Catch Me If You Can
Chapter Three ll A Kodak Moment
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For two weeks, Lily showed and told Petunia everything that was magical. Petunia was enraptured, and she giggled and said something about her little sister growing up when Lily told her about that evil prat, James.
As a few innocent pranks, Lily fed Petunia some gross Bertie Bott's beans.
After the fun of that, Lily studied her spellbooks. They were all really interesting, except for her History of Magic one. She got dead bored just looking at the cover of it.
Finally, September the 1st arrived, and it was time to go to Hogwarts.
Lily woke up, bright and early, to see the first rays of the sun come streaking through her pale blue curtains. Getting dressed and cleaned quickly, she raced down to the kitchen where the rest of her family already were.
"Good morning, everyone," Lily said cheerfully, settling down at her place at the breakfast table.
"Morning," everyone else chorused back.
"I can't believe you're going to boarding school," Petunia said mournfully, looking sad.
"Aww, don't worry. You and I will both survive," Lily said, trying to sound as cheerful as she had been a few seconds ago.
Petunia just nodded, and she and Lily both fell silent as they continued to wait for their food.
"Breakfast!" Rose finally called, turning around with three plates in her hands. She set one in front either girl, and then one in front of William, their father.
Silence reigned for another few minutes as they all began eating, but soon, a conversation got started.
Lily chewed conspicuously on her toast and laughed as Petunia informed her on what had happened at Rinatta's birthday party. Apparently, there had been a huge cake disaster.
"What's the time?" Rose asked they had finished eating.
Will glanced up from his newspaper and coffee, "It is approximately... nine forty-six."
"When does your train leave?" Rose asked Lily, who was gulping down a glass of orange juice.
"Eleven o'clock sharp."
"Do you have to go?" wailed Petunia. She wasn't sure if she could handle having no one around her age (Lily was just two years younger than her) to talk to at home.
"Pet, you'll survive. We can still send letters and stuff," Lily reasoned in a hopeful voic so, that her sister might possibly understand and accept the fact. Petunia just sighed.
"All right girls," Rose broke into her daughters' conversation, "Clean your bedrooms up, and Lily, make sure you've packed everything. I want everyone ready to leave for King's Cross by ten-twenty."
"Ten twenty?" Lily gasped, "Don't you think that's a bit too early?"
"Well, you wouldn't want some disaster to happen and then for you to miss your train, right?"
"I guess not," Lily murmured.
--King's Cross Station--
"Okay, I am completely lost," were the first words to escape from Lily's mouth as she desperately searched for a platform -- which did not exist.
Petunia had stayed at home. She said she couldn't bother to go with them to the station, but Rose knew that she just couldn't bear to see her younger sister leave to boarding school. Will had gone to work.
"Well, it's a good thing we came early," huffed Rose, while she looked around cluelessly from platform ten to platform nine, "And you were complaining."
Lily sighed, "Oh, come on mum. It is a bit too early."
"But we can't even find the platform!" Rose protested.
Before Lily could reply, someone called out.
"Rose! Lily! Over here!"
Lily and Rose turned around and saw the Potters.
"Oh no," Lily groaned, slumping down as she held onto the bar of her trolley.
"Lily, be nice," Rose warned, before greeting them.
"Hi Evans," James said, looking as mischievous as always.
"Hello," Lily said testily.
"What are you still doing here?" Cheryl asked after all polite greetings had ceased.
"Well..." Rose glanced at Lily, who was having a staring (glaring) contest with James, "We're not entirely sure where the platform is."
Cheryl laughed merrily, "Oh. Yes, lots of people have that problem, but not to worry, I know exactly where it is."
"Yeah," said James, breaking his eye contact with Lily, "We just have to run through that barrier."
Lily turned pale, "What?!"
"Err... I'm sure it won't be too bad," Rose said uncertainly, looking at the very solid brick barrier.
"That sounds like suicide," Lily said blankly.
"It's not really," Alex reasoned, "You'll go right through. Trust us."
"Okay," the redhead said resignedly. Glancing at Rose for extra support, she squeezed onto her trolley and began speed-walking up to the barrier.
Lily had closed her eyes, but immediately opened them when she had gotten through. The first thing she saw was the huge scarlet steam train, which was almost invisible as many other young witches and wizards, all dressed in their Hogwarts robes, toddled around on the platform.
"Ow!"
Someone had crashed into her.
"Oops sorry. Oh, it's you."
James.
Lily cast him a frightened look and began walking away with her trolley has quickly as possible.
"Hey! Where are you going?" James asked, trying to keep up with her.
"Away from you," Lily said shortly, "You're a walking disaster."
A few more people appeared through the barrier.
"Oh that felt scary," Rose said with a shudder as she materialized through the barrier. She turned to her daughter, "Lily honey, are you sure you want to go to this Hoggarts--"
"Hogwarts," Lily corrected.
"--Hogwarts place? It seems a little -- well -- dodgy," Rose looked nervous.
"Mum, I'll be fine," Lily reassured, giving her mum a hug, "Just fine."
"Alright then..." Rose said reluctantly, holding onto her protectively. After a tearful (sort of) goodbye with her mother, Rose left the platform.
The redhead just circled around, a little lost. She could see James saying goodbye to his parents, and couldn't help but smile when Cheryl gave him a bone-crushing hug.
"Lily!" someone was yelling.
Lily whirled around and saw Anna running up to her.
"Heya Lily!" Anna greeted, "What's up?"
"Hi, nothing really. I'm kinda lost, to be honest," Lily laughed uneasily.
"Oh, it's all pretty simple, really," Anna said carelessly, "Come on, let's put your stuff on board. Cool owl, by the way."
"Thanks," Lily smiled.
A boy that was about fifteen years old helped the two hoist Lily's trunk and other things on board. After saying thanks, they jumped onto the train, feeling excited.
As soon as they found an empty compartment, they collapsed in (closing the door first) and took the seat opposite each other's.
"Hey, where's Paige?" Lily asked, sitting on her hands.
"Not here yet," Anna answered briefly.
They continued to talk for about ten minutes, when Lily spotted Paige coming through the barrier, with none other than Sirius Black right behind her.
Lily opened the compartment window and stuck her head out.
"Paige!" she yelled. The brunette looked around quizzically, and smiled when she saw Lily. She waved to her, and then rushed over to the train to put her luggage on board.
"Is she there?" Anna asked curiously.
"Yup, with Sirius Black," Lily rolled her eyes.
Anna shuddered, and the two cracked up.
"Hey!" the compartment door slid open, and Paige came in, her cheeks rosy red. Sirius was also with her.
Good morning's, hello's, hey's and hi's were said, and just as Lily thought that the compartment was getting rather full with the four of them in there, James and Remus had appeared at the compartment door.
"Hey! We're here!" James said happily, high-fiving Sirius and then sitting next to Lily. Lily and Anna exchanged worried glances, then glared at Paige who shook her head apologetically.
The train ride to Hogwarts wasn't exactly what you might call dull. James and Sirius showed the girls everything they had purchased from Kalail's.
"And these," James said proudly, "Are fireworks. They work much better than Muggle ones 'coz these spark for at least an hour and can shoot up to a hundred different lights."
"You're not going to set them off here, are you?" Anna said uneasily.
"No, that'd be dangerous," James said sensibly, pocketing the firework.
"You actually know what danger is?" Lily asked sarcastically.
"Yup."
James pulled a few innocent pranks on Lily, causing her to scream at him. Then they put the smiling-witch-with-the-food-trolley almost out of business with their purchases.
Conversation died down as the group enjoyed cauldron cakes, pumpkin pasties and assorted wizard candy. After eating, though, they began feeling rather sleepy.
Lily leant her head against the window, and closed her eyes.
"Put your head on my shoulder," James said quietly, putting his hand on Lily's red head and tilting it towards him.
Lily made no real objections, and laid her head on his shoulder comfortably. Soon, she was asleep. And so was James.
"They look so cute together," the even-tempered, calm, nice Remus sniggered.
"Oh cut it out. They're only eleven," Paige tried to protest, though she looked as if she agreed.
Sirius was almost crying with shame.
"Oh why oh why didn't anyone bring a camera?" he moaned, burying his face in his hands.
"I swear, this is a Kodak moment!" Sirius continued to moan. Anna gave him an odd look; how was he supposed to know what Kodak was, anyway? It was kind of Muggle.
Lily and James soon woke up from their nap, during at which point both Anna and Paige had fallen asleep. Deprived of feminine company, Lily sat stiffly and listened to the boy's chatter. Nothing really interesting -- except for some important prank which included dungbombs and... things that didn't make much sense to the redhead. During that time, Lily felt as if she had gotten a severe headache. Everything turned blurry, then black. But everything focused again. It was strange.
Finally, Paige and Anna awoke, and the girls changed into their robes. The boys were kicked out, of course. All things being equal -- and private.
After they had changed, they called the boys to come back in, and then they threw the girls out. Because, like before, all things being equal. And private.
When the Hogwarts Express reached Hogsmeade station, everything became a blurr to Lily again. She and the others stumbled off the train, and were called by a tall man, yelling out "Firs' years!". After that, Lily found herself with her friends on a boat, which they were rowing across a lake to Hogwarts.
Lily was awed at the sight; Hogwarts was the biggest castle she had ever seen, and it looked so... magical. It really did beautiful, with the honeycomb jewel lights that made it's appearance in the castle in some spots, and it was silhoutted against the black sky, where not many stars were in sight.
"Wow," Lily whispered, a dreamy smile across her lips. She could hear fellow first years in the boats around her also talking and exclaiming in hushed voices. James, Sirius and Remus were in a boat right next to their's.
The redhead thought that maybe Anna and Paige were shaking the boat, as she almost fell out. Clutching the sides of it, she turned around to her friends.
"Whoever's doing that, cut it out!"
"It's not us," came Paige's sheepish answer, "It's James."
"Potter, please don't tip the boat over," Lily yelled across to James in an aggravated voice.
"Why ever not?" asked James innocently, as he held the right side of the girl's boat again and gave it a jolt.
"Hey, that looks like fun!" Lily heard Sirius say gleefully.
"Oh for the love of--" Lily moaned, putting her face in the hands.
And just as that happened, the entire boat flipped over. Residing first years looked in alarm as they saw a boat capsize, and heard the shrieks of girls.
Well it wasn't their fault. The water was freaking freezing.
"POTTER I SWEAR I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!" Lily managed to scream through chattering teeth. It was a good thing she knew how to swim -- as she thought this, she looked alarmedly for her friends. What if they couldn't swim?!
To her relief, she saw Remus and Sirius helping either Anna or Paige back up onto their boat, and she watched as Paige waded over and pushed their own boat the right way up.
"Hey, that actually wasn't me!" Lily heard James' protest. Grinding her chattering teeth, she took James' outstretched hand and tried to pull herself out of the cold black water. But instead, she ended up pulling James into the water as well.
James gave a yell as he too plunged into icy cold water.
"Okay, I swear I didn't do that on purpose," Lily said helplessly.
Before they could argue any further, there was silvery, souless laughter coming from a boat that was rowing past the two stranded in the water.
"Mudbloods," someone hissed from the boat. It was followed by some more horrible cold laughter, as the last of the ripples rippled in the water whilst the boat continued to row on further.
Lily frowned.
Mudbloods...? What is that supposed to mean?
...
"Lily? LILY!"
"What--?" the image of the black sky and black water and all feeling of cold dispersed. The redhead found herself back, safe, sound and dry, in the train compartment. She saw Anna and Paige napping silently in their spots, but the boys were crowded around her.
"She wakes," Sirius reported.
"What's going on?" Lily asked nervously. How in the world did she get back in the compartment? And then something made sense... everything that had happened; getting off the Hogwarts Express, rowing to Hogwarts, falling into the water... was a dream. Yet...
"Okay, well we were just talking about our newfound prank," Remus began.
"And then your head suddenly dropped and you kinda... I don't know. Fell asleep?" James tried. Sirius and Remus nodded.
"Um, okay," Lily said uncertainly, feeling a little scared. Then she looked up again, "Hey, what's a mudblood?"
The boys immediately frowned.
"Why do you ask?" Sirius finally ventured to say.
Lily looked uncomfortable, "Well, when I... "fell asleep", I had a kind of dream. And I'm not sure if it was a dream, but it must've been, or what else was it? It was a dream where we were going to Hogwarts, and I know this may sound silly, but we had to take boats to get there--"
"That isn't silly, that's what we really have to do," Remus frowned, "Whoa, you're like getting snippets from the future!"
Lily gave a weak chuckle, "Anyway, while we were in the boats. Or rather, out of the boats, I heard someone say "Mudblood". What does it mean? It doesn't sound too positive."
"Well it isn't, in most aspects," Sirius gave a hollow laugh.
"Okay, well basically, uh--" James paused, and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, "It means you've got dirty blood."
"Dirty blood?!" Lily's eyes were almost popping out of her head, "Whoa, how would they know if my blood's dirty or not, huh? X-ray vision?"
"X-ray vision doesn't quite relate to that," Remus laughed.
"Not physically dirty-blooded," James rolled his eyes, "But -- you know what pure-bloods are, right?"
"Yeah, of course."
"So you see, some, and when I say some, I mean some pure-bloods think they are much better than Muggle-born witches and wizards."
"But why?" Lily scoffed.
"Because they are lowlifes," Sirius said briefly.
"Right. So it's like racism?"
"Yeah!" James looked relieved at an easy way out of explaining something very complicated.
"Anyway, it's only some wizards," Remus continued, "Hardly any, really. It's discrimination. It ought to be punishable by wizard law."
"And most of these wizards or witches come from Slytherin," James stated.
The boys gave a shudder.
"Slytherin?" Lily looked confused.
"Yeah, it's one of the school houses," Remus said, just as Anna gave a stir.
"There's Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin," James explained.
"Everyone knows Slytherin is evil," Sirius said, looking disgusted.
Lily thought it was all extremely complicated; what with evil houses and discrimination against things that really couldn't be seen.
"But it's very unlikely that one of us will end up in Slytherin," Sirius said brightly, "None of us are evil--" ("Are you sure about that one?" Lily asked, casting a sideways glance towards James) "--so we'll probably end up in the other houses."
"Good. I want to be in Gryffindor, means you've got bravery," James said proudly, "Both my parents were from Gryffindor, and most of my relatives too. There was the occasional smart Ravenclaw, though."
"Each house has a meaning?" Lily asked incredulously, "Well, if they do, I'm not so sure about Slytherin... I mean, wouldn't it be an insult to be placed in Slytherin, if you knew that meant you were.... evil?"
Sirius snorted, "Them. They don't care if they're placed in Slytherin. They want to be in Slytherin."
"Well anyway, having bravery and courage gets you into Gryffindor," Remus continued his explanation peaceably, "Being clever gets you into Ravenclaw, being loyal gets you into Hufflepuff and being power-seeking -- not evil, Sirius -- gets you into Slytherin."
"Ah, isn't that nice. Power-seeking instead of evil," sniggered James.
Paige and Anna awoke, and they all got dressed into their robes (a bit awkward for Lily, who, in her mind, had already changed into them before). The Hogwarts Express reached Hogsmeade station. They got off the train, and were called by the giant man Lily had seen in her "dream".
"Firs' years!" he called, holding a gas lamp high up in the darkness, "Firs' years over here!"
Lily and the others went over to him uncertainly. They hoped they'd get to Hogwarts safely.
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----A/N: Hehehe, I am oddeningly HIGH. I love this chapter, its so cute. =] Well anyway, just bear with the Kodak thing. I'm not sure if it even existed back then, but... neh. I'm living in the twenty first century here! --MSQ.