Dream on Baby
Thank you Away with the Fairies4 for your review! This chapter is for you!
Chapter 3-Expect the Unexpected
Lily Evans confidently walked onto Kings Cross Station, only to find nothing to be so certain about. She turned around to face her parents with a question mark written all over her face.
Mrs Evans walked over to the nearest stationmaster, adjusted her handbag and politely asked, "Excuse me Sir, do you know where Platform 9 and ¾ is?"
Only to be sprayed with spit, "You crazy lunatics," he roared, "That has got to be the fifth time this morning, those bloody directors and authors, putting this nonsense into these people minds..." he went off continuing to mutter to himself irately.
She gave an apologetic smile and shrugged.
Lily stood between the platforms nine and ten, willing something to happen. She nervously pulled a piece of red hair that was already behind her ear, behind it again. She thought back to when she first found out she was a witch...it was as well received as she could wish is to be.
"Lily dear, you've received a letter!"
It was an ordinary summer day, the birds were twitting the trees and grass were as green as ever, no-one could have suspected anything different about the Evans household. Honestly speaking, the suburb was so reclusive that nobody would have noticed the pure-white owl drop a letter in the strategically placed letterbox, which was under the dingy porch-even in the bright morning sun, under a cobwebbed metal flap. It seemed to have flew right over the small pile of white envelopes on the doormat.
"It must be important Lily, they put it through the flap...can you remember the last time they did that?" the older two chuckled lightly.
The older woman sighed, "It was a parking ticket for your father's van," pointing outside to the white kombi van with the pink and purple flowers painted roughly on the outside. So much had changed in the last few years...
"Yeh well, that guy was pretty desperate huh?"
"Two hundred pounds, that's not bad money!"
"Yeh, course, from all those parking tickets they've got from my van!"
"Dear, that's why you don't park outside the Buckingham when you're protesting!"
"Yeh well...," he continued mumbling something about being noticed, but picked himself up and loudly asked Lily, "So...do you plan on opening that very important letter of yours?"
She quickly flicked her long red hair back to face her parents and flashed a grin, "Sure dad"
In her whole life, Lily had never received a letter. If she was invited to a birthday party, the person's parent would phone up and quietly talk to her mother. At birthday parties she was always the second to sit out on the game, why not last? Because that position was for the person most hated by everyone. She never got bills from her bank account, simply because her parents it was hard enough to keep theirs open. So she fingered the slick red wax seal on the crisp paper, secretly wondering who could afford a seal but still use this recycled feeling paper.
"Well open it!" Her parents had come down to either side of her shoulders and had poked their long noses down from behind, watching every move she made.
She smiled as she ran her finger along the edge and slowly sliced the top with her finger.
"You coulda' opened it the normal way," said her father bluntly with a touch of annoyance.
"Shut up dad, just because you want to see it! Anyway, the seal is...nice"
"You're annoying."
She took the letter that was made of the same material as the envelope cautiously, careful not to rip it.
"Take your time darling."
She, with the same caution, unfolded it.
Her mouth dropped to the floor, but she quickly recovered and her eyebrows crossed.
"Well?"
"Not funny!"
She stomped out of the room in frustration. All that time and...happiness...had gone down the drain again. For the first time she had actually felt acceptance in this world. But of course, someone thought it would be terribly funny if they sent her a letter about going to some phony school in whoop whoop. She sighed.
"For an eleven year old, she sure knows how to feel pain!"
"Well...what do you expect...you're her mother after all!"
"Now that is not funny David."
"Have you exactly finished that letter yet?"
"How odd...something about magic in some farm school..."
"The pranks these days...are very original I must admit, when I was at school, there was nothing like this!"
She mumbled in agreement, but her mind did wander in wonder.
The owl outside the front door flew off.
That afternoon, a couple of letters somehow made it in through the letterbox again, "How odd...letters in the morning and the afternoon? The posties must have had a pay-rise!" and through the toilet window sill to a toilet-sitters surprise which was seen through his colourful language and through the kitchen window to a coffee-makers surprise, "Sorry dear, I had to make it again, something seemed to have flown in and made the kettle all red...No it's not blood...Yes I'm fine...Carry on dear before you kill yourself with that hammer!"
"Rosie, has it ever occurred to you that this mightn't be a hoax?"
"Um...every second since she got that letter?"
"Why?"
"First, who would spend that much time on a prank letter? Plus spend money on that wax seal, they could use it for other stuff!"
Lily listened to her parents talk around the corner and the corners of her upturned mouth slowly rose...maybe her dreams could come true. The window next to her quietly slid up and a yellow envelope gently fell into her hands.
She tiptoed back around the corridor and heavily walked to the door "Mum...I got another letter..."
"Oh, dear...we were just saying...Ok...as weird and as...I don't know...like...what...what if this was like...true?" emphasising on-true.
"So what do you say Lily-kins, send the letter away? If it's a phony letter, we can laugh at ourselves ten years down the track!"
They read the letter and got out a pen and neatly jotted down a quick answer on a piece of paper, "What's with that paper? This magic school must be rich dude!" tied it with trouble on the fidgety owl, "What's gotten into this thing?" and then sent it out, all hoping it knew its way with Lily's mum commenting, "I hope it has a street directory with it. It's going to be hard to find way through the clouds."
When they arrived at Diagon Alley, there was much more pinching arms and rubbing eyes, "A what? An arch opening up from a what? Solid brick wall?" awing and gasping, "Wow...look at that thing go...mind her head you! I swear that teapot was going to pour all that tea on her head! Shortcut you say! Murder I say!" and complaining, "Can you become magic?"
And the day came when they received the letter notifying them of their place of arrival, "Platform nine and three-quarters?"
"Lily! Psst look to your right, look at that girl with the nice swishy black hair-oh why can't mine be like that?- and the funny screeching thing on top of her –what is that humongous thing?- she's packed a fridge in that box!" her younger sister awed, temporarily forgetting her blonde curls that she had been tugging in complaint.
Lily wasn't quite sure whether people were staring at her because of her beauty of because of that owl. But her thoughts were quickly interrupted by a sickly annoying high-pitched voice.
"Mo-om! But you promised! You promised you'd get me the new Charmed doll I saw in BeWitched!"
She turned around subtly careful not to attract too much attention. There she was with her mother-her too-blonde hair painfully reflecting the sunlight that was pouring in from the window above that was tilted back while complaining, sorry talking, to her mother. Her mother's wasn't much better with her face heavily plastered with colourful allsorts making her look like a sad clown and her hair showing re-growth.
"Oh sorry baby, I'll owl it to you ok?"
"Mom! I'm in England right now, I need some of my home stuff. Americans are so much better than these pom-boms!"
"Don't say that dear!"
"I need it now Mom! What are they going to say when they see an American girl walk in without the latest Charmed doll? Honestly mom!"
Courtney De Esse-Dulcedo just couldn't understand her mom. Everyone back at home had a Charmed doll. She even had two of the special editions of Circe and Guinevere packed in her bag. But they were so two months ago! It was like against the cool law to have dolls from two months ago. It was so unfair how 'because she was eleven' she couldn't have make-up. How could she ever look like Guinevere without makeup? She was already halfway there, her cool friend Daphne had dyed her hair back to blonde. She decided from then on that every time she went out into the sun, she'd coat her hair with lemon juice first-it was close to the end of her world that her hair was growing darker. What made the end of the world even closer was that Bridget and Christine still didn't invite her to their afternoon tea-parties with their Charmed dolls when she announced she was going to England to this super-cool boarding school. All they said was a 'Goodbye' and a 'See ya later' from Christine. She was determined to bring cool-dom to this place. Correction, she didn't have to bring it, she was already it.
"Well what can we do? Run back out and go all the way to London Mall to get it? Your train comes in ten minutes!"
"Of course we could go all the way to London Mall to get it," she replied, as if there was nothing wrong with it, "There's nothing better than a grand entrance!"
"You don't need to talk that loud darling. I'd rather you not have your grand entrance this year Courtney, it is your first year."
She seriously couldn't believe it. Her own mom, not letting her come to school late? "Aw mom, but I want to stay with you as long as possible...," she said in a whiny voice.
"That's so sweet of you Courtney, but remember what Daddy said? You must go to school. You still want Helen don't you? I'll get you Agamemnon and Paris too."
"Yes mom."
Lily couldn't help it but laugh.
"Lily? It's ten to eleven. I think we should get on this train whatever it is soon."
She glanced over at the girl with the swishy hair and the struggling owl, "I might ask them?"
She held her head high and walked over, counting the neverending steps till...
"Hey!"
She looked up to face the Chinese girl...well the girl she thought was Chinese until she saw her sharp blue eyes. She gasped in surprise. "Uh...Hi," she stuttered out. "I'm Lily."
"I'm Marlene. Are you new this year? I am. My sister is forever raving on about how cool blah is or how fun blah is and it goes on and on," the girl with the swishy hair said. Lily immediately liked this girl, thinking she spoke well.
"Yeh...Um...Where's the platform? I haven't actually heard of it before..." she mumbled wishing she would just melt on the spot.
"Oh, are you new? Sorry have I already asked that? I meant, oh don't worry. Come with me I'll show you," she gestured to what looked like a pure brick wall.
"Ok...sure...just hold on a second." She left her luggage with the Marlene girl and ran back to her parents. "Bye mum, see ya dad," giving them both a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Bye Petunia, I'll send you a big," roughly indicating a large box with her hands, "present for your birthday ok?" She hugged her, but her younger sister pulled her shirt and Lily bent down.
"Lily, find out for me what she does to her hair!"
Marlene was indicating what to do, "Run into the wall" to a very confused Lily. She tried to be reassured by Marlene, "Don't worry, everybody does it and nobody's been concussed yet" but to no avail, "Well I could be the first!". But at the end, it left only one solution-
"I'll go with you. That way we can get concussed together!"
-to a very shocked and now terrified Lily.
"Trust me," Marlene pleaded lightly closing her eyes and looking with such pity that Lily gave in.
Only to be pushed through the wall by a grinning Marlene.
"What did you do that for?" cried the shocked Lily.
"To prove it's safe." She dragged a defiant Lily to the nearest carriage, "C'mon, sit here. I'm exhausted, we'll wait for my friend here and if you'll excuse me for asking but what have you got inside that trunk?"
Courtney glared at the redhead who had just disappeared into nowhere.
"Trying to pull a disappearing act on me? Redhead! Red hair is so not cool," she decided satisfactorily. She turned back to her mom and smiled sweetly at her. "Mom, you can go now. I need to make some new friends now," her voice dripping with honey. Artificial honey, make that.
"No dear, I'd like to see you board the train first."
"What? Ok, can you stand back to the other side of the arch and you can come through when I've gone ok?"
"When are you going?"
"When I find someone to go with may-be," she rolled her eyes, some people she thought.
"You can go with me!"
"You're the exact reason why I don't want to go mo-om!"
"That's not very nice dear," she held a firm grip on her daughter's wrist and looked to see if anyone was watching before entering the brick wall.
"No mom!" she wrestled out of her grip. "Fine, I'm so sorry mom. Now, if you really loved me, you'd stand back there," pointing to the plain wall behind them, "and wait there until I meet somebody to catch the train with. The last thing I need right now is to be the School Loner."
Her mother sighed and walked back earning herself a LipSmackered smile from her daughter. There was no point in the argument when she was in this mood, especially with the move. It wasn't like the American magic schools were terrible, she just thought it would be nice for her to mix with other kids while she was at that influential stage. So far, no change had been seen. And her hopes weren't keeping up either. If they were, the only way they were keeping up was that they were being hanged.
Courtney looked around. There was only five more minutes before the train left and England, despite their notorious reputation for having late trains, this train escaped the ritual and apparently always left on time.
And then she saw her.
Her sun kissed blonde hair rippled slightly out as a gentle gust of wind blew. Secretly, she thought it was so unfair she could look like the lead out of a movie that was reviewed by BeWitched, while she looked like an extra. She must be really drippy she assured herself again. But she's really pretty, the other side of her head debated. She weighed her chances and decided that she'd be better off with a girl that was sort of prettier than her-she could always curse her to have pimples for the rest of her-than get on a train and be a total Loser.
"Hi. I'm Courtney. You look like you could do with some friends. You could join me if you like."
She lifted her head to face the owner of the voice, "Um...I was about to-"
"-come with me of course! Come along now," she said as she dragged them both through the barrier, "So what's your name?"
"Amelia," she whispered, glancing to both sides frequently.
"Amelia, you are really pretty, so don't waste it. Of course, you're going to become into a cool girl with my help but you'll have to prove yourself worthy first. Worthy of what you may ask? My time and your looks. Now let's start off with your head, always look up, yep that's the way," she commented lifting her chin, "And always talk with a loud and clear voice, you want people to hear about you...oh carriage, c'mon. Do you think you could get mine? Be careful though, I've got Circe and Guinevere inside...Oh you don't know what they are? Are you muggle-born? How can you not have heard of them then? Oh you have so much to learn..."
James Potter, freshly eleven, strutted around the station looking for the average person to play his latest prank that involved a certain fruit. He had discovered it after watching muggle TV and this particular prank occurring quite a number of times, and after the 7th time in that episode, he came to the conclusion that this prank was no failure and went ahead to test it. So far, he has found no willing participants in his experiment, so he thought he might have to pick out randoms and tell them later what the sore bottom was for. Well he assumed they got sore bottoms after seeing the reaction of the poor people who had unknowingly fallen into the trap of some funny prankster-of course, personally he thought he was much more successful at pranking people than that man with the funny name, Mr what? Mr Pea?
And he spotted the boy to do the job. A boy around his age-he thought it would be safer to pick his age or younger to start off with-with hair that had been intentionally casually spiked up. He followed him and noticed him round a corner of a square block in the middle of the station. Ahh he thought, Bingo, my chance! He doubled back running until he reached the corner he thought he would come around from and casually dropped his banana peel on the floor. Looking around to see if anyone had caught him, he ran back around the corner to where he was originally and slowly walked...trying to act normal.
"AAAAAAAAAARGH!"
With a loud bang as the two large skulls collided with each other, the two boys clutched their heads in pain as the banana peel attached to each of their feet slid off in a messy heap.
"You?" they both stared at each other.
And cracked up.
"Good one mate," clapping each other on the back.
"Not bad yaself, geddit from a show?"
"Mate yeh, that Mr Pea show?"
"Yeh that whatever...Mr Pea...actually come ta think of it I think it's bean but let it flow."
"Hey I'm James."
"Sirius is mine."
"Hm...nice," he said, trying hard to hold back a grin.
"Named after the brightest star in the sky mate," he laughed lightly.
"Haha we'll see about that one," and they both laughed quietly as they boarded on the train.
A sandy-haired boy poked his head in the carriage.
"Hey you, you dropped this," holding on to what looked like air.
James's mouth dropped and reached out to feel what looked like air, "Mate thank-you so much. My dad would have killed me if I had left it on that bloody platform, he says there are scabbers everywhere on nine and three-quarters because they reckon we are all rich," he fingered what looked like air again, "Come sit mate, you're welcome here any day anytime."
He helped him lug his trunk in the carriage and heave it up onto the rack, "What size is your trunk? Extra-large?"
"Probably, got loadsa stuff to pack, you never know when there's the right person to pull a trick on," he said winking.
"Ooh good, so what's your name?"
"Lupin. Remus Lupin."
"James. And this is Sirius," who nodded his way.
"Nice ta meet ya dude. Welcome," casually showing the carriage with his hand.
Amelia nodded politely, giggled lightly when needed and said the occasional, "Mhmm...". She didn't exactly understand this girl. And she didn't have much idea where Marlene was; she knew she was on this train somewhere-she had seen her outside the station but her parents insisted on going to the bathroom before so they lost sight. As her fellow schoolmate droned on about hair straightening, she slowly nodded off to sleep...
Marlene was starting to worry where her friend had disappeared off too. She honestly did like Lily, but she wanted her to meet Amelia.
Lily did notice her fidgety and anxiety but thought it was just a post-sorting thing. She was grateful she had found Marlene as a friend, she had no idea where she would be; let alone what to do, if it wasn't for her. But that was the least of her worries, the sorting, after listening to Marlene, it was as if they were being tested on something they hadn't even revised on. The only thing that assured her was that she had read all her books before coming to Hogwarts earning a very surprised but full of admiration comment from Marlene-
"What? You've read all your books? You freak!"
She thought it would be safer to come prepared, after all she thought, there can't be that many witches coming from non-magic families.
"Yeh well, I wasn't sure what we were meant to know...so I thought I might be safe if I kinda...learnt everything beforehand!"
Marlene just stared at her in awe, "Wow..."
"It's not that abnormal is it?"
On the train back home that following year, all Lily could say was that all that studying paid off.
"Well ader Lily, you topped the class by a mile and a half!"
"No not really Marlene...I was just lucky."
"How many four leaf clovers does one exactly carry around?"
Disclaimer: All goes to JK Rowling. Well. Ader! Apologies for not putting it in previous chapter-will correct when find time!
A/N: Anticlimax? I'd expect you to say that. I am ever so sorry. But I didn't think I could dwell on first year forever and ever, well for starters you want to see some action between our dear Lily and James, and besides I only wanted to focus on one aspect per year (until 5th year). Sorry, don't expect such a long chapter for 2nd year. And that will come in at the most 2 weeks time...fair enough? If you bombard me with reviews...that could shorten and come around next week...-winking and nudging feverishly-. Also, I did a lot of review for this chapter. Sorry for boring you the first half of this chapter...I've noticed my style of writing was alternating a bit. I'll try to keep it light as soon as possible. And this came out very quickly when away with the fairies 4 reviewed! :D:D. this goes to her because she was the only one who reviewed! Again, because I was in such a hurry to get this up, I suspect this will be cluttered with errors and what not. Please forgive me -blinks innocently-. Ok, not working.
By the way, this will become a trilogy. Any new ideas or anything you want to see warmly welcomed :D.
Also, is anyone else having troubles trying to upload your docs? I tried for ages only to find all my italics gone -eyes narrow-. Ah well...life must go on. Also astericks are non-existent...how odd.
Thanks a billion for reading my fic, it means heaps.
Review!! Star xx
