This chapter is dedicated to my new and awesome beta, quitesirius. She is a fantastic writer, one of my favorites, and my favorite person of the week. READ HER STUFF!! SHE'S AWESOME!!

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Chapter 5—Beginnings

Lily woke a bit too early for her liking after her previous night's exploits. She had only had about three hours of sleep, which didn't bode well with her. Still, she was exhilarated. She'd broken a rule! A few, probably.

A bell was ringing, and though Lily had initially still been excited about her rule-breaking, it was getting on her nerves. She got up and was hurrying around getting dressed when she noticed that Valerie was still sleeping in a dead-like sprawl.  Max was gone, though, thankfully. Lily went up to Valerie, trying to wake her, but soon discovered how impossible that could be. Remembering Remus last night, she went to the bathroom and filled a cup of water. As Lily approached, Valerie bolted upright.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Valerie, who was a frightful sight in the morning, shrieked.

"Waking you up," Lily said, taken aback. "Breakfast starts in fifteen minutes and we still have to find the Great Hall."

Valerie was racing now, to Lily's amusement. She was running back and forth in the dormitory muttering to herself. "Is that my hat? No, sorry. Where's my sock? Did I leave it on the cat again?" Those were the only discernable snippets. She then sped out of the dorm, calling back to Lily, "What are you waiting for?"

Lily groaned and followed.

As she turned the corner to exit down the staircase to the Common Room, she was surprised to see the boys lounging around on the armchairs. "We heard some screeches coming from your room, so we thought we'd wait to ask you about it," said Remus.

"Don't ask."

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Thanks to the previous night's exploits, finding the Great Hall should have been easier, and it was, compared to some of the other first years, but they were still getting close to nowhere. They knew that if they found the marble staircase, they would be done. The only problem was the sinking suspicion that the staircases moved. Upon passing a portrait of a strange man, they decided to ask for help. The portrait was in a gilded frame and in the bottom corner, a small gold plaque read: 'The Family Portrait of St. Mungo, founder of 'St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.'

"Are you St. Mungo?" James ventured to ask.

"No, I am his brother, St. Mango*. My brother and the rest of my family are in their numerous other portraits. They are quite famous enough to have multiple ones. I, on the other hand…"

"Oh, well then," James smothered a snicker at the name and confusion at the monologue. "Well, could you tell us the way to the Great Hall, possibly?"

"Ah, of course. Go back up this staircase, turn left, follow the hall to a stone pedestal with Sir Elphaby's head on it, run around it two and a half times, go down the staircase it reveals, turn right, left, and there'll be a marble staircase. Take that—"

"Yes, we know from there. Thank you," Lily's mouth said, but her brain said 'Damn, damn, damn!"

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Somehow or other, they managed to find it. They were panting slightly upon entering the Hall, but all had a slight feeling of pride, just touched with annoyance. It was a good thing they weren't really hungry. Well, Lily wasn't, or Remus or Max. Sirius, Valerie, Peter, and James, however, ate like it was worth their entire O.W.L. grades. After his mini-feast, Sirius seemed to have warmed to the house-elves quite nicely, grumbling about only one in particular, Kreacher, but no one really knew who he was talking about.

Finally finished stuffing his face, he and his friends looked to Dumbledore, who had just begun to speak.

"I realize now that I never spoke last night. Well, welcome. You'd think I'd have remembered that. First things first, I'd like to introduce our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, professor Andromeda Tonks."

Sirius did a double-take. "That's her! That's the cousin I told you about!"

Dumbledore looked towards the outburst at the Gryffindor table, chuckling. "Thank you, Mr. Black, for that. But please refrain from shouting such things; I'm sure she's disappointed with the recognition as your cousin." Andromeda was laughing openly; Sirius was defiantly blushing.

"In addition, the Forbidden Forest on the grounds is forbidden to all students. I would also wish to advise caution of the Whomping Willow on the edge of the forest. It is a priceless tree and could be severely injured in the process of whomping you." His eyes twinkled. "Also, Quidditch tryouts will begin next week, Tuesday for Ravenclaw, Wednesday for Hufflepuff, Thursday for Gryffindor, and Friday for Slytherin." James and Sirius grinned excitedly at each other. "Second to Seventh yeas only." They looked a bit deflated now. "With that out of the way, welcome back!" He gestured to select teachers, McGonagall among them. They began passing out timetables to their respective houses.

Lily looked at hers and smirked. This was going to be interesting.

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Because some people couldn't stop stuffing their faces, the seven raced into Defense Against the Dark Arts with negative minutes to spare.

"Well, well, well," said a voice from the shadows, "of all classes to be late for, you pick mine? Sirius, I'm offended."

"Sorry, umm, Professor," Sirius sounded strained. "We got… lost."

"Well, I'll forgive you this time, but…" A sudden smile spread across the Professor's face. "Take a seat, please. Now, because it took so long for you to grace my class with your presence, you could kindly be first in a little ice breaker I was just starting to explain." Now speaking to everyone, she said, "We'll go around, starting over here," She looked pointedly at the seven. "and everyone will then say their name and one fact or secret that no one else would know. Don't worry, this will be fun. Mr. Black?"

"Fine," Sirius ventured, looking a bit unsure. "Well, I am, of course, the esteemed Sirius Black. Okay and, what? Something you don't know?"  Professor Tonks nodded. "Um…well, I did….no, not that…um….Professor, care to set a precedent?"

"Big word. Alright, since we have to get this over with. Sadly, I am related to this miscreant over here. Did that clear anything up?" she laughed as she said it.

"Plenty. Okay, fine… I...have broken almost all major bones…mostly mine…and am on a first-name basis with many of the staff at St. Mungo's." He seemed proud of this as he shared it.

"I'm sure you have," Tonks said, writing a note next to his name on her attendance sheet. "And you?"

"Well, I am James Potter, best friend of Sirius Black, and I have been the cause of many of Sirius's broken bones."

"Good for you," Tonks smiled while writing a note next to James's name too.

"I'm Remus Lupin, and…" he seemed to be struggling with finding something he was willing to share. "…I am part wolf." Tonks looked thoughtful while the class laughed, doubting him.

Smiling sheepishly, Lily volunteered, "Lily Evans. I can't ride a bike." People laughed at this too.

The class went round and round, being stopped occasionally by the professor or a flying joke, including: "I accidentally have eaten crayons (Peter)," "I spray painted my cat to protect him from the cat mafia (Valerie), and "I once had a dream that I was being chased by a giant pair of scissors wearing neon-pink slippers (a boy named Frank Longbottom)."

"Excellent," Tonks answered after hearing testimony from a girl who only recently learned that not all snowmen are evil. "Now, for the lesson. Kindly take out your wands, and we'll start with some simple, basic defense…"

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Heading towards History of Magic (it was break, but they didn't want to get lost and be late), the group was talking animatedly about the lesson.
"You're cousin's a really cool teacher!" Remus exclaimed.

"No kidding. She is my cousin." Sirius never seemed as modest as he was on that day.

"Expelliarmus," Lily said, pointing her wand at him. His wand flew into the air, and James caught it. Peter, lagging a bit behind, let out a small laugh.

"Oh, yeah. Very funny." Sirius grumbled, slowing down to stand next to Peter and drawing himself up to his maximum height.

"Yes, it was. At least Lily could do the spell," James said, looking at Peter's quivering frame.

"Expelliarmus," Sirius said to James, seizing his wand from the air. "Thanks for the wand."

"Mr. Black, 5 points from Gryffindor. No magic in the halls," mentioned caretaker Apollyan Pringle in passing, staring beadily at a gaping Sirius.

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History of Magic was a big contrast from their exciting and funny Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson. The only part of mild interest was when the ghost teacher, Professor Binns, burst in from his office through the blackboard. No one could tell if he had anything to say that was worth staying awake to listen to; he talked in such a flat drone that the class could fall asleep, and he was so unaware of his surroundings that the class could be juggling arsenic and he would never know. Not that they ever tried, of course.

Following the lesson, as good always follows bad, was lunch. The students, now very well rested, spoke animatedly about Tonks and quite a bit harshly about Binns.

Remembering Tonk's lesson, James and Remus had to bodily drag Sirius away from his lunch, much to his disdain. If he made them share any more secrets, he would be hard to forgive. After lunch the group headed across the lawn to double Herbology, located out in greenhouse 1. This class, they soon learned after watching the rest of the students entering, was doubled with the Hufflepuffs, some of whom Lily recognized from the Sorting the night before. The professor was a light- haired, round-faced, squat woman who called herself Professor Sprout.

Sprout was a bit scattered in her teaching, but very dedicated and passionate about her subject. However, few of the students were as thrilled with it as she was. It was interesting enough, but in that first lesson she spent a bit of time with the explanation of magical plants and their uses. After she finished her lecturing, everyone gathered around for basic care of magical plants, which was substantially more fun because there was actual activity involved; it was also funnier because the seeds and fertilizer kept going flying, thanks to Lily.

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The rest of the week passed without too much incident. Sirius and James got their first detentions for lighting Peter's cauldron on fire ("It was an accident, we swear!"), Remus got his first detention in Astronomy by being half and hour late because James and Sirius tied him to one of the armchairs in the Common Room, and Lily gained 10 points for Gryffindor in Charms and Transfiguration (an extreme feat from Professor McGonagall to give out points in lessons) by mastering the spells of levitation and transformation, being further rewarded with no homework. The rest of the class had to practice Transfiguring matches into needles to be ready to show the class at their next lesson. James and Sirius also had certain skills. They could, at least, manage to give their matches pointy, silvery ends. James probably could have achieved more, too, if he didn't keep trying to light Valerie's ponytail on fire.

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As much fun as Lily was having in her classes, which was a shocking thought, she couldn't wait for the week to end.  They were a ton of fun, but between them and the boys' pranks and homework, she really had no free time at all. That meant no free time for the parchment she had found.

Crawling in to bed and shutting her curtains, she feigned sleep until she was sure there was no one still awake. Then, from underneath her pillow, she pulled out the parchment to see words that shocked her.

Dear Severus,

How dare you contact your mother? Did you think I wouldn't find out? We don't care about you. I sent you away for a reason, you meddling, sniveling scum. Stay out of my business with you mother! I can only even tolerate you because you are now a Slytherin, but you disgust me. You think your House is a point of shame? I didn't raise you like that; it's Slytherin or Durmstrang. I figured you could accept being in Slytherin. I can't even imagine the disgrace if you weren't, LIKE YOU MOTHER!

                -Father

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A.N: Thanks for your reviews, and especially thank you to quitesirius for beta-ing. J

Oh, also, sorry to say, I had to delete my other story (which got many more reviews L) because it was a list an apparently illegal. *That's where the St. Mango thing comes from. Oh well. Please review. Thanks! I greatly appreciate reviews, especially your reviews.

Up in Chapter 6: Response to the letter, possibly a fun Halloween surprise. I might even bring in Peter.

Happy Holidays (again)!