Living A Legend
Book 1- A Clash of Wills
Chapter 2- Singing Hats and Luxurious Surroundings
All eyes in the hall were fixed on the timid procession of first years walking slowly in clumps into the room to be sorted. Special attention was paid to one fiery-headed little girl, whispering bitterly to her friend. Both girls were drenched beyond belief, and the older students chuckled, wondering if the girls had fallen into the lake.
The first years gathered around as Albus Dumbledore, with his long brown grey-streaked beard, rose and delivered a worn pointed hat to the center of the room. He smiled, placing the shriveled old hat on a stool. "Welcome to Hogwarts! Well, enough with the babble, it is time for the first years to be sorted into their houses. Let the sorting begin."
A witch stood with a long parchment floating before her.
Lily looked around in amazement. Everyone was dressed in black robes with pointed hats to match. the whole room looked like something out of a storybook, with the floating candles and dark starry looking sky.
The hat began singing once complete silence had been achieved, its folds moving as if it were a mouth. Lily watched in amazement as the hat carried out a lovely song, describing qualities looked for in each of the houses. Lily felt a bit nervous, she was none to confident about her abilities to be in any of the houses. If only there were a house for people with very short tempers and very wet hair then that would be the house for her.
Aslada Acada was the first student called. A little black haired witch made her way up to the stool. She lifted the hat gingerly as she sat upon the wooden seat, placing the cap on her head. She sat in silence for a few moments and then the hat called out, "Slytherin!"
Cheers erupted from the furthest table. the girl grinned proudly and slid over to the Slytherin table to join her new house.
Kasey Aratle became a Hufflepuff, and Charlie Banter became the first Ravenclaw.
"Sirius Black," read the teacher mechanically.
James's friend stood and approached the stool solemnly. the hat was on his head only a moment before calling out, "Gryffindor!"
The table cheered so loudly that Lily felt her ears would split.
The list progressed rapidly. Lily wished she her last name started with a nice W, or maybe even a Z. Carmichle was called out, then Celeste. then came Culdor, and Damir. then Dawson, Dennings and Durlson.
Lily was shaking by the time the first E was called out. "Elisabeth Ester" was made a Gryffindor.
When her own name was called out, Lily approached the stool, soggy and shaking, her wet hair drying in red curly strands.
As soon as the hat was on her head, she heard it speaking, "hmm . . . a good mind, you seem a pretty hard worker, and a bit determined as well. Odd, you have just a touch of bravery. Well, better be, GRYFFINDOR!" only the last word was shouted, or spoken aloud.
Lily barely realized that the hat had been speaking only in her mind, she barely noticed the cheers she was receiving from the Gryffindor table. She only noticed her feet, carrying her towards the table.
She found herself sitting next to Sirius, the only other person she knew at this table. He grinned at her, and she smiled back vaguely, deciding not to blame him for James' idiocy.
She listened as the called out Brittany Jacobs and wished vigorously in her head that her friend would join her house. When the hat called out Gryffindor, Lily practicality jumped out of her seat, cheering as loud as she could.
Remus Lupin was also made a Gryffindor, as well as Jackie Lyda, Shane Montgomery, Dora Odell, Travis Patrick and Peter Pettigrew. When James Potter's name was called out. Lily became just as twitchy, hoping desperately that he would not be placed in her house.
The hat was on his head for only a split second before calling out his house, at which Lily groaned. James strutted over to the table with a confident air, despite his dripping clothing and ridiculous hair.
He sat down across from Lily and Sirius, next to the boy name Remus. Lily made it a point to roll her eyes and groan loudly as he sat down, expressing her discontent for the arrangement. She scarcely paid attention to the rest of the names as they were called out, wallowing in self pity at being in the same house as her worst enemy.
When Dumbledore spoke, announcing the start of the feast, her spirits were considerably raised, especially when mounds of all of her favorite dishes appeared in front of her plate.
Lily stuffed herself thoroughly and then belched for good measure.
Brittany followed suit.
"That was pathetic," James addressed them.
"And I suppose you can do better?" Brittany inquired, as Lily pretended to ignore him.
James didn't answer, except by letting out a burp loud enough to send disgusted looks his way from the majority of the upperclassmen.
Lily sank down into the soft feather bed, sighing luxuriously. This bed by itself made up for all the unpleasantries and misfortunes of the day. the blankets were dark maroon and gold, the Gryffindor colors, and long draperies hung down from the top of the canopy bed, providing privacy as well as comfort.
There were seven other girls sleeping in the same room as Lily. At home she had never shared a room with Petunia. They would surely tear each other apart if that happened.
All of the girls in this room were first year Gryffindors. Lily recited their names under her breath, "Brittany Jacobs, Elisabeth Ester, Jackie Lyda, Dora Odell, Lynette Robins, Wilma Whittaker and Lily Evans," she whispered, adding her own name at the end just for good measure.
She already knew she would love it here, despite horrible James. The place was wonderful. Lily hated James so much for ruining her first day. But she looked forward to her next with all of her heart.
For the first week Lily wandered around lost through the castle trying her hardest to be on time for her classes.
In fact, it pleased her a great deal that she seemed to have less navigation problems than James, who relied on Remus, a quiet Gryffindor recruit, to lead him around the castle.
Lily found all of her subjects fascinating, and to her relief she was not very far behind the other students, even those who came from wizarding families. Dora Odell, who came from a muggle family as well, became fast friends with Lily.
Dora, however, did not catch on so quickly during the lessons.
"Oh you guys have no idea how lucky you are that you are not dunces, like me," she said one day to Brittany and Lily in charms class with Professor Felman.
"You are not a dunce Dora. People just learn at different rates, that's all. You'll pick it up in time," Lily had reassured her. But secretly, Lily had her doubts whether Dora's entering Hogwarts had been a good idea. The girl displayed absolutely no magical talent.
Lily, Sirius and James could already turn their quill tips gold, to the happiness of Professor Felman. they always seemed to be competing for the head of the class.
Lily had hoped that James would find himself particularly inept at least one of the subjects, but he seemed very receptive to magic, just like Lily.
Defense Against the Dark Arts would have been Lily's favorite subject, had it not been for the fact that James was the best at it. This was the one subject where he stood unparalleled at the top of the class.
The professor who taught defense against the dark arts was a short little witch with strawberry blond hair and freckles covering her pale face. Lily felt she had very much in common with Professor Lacy, what with her own freckled face and red hair.
All the students enjoyed this class because of it's hands-on nature. In the first week, they had learned how to control Hinkly-Punks, which were tiny little knome-like creatures, and then demonstrated before the class. the were next beginning a study of pixies. the boys sneered at this lesson plan at first, but that was before Professor Lacy set one loose. the pixie wreaked havoc for nearly ten minutes, before the boys gave in and admitted they needed to learn about pixies, and allowed the teacher to demonstrate how to subdue one.
In transfiguration, the students were learning how to change the texture of a piece of cloth. Brittany found it a rather boring lesson, but Lily couldn't get enough of anything having to do with magic.
The transfiguration teacher was Professor Wardric, an obesely huge gentlemen with a kindly heart, who often called his students, "honeys". Prof Wardric had a sense of humor about his weight, and constantly joked about it, much to the confusion of the students.
But by far, Lily's most hated class was Potions, with the Slytherins which was taught by a horrible witch named Professor Ludwick. Professor Ludwick was the head of the Slytherin house, and was terribly biased, constantly subtracting points from Gryfinndor.
Worst of all, Ludwick had assigned Lily and James as lab partners, forcing them to share a cauldron.
The two students constantly fought to overshadow each other's efforts, and very often ended up ruining their potions because of their constant bickering.
While the Gryffindors got along well with most of the other houses, the Slytherins were none too pleasant to be around.
One day in potions, Lily and James were fighting over how much root of asphodel was needed for a mild sleeping draught.
They didn't notice Lucius Malfoy approaching. Lucius was a pale, blond haired Slytherin boy who was constantly surrounded by another sneering boy named Terrence Pickle.
"Well well, if isn't Potter and his little girlfriend," cooed Malfoy, in a snide tone. Malfoy and James seemed to have gotten off on the wrong foot the very first day, even more so than Lily and James.
"She's not my girlfriend," James said sharply at the same time as Lily muttered a similar remark.
Malfoy sneered unpleasantly, making his white face appear more drawn than ever. "Well at least you have the sense not to date a mudblood."
Lily just stared at him, not comprehending the word, but James leapt out of his seat and his fist shot out, catching Malfoy in the nose.
Malfoy leaped forward, his hand wrapping around James' neck in a death grip, but Ludwick pulled him off, his face stern.
"I will not tolerate fighting in this classroom," Professor Ludwick announced, his eyes blazing. "Potter, twenty points from Gryffindor for attacking Malfoy."
The teacher then turned to glance at Lucius, but declined to speak further, the Slytherins remained un-punished.
Remus stood quietly and spoke in a soft and serious voice, "He was provoked, Professor Ludwick. Malfoy called Lily a mudblood."
Ludwick turned on Remus, "ten more points from Gryffindor for your vulgar language, Lupin."
Sirius, who was Remus' lab partner stood at this, his outrage plain on his face. "Hey, Lucius was the one who said it!"
"And Lupin was the one I heard," Ludwick finished.
Lily couldn't believe a Hogwarts teacher could be so unfair. But she didn't protest, she was still a bit confused from Malfoy's strange comment.
Lily turned to Sirius. "What is a mudblood anyway?" she asked him once the professor had left.
Sirius scowled. "A mudblood is a fowl term that some wizards use for wizards of muggle descent."
"Is it that bad then?" Lily still didn't understand why James had hit him, it had almost seemed like her enemy was defending her.
Sirius nodded, "the worst."
Lily reminded herself that James hated Malfoy. the only reason he had stood up for her was that one hatred had overshadowed the other. Still, it felt odd to be on the same side as James for once, they were almost allies.
From behind them, came a snigger. James darted around quickly, and came face to face with a pale, oily haired boy, who seemed several sizes too small for his robes.
"What are you laughing at?" James growled.
The boy hesitated. "Nothing that is your business," he finally said coldly. His nose seemed to be running a bit. The boy sniffled, making him look quite pathetic.
"I know you," Sirius interrupted, looking at the sniffling boy. "Your name is Severus Snape. Though I must say, Snivellus is more like it!"
Severus glared, but just then Ludwick came by and James and Sirius were forced to turn back around.
The newfound tolerance in which Lily and James held each other was shattered only a few hours later, when James thought it would be funny to slip some of the flobberworms they had been working with in herbology into Lily's spaghetti.
Lily was horrified, and screamed so loud the entire school had looked at them, laughing at the comical scene. Unfortunely for the culprit of that gruesome prank, Lily's shock did not last long. When she recovered from her initial surprise, James found himself with a plate of spaghetti and worms dumped on his head.
Needless to say, the school enjoyed that one.
Brittany and Dora escorted a fuming Lily back to the common room. "Calm down Lily, you got the better end of the prank. James ended up all covered in spaghetti!" Dora tried to persuade her to see the light end of things.
"You don't understand! I hate him!" Lily cried out passionately.
"Oh, he's not that bad," Brittany started to argue until she saw the look on Lily's face, "but he shouldn't have put the flobberworms in your food. He deserved what he got. At least you are even now."
"Oh, we'll never be even!" Lily spoke venomously. "I swear here and now, that James Potter will regret the day he ever decided to get on my bad side!"