It was a dark night and although the sky had been clear when the students first arrived the weather had taken a complete turn. So much so that it was now heavily raining and there was loud thunder after bright flashes of light. On a particularly loud CRACK Lily woke up clinging to the ceiling of the fright. Realizing that she was not in any immediate danger she let her breath out and forced her heart back down to her chest. "Next time scare the crap out of me why don't you!" she grumbled moodily at the sky. Letting out a sigh as she knew she would never get back to sleep, Lily got up reluctantly. She stretched making little noises, she yawned scratched her eyes trying to see straight and made her way carefully to the bathroom hitting her toe on the door frame and letting out a string of courses that no one should ever be committed to. She shut the door behind her and opened it again half an hour later coming out fresh, clean and radiant ready to start her first day of school. She looked at her watch and realized it was only six she still had thirty minutes to go before breakfast was served. For lack of a better thing to do she decided to roam the castle and explore it. She made her way through empty corridors and stairs to find herself face to face with none other than Professor Dumbledore. "Hello Miss. Evans may I ask you what you are doing up so early in the morning?" "Umm the thunder woke me up and well I decided to see the castle is that a problem sir?" she asked nervously. He smiled at her "Not at all Miss. Evans" he answered "What do you think so far?" "I love it!" Lily answered excitedly "It all seems surreal I mean I grew up thinking all this was just make believe you know magic it was a dream not a reality and now to actually be a part of it it's amazing and I feel so very lucky. Oh! Sorry I tend to ramble when I'm excited but it truly is a wonder and this castle it's just absolutely breathtaking" lily said eagerly. Dumbledore studied her and Lily got the distinct feeling that he was reading her mind. It was quite unnerving but after a few seconds he smiled his eyes twinkling merrily "Yes I imagine it all would seem incredible to muggle-borns when you think about it really is a wonder. Do you know Lily I've often wanted to see the world through a muggle-born's point of view" Lily's eyes widened "Oh no sir it's much better to have been born into magic! You're so lucky! To know that you will one day be able to make things appear out of no where and move them and just to think of all the possibilities. You grow up knowing anything really is possible." She laughed "Do you know now that I think about it you are right it's much better from my point of view. Magic will always be a reminder that I truly can reach for the stars. For me it's special. I take back what I said earlier." "Very well Miss. Evans if I might suggest to you this corridor it has the oldest paintings at Hogwarts and I find they often have a lot of interesting things to say. Remember though Breakfast starts in twenty minutes. Have a good day." "Thank you sir and have a good day as well professor" she said happily. She turned into the mentioned corridor to find paintings of men women and children all of whom waved at her a she passed. She wondered around for some more time and finally decided to go down to breakfast. On the way down she met up with James and Sirius who informed her that Remus had already gone down to save them all the best seats. They walked in and found Remus near the staff table with three seats around him. Lily took the one immediately beside him and James and Sirius took the two across from them. The amount of food available was incredible and the four dug in. Professor McGonagall came round handing out the schedules and Lily was pleased with hers. The three boys however were not. "We have flying with Slytherin! And potions and Herbology! Are they mad?!" said Sirius complaining. "I don't know why you are complaining Sirius" said James "Yes don't you see." continued Remus "It's the perfect opportunity to prank them" finished Lily. "Oh" he said "You're right this perfect" he said smiling. "Yes it is now if we don't move we'll never make it to" Lily checked her schedule "Charms with the Ravenclaws!" she said happily skipping ahead to her brother. Once inside the classroom the twins and the three friends sat together at the back and chatted happily while the rest of the class filed in. of her first day at school Lily would always remember how happy she was and the entire day seemed to her like a glorious haze of laughter and lessons. That night when Lily reached the common room instead of going up t sleep she decided to write a letter home. She got the necessary materials and sat at a table in front of a window. Dear mom and dad Hi how are you? I'm doing great this is the most amazing place I have ever seen in my life it's beautiful I wish you could see it. I just finished my first day of classes and I have to tell you Muggles have no Idea what real magic is like. We definitely did not pull rabbits out of hats but we did levitate things or we tried to. Our charms teacher is teaching us the wingardium leviosa charm. As I said it levitates things we started with feathers and I actually got mine to fly!!!! On my first attempt too. I won five house points the James, Sirius and Remus did it too you remember them right we met them at the alley they're in my house. Mum, Dad I'm not sure if this is a bad thing I don't think it is but I got sorted into Gryffindor instead of Ravenlaw like Harry and the family hope it doesn't disappoint you too much. Well not much more to say tell petty I love her I'll see you real soon. Love Lily