. Lily shook it and smiled at him.
"Lily Evans. Are you -"
Her words were cut short, because now a girl came running towards them, looking furious, yelling "James, you - you -! Come here and make this normal!"
She shook a rubber chicken vigorously. James looked horrified.
"My sister. I tried a spell on her wand. It worked," James explained. "See you!"
And he ran quickly away with his sister at his heels. Lily watched them jump on the train before starting moving herself. She seized her luggage and got on the train. Children and teenagers of different ages were rushing in and out the compartment, chatting and looking perfectly happy. Lily walked down the long corridor, trying to find an empty compartment, but as they all seemed to be occupied, she just walked into the closest. A boy was sitting in there. He had a very unpleasant look on his face and black, greasy hair. Apparently almost all the boys had black hair. Lily smiled hesitating at him and sat down her trunk.
"Can I sit here? There's no free compartments."
The boy looked sceptically at her.
"Guess you can..."
"Thanks."
Lily tried to get her trunk up in the luggage rack, but had to give up. It was too heavy. The boy gave her a contemptuous look. Lily blushed and sat down her trunk on the floor. Then, a very awkward silence followed. Lily looked at the boy, deciding that she probably had to start a conversation.
"So... what's your name?"
He looked at her in a way that strongly reminded Lily of Petunia's behaviour in the last month.
"Snape," he said. "Severus Snape."
"Oh, um, okay. I'm Lily Evans. Are you at first year?"
He nodded curtly.
Silence again. The train started to move. It had reached its speed before Severus Snape spoke. Or, actually, muttered. It looked like he was talking to himself and not Lily.
"Muggle born, I suppose."
Lily thought that she better had to reply. It seemed the most polite.
"Yes, I'm the only one in my family with magic in the veins, as far as I know. What about you? Are your parents Muggles, too?"
The boy, Severus, looked suddenly very nasty.
"Me? Should I be a filthy little Muggle? My parents are -"
But now, two of the three boys Lily had met before, James and Sirius, came bursting into the compartment, grinning broadly.
"Save us," Sirius yelled and tried to hide behind Severus, who immediately tried to fill up as much of the seat as he could. James rushed down behind Lily's trunk, and Sirius gave up his fight against Severus to get a seat, so he just closed the door and leaned against it.
"What's going on," Lily asked. Sirius pointed at James.
"It's Potter's crazy sister, Judith! He had turned her wand into a rubber chicken, and when she caught him, she literally tried to eat him. I saved him, and I accidentally - accidentally turned her hair pink. And now she's trying to catch us both!" he said, panting but grinning from ear to ear. And soon, there was a very violent knock on the glass in the door.
"Open up! OPEN UP!" yelled Judith. She was now looking very different from when Lily saw her last time, with her face almost as pink as her hair.
"James, give me that trunk," Sirius said. James grabbed Lily's trunk and managed to place it in front of the door. Sirius sat down on it with a thud.
"But it's mine, what if you've broken something of my luggage," protested Lily.
"Do you have other things than clothes in this one?" asked Sirius, still grinning. Then, he looked out of the glass.
"James, your sister's gone. But let's just stay here in case she returns."
But now Severus got to his feet.
"You don't think it would be polite to ask if you could sit here before actually settling down?"
James looked at her as though he had just now spotted him. His eyes ran from the greasy hair to the unpleasant look on the face.
"Sorry. May I have the honour to be allowed to ask for permission to get a tiny spot on the floor to sit on, then? And perhaps Sirius here can get permission to sit on the trunk? It won't occupy your space, since it's already in here..."
Sirius beamed.
"Come on, there's space enough. And, it was also an emergency," he said, looking as though that settled it. But Severus was apparently not giving in.
"An emergency gives you the right to burst into a compartment, you think? Didn't your mother ever taught you good manners?"
Sirius stopped smiling.
"What about your mother? She apparently didn't teach you manners, too. You haven't even introduced yourself!"
Severus looked even nastier than he had done when he spoke to Lily.
"Snape," he said through gritted teeth. And without one more word, he left the compartment.
"Nutter," said Sirius, looking after him. James shrugged.
"We'll probably get some fun with him. Pity I didn't asked him what year he was in."
"First," said Lily promptly. To answer the boys' looks, she said: "I asked him."
"Good, we're too," said Sirius. "What about you, er, what was the name again?"
"Lily Evans, I'm a first year too."
"Have any of you guys thought about which house -" started James. His words were cut short by the door that was now opening. Another boy came into the compartment, a boy with light-brown hair, buried in a book and evidently not looking where he was going.
"Hey, watch out," was Sirius in time to say before the boy fell over Lily's trunk. He looked confused up from his book and got after a moment a slight read colour in the cheeks.
"Sorry," he muttered. "Went into the wrong compartment."
And he was about to leave again. Sirius jumped up from his seat.
"No, it doesn't matter. There's space enough in here, isn't there, James. We could actually have the whole train in here. Everybody's welcome. All right, perhaps not greasy gits without a first name."
Lily giggled. The boy complained ("But my luggage..."), but Sirius dragged him over to an empty seat and waved his index finger in front of his face.
"Now, you listen. We'll show that little git to Snape..." - he turned to Lily - "Did you get his first name too?"
"Severus."
"Okay, we'll show him that there's space for an elephant - two elephants - in here, so you sit in here, okay?"
The boy raised an eyebrow.
"What's going on?"
"Sirius here was apparently offended by a boy who pointed out to him that his manners were missing."
"Well, he wasn't that wrong..."
James, who apparently sensed that Sirius was going to reply that comment, said quickly, "What's your name, by the way."
"Remus Lupin."
"I'm James Potter and that discourteous person" - he pointed at Sirius - "is Sirius Black."
"Lily Evans," Lily said and shook Remus' hand.
Suddenly, there was a gentle knock on the glass door, and a beaming witch with a trolley opened it.
"Anything from the trolley, dears?"
Lily looked wide-eyed at the trolley. Mountains of candy in every colour were neatly arranged on it. The boys found their money and bought what they wanted, and Lily thought she better had to taste some of it. She found her purse and got to her feet to look at it. Chocolate Frogs. Bertie Bott's Every-Flavour Beans. Liquorice Wands. Pumpkin Pasties. Lily looked overwhelmed at the names. She didn't have a clue what any of it was, so she just bought a little of everything. Back in her seat, she put her purse back into her bag and looked at her candy. Liquorice Wands sounded good. But before she had opened one, she was startled by Sirius, who had suddenly banged his fist down in the little table under the window. Lily looked up, and saw James and Remus look puzzled at him.
"I've forgotten something," Sirius said.
"Any of your luggage?"
"Peter! A boy I met on the platform. You saw him, didn't you, Lily? A little boy with blonde hair."
"Yes, the one with the sister, right?"
"Yeah, annoying and stuck-up. I promised to save Peter from her, but when I saw the train, I forgot. Poor him. I better find him."
And with that, he rushed out of the compartment without looking back. The others looked blankly at each other. Then, James took out some cards from his back and started to shuffle them.
"He'll be back. Want to play Exploding Snap?"
Lily looked as blankly as ever.
"Exploding Snap?"
"Oh, you're Muggle born, aren't you?" asked Remus, putting his book down in his trunk.
"Er, yes, I am," Lily replied, a little nervous that they would react the same way as Severus Snape had done. But none of them commented it.
"If you don't know Exploding Snap," said James, starting to hand out the cards, "it is about time you learn about it. It's like Muggle cards, I think, the difference is just that the cards explode randomly." Lily touched cautiously one of her cards, half expecting it to blow away the whole compartment.
"Isn't that dangerous?" she asked, her voice trembling a little.
"No, not at all, the only possible thing that can happen, is that you're getting startled."
Lily mustered all her courage and took up the cards, and soon, they were all deeply involved in the game. They were joined half an hour later by Sirius and the boy called Peter, who apparently had been on the edge of a nervous breakdown when Sirius rescued him from his sister.
The train ripped along, and soon Hogwarts, their home for the next seven years, appeared in the horizon.
~*~
Here we go. This is the beginning you all can continue. What is next? - The Sorting Ceremony or an unexpected event? You decide.
Chapter 1
'The Beginning'
By Silkistija (silkistija@hotmail.com)
~*~
"Oh, darling Lily! I can't believe you're grown up so quickly! Going away to school! Oh, I'm going to miss you so much," sobbed Mrs Evans, giving her eleven-year-old daughter Lily a tight hug and trying to kiss her.
"Mum, please, don't," said Lily, avoiding her mothers kiss. She wrested herself from Mrs Evans and turned to her father. He smiled proudly at her and hugged her.
"Goodbye, Lily, see you at Christmas."
Lily turned to the last member of her family, her big sister Petunia.
"Well, have a nice term, 'Tunia," she said, giving her a smile. Petunia just stared at her with cold eyes. It was really odd, Lily thought, because the two sisters had always liked each other, enjoyed each other's party, but now... Petunia had been so cold towards her little sister in the last month. Ever since Lily had received that letter from Hogwarts...
Lily watched her family leave before turning to the barrier she, according to the Hogwarts letter, had to go through. It looked massive. Could it really be true that a solid barrier was the way to Platform 9 ¾? Lily looked at her watch. She had plenty of time; the train wouldn't leave in twenty minutes. She could wait here for some other wizards to come and then watch what they did.
As somebody had heard her thoughts, a group of what could only be wizards came, pushing a couple of trolleys, onto the platform. Lily forgot her manners and stared at them. It was two boys, looking like they were at her age, a girl at about fourteen, and four adults, probably their parents. The girl and the smallest boy, both with fair hair, were wearing Hogwarts robes, and they were both carrying an owl. The girl looked supercilious, the boy very anxious. The other boy, on the other hand, had black hair, was wearing a bright blue, oversized T-shirt and jeans and was looking excited, bouncing around to examine everything. He quickly caught sight of Lily.
"Look, you, Paul, there's a girl over there, let's walk over and say hello!"
"My name's Peter," said the fair-haired boy with a squeaky voice.
"Oh, sorry," said the other boy. He turned to Lily and yelled: "Hey, are you going to Hogwarts too?"
One of the women, apparently the boy's mother, looked shocked.
"Sirius, calm down, what if she's a Muggle?"
"She's not. You're not a Muggle, are you?"
Lily shook her head hesitating. The boy called Sirius turned to his mother.
"See, I told you. Well, Patrick - sorry, Peter - let's get on the train. Bye Mum, bye Dad, Mrs... Er... -"
"Pettigrew," said the other woman, a plump, fair-haired one, smiling.
"Pettigrew. Peter Pettigrew, then?" he asked the other boy. Peter nodded.
Sirius got hold of his trolley, waved a goodbye to his parents and went through the barrier. Lily blinked. So that's how it worked. You just disappeared. She watched the boy named Peter disappear together with the girl (who probably was his sister), then looked around to see if anybody was watching before moving towards the massive wall. She didn't run, it would just make it worse if she crashed. But when she reached the barrier, nothing happened. A moment of darkness - and she was standing right in front of an old locomotive. "The Hogwarts Express" was written in black letters on the engine. Lily looked at the train and smiled happily. She was a witch! A real witch, and she was now leaving for a school where she would learn real magic. She could barely believe her luck.
Lily was about to seize her trunk and bag when someone suddenly ran into her. She turned around and found herself facing a boy with jet-black, untidy hair and glasses. He looked like he was trying to escape from someone.
"Sorry," he muttered, looking nervously around. "You haven't seen a girl around thirteen with black hair and a rubber chicken, have you?"
"No," Lily replied in accordance with the truth.
"Oh, great, I've shaken her off. James Potter, by the way," he said, outstretching his hand. Lily shook it and smiled at him.
"Lily Evans. Are you -"
Her words were cut short, because now a girl came running towards them, looking furious, yelling "James, you - you -! Come here and make this normal!"
She shook a rubber chicken vigorously. James looked horrified.
"My sister. I tried a spell on her wand. It worked," James explained. "See you!"
And he ran quickly away with his sister at his heels. Lily watched them jump on the train before starting moving herself. She seized her luggage and got on the train. Children and teenagers of different ages were rushing in and out the compartment, chatting and looking perfectly happy. Lily walked down the long corridor, trying to find an empty compartment, but as they all seemed to be occupied, she just walked into the closest. A boy was sitting in there. He had a very unpleasant look on his face and black, greasy hair. Apparently almost all the boys had black hair. Lily smiled hesitating at him and sat down her trunk.
"Can I sit here? There's no free compartments."
The boy looked sceptically at her.
"Guess you can..."
"Thanks."
Lily tried to get her trunk up in the luggage rack, but had to give up. It was too heavy. The boy gave her a contemptuous look. Lily blushed and sat down her trunk on the floor. Then, a very awkward silence followed. Lily looked at the boy, deciding that she probably had to start a conversation.
"So... what's your name?"
He looked at her in a way that strongly reminded Lily of Petunia's behaviour in the last month.
"Snape," he said. "Severus Snape."
"Oh, um, okay. I'm Lily Evans. Are you at first year?"
He nodded curtly.
Silence again. The train started to move. It had reached its speed before Severus Snape spoke. Or, actually, muttered. It looked like he was talking to himself and not Lily.
"Muggle born, I suppose."
Lily thought that she better had to reply. It seemed the most polite.
"Yes, I'm the only one in my family with magic in the veins, as far as I know. What about you? Are your parents Muggles, too?"
The boy, Severus, looked suddenly very nasty.
"Me? Should I be a filthy little Muggle? My parents are -"
But now, two of the three boys Lily had met before, James and Sirius, came bursting into the compartment, grinning broadly.
"Save us," Sirius yelled and tried to hide behind Severus, who immediately tried to fill up as much of the seat as he could. James rushed down behind Lily's trunk, and Sirius gave up his fight against Severus to get a seat, so he just closed the door and leaned against it.
"What's going on," Lily asked. Sirius pointed at James.
"It's Potter's crazy sister, Judith! He had turned her wand into a rubber chicken, and when she caught him, she literally tried to eat him. I saved him, and I accidentally - accidentally turned her hair pink. And now she's trying to catch us both!" he said, panting but grinning from ear to ear. And soon, there was a very violent knock on the glass in the door.
"Open up! OPEN UP!" yelled Judith. She was now looking very different from when Lily saw her last time, with her face almost as pink as her hair.
"James, give me that trunk," Sirius said. James grabbed Lily's trunk and managed to place it in front of the door. Sirius sat down on it with a thud.
"But it's mine, what if you've broken something of my luggage," protested Lily.
"Do you have other things than clothes in this one?" asked Sirius, still grinning. Then, he looked out of the glass.
"James, your sister's gone. But let's just stay here in case she returns."
But now Severus got to his feet.
"You don't think it would be polite to ask if you could sit here before actually settling down?"
James looked at her as though he had just now spotted him. His eyes ran from the greasy hair to the unpleasant look on the face.
"Sorry. May I have the honour to be allowed to ask for permission to get a tiny spot on the floor to sit on, then? And perhaps Sirius here can get permission to sit on the trunk? It won't occupy your space, since it's already in here..."
Sirius beamed.
"Come on, there's space enough. And, it was also an emergency," he said, looking as though that settled it. But Severus was apparently not giving in.
"An emergency gives you the right to burst into a compartment, you think? Didn't your mother ever taught you good manners?"
Sirius stopped smiling.
"What about your mother? She apparently didn't teach you manners, too. You haven't even introduced yourself!"
Severus looked even nastier than he had done when he spoke to Lily.
"Snape," he said through gritted teeth. And without one more word, he left the compartment.
"Nutter," said Sirius, looking after him. James shrugged.
"We'll probably get some fun with him. Pity I didn't asked him what year he was in."
"First," said Lily promptly. To answer the boys' looks, she said: "I asked him."
"Good, we're too," said Sirius. "What about you, er, what was the name again?"
"Lily Evans, I'm a first year too."
"Have any of you guys thought about which house -" started James. His words were cut short by the door that was now opening. Another boy came into the compartment, a boy with light-brown hair, buried in a book and evidently not looking where he was going.
"Hey, watch out," was Sirius in time to say before the boy fell over Lily's trunk. He looked confused up from his book and got after a moment a slight read colour in the cheeks.
"Sorry," he muttered. "Went into the wrong compartment."
And he was about to leave again. Sirius jumped up from his seat.
"No, it doesn't matter. There's space enough in here, isn't there, James. We could actually have the whole train in here. Everybody's welcome. All right, perhaps not greasy gits without a first name."
Lily giggled. The boy complained ("But my luggage..."), but Sirius dragged him over to an empty seat and waved his index finger in front of his face.
"Now, you listen. We'll show that little git to Snape..." - he turned to Lily - "Did you get his first name too?"
"Severus."
"Okay, we'll show him that there's space for an elephant - two elephants - in here, so you sit in here, okay?"
The boy raised an eyebrow.
"What's going on?"
"Sirius here was apparently offended by a boy who pointed out to him that his manners were missing."
"Well, he wasn't that wrong..."
James, who apparently sensed that Sirius was going to reply that comment, said quickly, "What's your name, by the way."
"Remus Lupin."
"I'm James Potter and that discourteous person" - he pointed at Sirius - "is Sirius Black."
"Lily Evans," Lily said and shook Remus' hand.
Suddenly, there was a gentle knock on the glass door, and a beaming witch with a trolley opened it.
"Anything from the trolley, dears?"
Lily looked wide-eyed at the trolley. Mountains of candy in every colour were neatly arranged on it. The boys found their money and bought what they wanted, and Lily thought she better had to taste some of it. She found her purse and got to her feet to look at it. Chocolate Frogs. Bertie Bott's Every-Flavour Beans. Liquorice Wands. Pumpkin Pasties. Lily looked overwhelmed at the names. She didn't have a clue what any of it was, so she just bought a little of everything. Back in her seat, she put her purse back into her bag and looked at her candy. Liquorice Wands sounded good. But before she had opened one, she was startled by Sirius, who had suddenly banged his fist down in the little table under the window. Lily looked up, and saw James and Remus look puzzled at him.
"I've forgotten something," Sirius said.
"Any of your luggage?"
"Peter! A boy I met on the platform. You saw him, didn't you, Lily? A little boy with blonde hair."
"Yes, the one with the sister, right?"
"Yeah, annoying and stuck-up. I promised to save Peter from her, but when I saw the train, I forgot. Poor him. I better find him."
And with that, he rushed out of the compartment without looking back. The others looked blankly at each other. Then, James took out some cards from his back and started to shuffle them.
"He'll be back. Want to play Exploding Snap?"
Lily looked as blankly as ever.
"Exploding Snap?"
"Oh, you're Muggle born, aren't you?" asked Remus, putting his book down in his trunk.
"Er, yes, I am," Lily replied, a little nervous that they would react the same way as Severus Snape had done. But none of them commented it.
"If you don't know Exploding Snap," said James, starting to hand out the cards, "it is about time you learn about it. It's like Muggle cards, I think, the difference is just that the cards explode randomly." Lily touched cautiously one of her cards, half expecting it to blow away the whole compartment.
"Isn't that dangerous?" she asked, her voice trembling a little.
"No, not at all, the only possible thing that can happen, is that you're getting startled."
Lily mustered all her courage and took up the cards, and soon, they were all deeply involved in the game. They were joined half an hour later by Sirius and the boy called Peter, who apparently had been on the edge of a nervous breakdown when Sirius rescued him from his sister.
The train ripped along, and soon Hogwarts, their home for the next seven years, appeared in the horizon.
~*~
Here we go. This is the beginning you all can continue. What is next? - The Sorting Ceremony or an unexpected event? You decide.