A Short Author's Note
Thanks to EVERYONE who read and reviewed and just read and that sort of thing! This shall be the last 1st year chapter, and then we go on to 2nd! and then to 3rd! and then to gasps 4th, and oooo! I know! I know! 5th! 5th will be longer then others, probably 2 chappies for 5th! And then drum roll 6th! Here da plottie thinkens! The Werewolf incident happens! And someone becomes less of an idiot! Drama! Drama! DRAMA! And then comes (like someone brilliantly named it :D) the FLUFF of cue for emotional music SEVENTH YEAR! Aha! You knew it'd be here. :D I know you did! :D
You don't have to read my author notes, I just feel like writing them sometimes... makes me feel important you see!
Oh, and I keep renaming the fic... I know, bad habit! But this is the FINAL name! Lily Evans and the Prison of Love , it just sounds, you know, JK Rowlishnish... :)
Chapter 3 . The Hogwarts Express
Mr. Evans was very determined to drop off his younger daughter on Hogwarts Express before eleven o'clock at King's Cross Station in London and then attend his older daughter's school's induction ceremony at one o'clock in Kings Lynn.
There was only one shortcoming in his genius plan, it takes two and a half hours to drive from London to Kings Lynn.
But that didn't kill anyone's spirits, especially not Lily's, who was going to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. There was an easy solution to Mr. Evan's dilemma, sending Lily to Platform nine and three quarters with the Lupins or the Potters, but that would mean that Mr. Evans wouldn't see his little girl go off into the new and mysterious magical world. And that would be a shame for the whole family. So the whole family came to London to send Lily off.
They arrived early at ten o'clock at King's Cross and Lily was pushing a trolley full of very odd objects, including a trunk, a cat cage, and a bag with cat food and toys, even a boxed cauldron. As Lily pushed her trolley forward, her mother examined her ticket.
"Honey, where exactly is the platform nine and three quarters?" Mrs. Evans asked her husband.
Mr Evans answered in an offhand voice, "Between platforms nine and ten, of course, dear."
And that was when they arrived at the break between platforms nine and ten and there were no platforms between those. Mr. Evans frowned, first at the sign PLATFORM 9, then at the sign PLATFORM 10, then at Lily's ticket that said PLATFORM 9 3/4, and finally at the space between the signs PLATFORM 9 and PLATFORM 10 as if willing another sign to just appear. And muggles who noticed frowned at Mr. Evans while Mrs. Evans looked around for another sign.
"Why don't we walk along the platform and see if there're any other signs?" Lily suggested and Mr. Evans nodded
The Evanses walked up and down the platform twice before Petunia spoke in a very unpleasant tone, "Why don't you just walk into the stupid wall, may be it's the right way."
The idea seemed absurd until a young dark-haired boy walked out of a wall they were standing nest to. Lily and Petunia goggled at the wall and the boy walking down in toward the waiting area until Mrs. Evans gave them a nudge each toward the wall. "Come on, dears, he wasn't that good looking," she said with a small smile.
Lily suppressed a giggle, but Petunia muttered under her nose just barely audibly for Lily, "Who'd want to marry a wizard?"
Lily's family helped her load up her baggage, find her a compartment, and change into new robes. The whole time Mrs. Evans reminded her daughter what not to forget to do and to stay out of trouble. Mr. Evans just said to stay away from the boys and to write weekly letters to everyone. Petunia just said not to send her any "owls", but Lily didn't pay her any attention, she was probably just anxious not to miss her school ceremony.
"All right, sweetheart, I think that's everything and if we leave any later we'll be late to my flower's school ceremony. Oh, I'm so sad they don't allow parents at yours, I want to hear every detail!"
Lily smiled and nodded and hugged her mom, "I promise I will. Now, go or you'll make Petty late."
Mrs. Evans flicked away swelling tears from her eyes and kissed her daughter, "I love you, honey."
"I love you too, mom. I'll be perfectly fine and I'll write all the time," Lily said and squeezed her mom's hand.
After Lily walked with her family to the barrier, she finally had a chance to look around. Platform 9 3/4 had an antique touch to it, everything about it was a little faded and yellow, like an old photograph. Except for the Hogwarts Express and the signs, of course. The signs were bright and welcoming and the Express gave off friendly warm hoots every few minutes to no one in particular.
The Platform itself was next to empty, apparently no one arrived as early as ten o'clock under any normal circumstances. There were a few lonely students wandering around, but that didn't stop Lily from skipping and twirling down the platform to make an outlet for her excitement.
Until she collided with a tall dark brown haired boy. He was already wearing his Hogwarts robes and seemed to be in some pain as she stared at his face.
"Excuse me, miss," he said in a slightly breaking voice, "But could you move off my toe?"
"Oh! Definitely," Lily replied not really realizing what she replied to, but she didn't move anywhere.
The boy smiled slightly, "Right about now would be very nice indeed."
"Uh-huh," Lily blinked as if mesmerized, then shook her head as it started working properly again, "Where did you get that huge bruise?" She was referring to a very ugly blue and purple mark that had swallowed half of his face, most of the right side, one blue eye and the nose included.
"All right," the boy sighed a little sarcastically, taking Lily by her elbows and pushing her back a step. "Thank you, m'am, for moving off my poor injured foot and restoring the blood circulation to my humble cell tissues. As for my beauty mark," he paused and added in a very serious but slightly painful tone, "my mother beats me."
Lily gasped making the boy laugh, she threw him a fierce glare when she realized that he was just joking.
"A little naive, aren't you?" He asked with a smile that made Lily smile back, "It was just a misdirected Bludger."
"A Bludger?" Lily asked slowly.
"Oh, no! Not a muggleborn, are you?" The boy asked her in a mockingly weary tone while putting an arm around Lily's shoulders, "Well, I'll just have to educate you about Quidditch then! But first, the introductions! I am Alexander Yarich."
"Lily Evans."
"Pleased to meet you, Lily! That's short for Lillian, isn't it? I though so! You can call me Alexi though. Oh, we need to introduce you to Robin, splendid little gal she is! You'll get along wonderfully. Her parents are muggleborns, but she's so ignorant of your world. Plans to take muggle studies next year to learn about it, you know. Her parents didn't tell her anything, they're curse breakers. you see, the only worlds that interest them are uninhabited and full of awful sorts of trap spells and such..."
Lily found that Alexi knew quite a lot about the magical world, his family was a long line of purebloods and most of them live in Russia. The Yariches were still common muggleborns when the International Code of Wizarding Secrecy was installed. Since then Yarick, a village deep in Siberia, had grown into a small town where everyone can eventually trace themselves to the Yarich family that first installed the village. Now, it is a hidden town where muggles and wizarding folk live together because of family ties.
"...You could actually call them all squibs, because - oh, squibs are non-magical children of magical parents - well, because more often then not the children that are born are muggleborns now. I believe living around all the magic is affecting everyone and eventually Yarick will be a completely magical town. You know how rare those are? British Isles have only one such village, Hogsmeade..."
There were also not so friendly purebloods, those that believed themselves superior to muggles and muggleborns and some such. They only married purebloods and more often then not purebloods with the same beliefs as themselves. Alexi's father came from such a family, Alexi refused to name it, but he did hint that his father abandoned his mother when she became heavy with child. But Alexi liked to believe there was a reason for everything bad in the world. He was really quite charming.
Robin Shensky joined Lily's and Alexi's compartment at ten fifty, Alexi had charmed the glass in the window to change in what he called Gryffindor colors, burgundy and yellow so she'd find them. And find them, Robin did, waltzing into their compartment and cramping it with two trunks and an owl cage plus some odd bags.
Alexi introduced them and the girls shook hands.
Lily stared at all the luggage, "How do you carry all that?"
Robin rolled her eyes, "I don't carry them, hun, I make them float on their own."
"Robin is a charming little girl," Alexi laughed at his own joke.
"So you're not a first year?" Lily asked.
Robin shook her head, "Oh, no, hun, definitely not. That year was a complete nightmare."
Alexi grinned, "Who said this one won't be?"
Robin threw him a glare, but it wasn't serious, "I do, because I actually got to all my classes on time the last month of school."
"Oh, yes, that's right! You did! Well-" Alexi stopped when he saw Robin take out her wand, the girl pointed it at her bags and it all neatly arranged itself around the compartment. "Please don't turn me into anything unpleasant."
"I was just arranging my things," Robin smirked.
"Right," Alexi said, then half whispered to Lily, "Did I warn you about her awesome temper?"
"I heard that!"
But before the two friends could continue to fight each other, the compartment door opened and two boys Lily knew and a girl she didn't walked in.
"There you are!" Remus said and rushed toward her, Lily stood up and hugged her friend, when they've sat down again, Remus spoke, "We though you might have gotten lost!"
James was eyeing Alexi in a very unfriendly manner and Alexi was giving him one of his dashing smiles, Robin had curled up in her corner and began avoiding socializing with anyone. The girl came in the compartment and leaned against the door after closing it, "Remus insisted we find you, at least I think it's you, right, Lily?"
Lily nodded.
"Yeah, well, by the time we've ran though the train all the compartments got filled up! So, anyway, I'm Tress Knicht, and they're Remus Lupin and James Potter," the boys waved when called by name.
Alexi shook the boys' hands and kissed Tress' in a very gentlemanly manner, Tress just rolled her eyes at him. "Alexander Yarich, but Alexi will do."
"Lily Evans."
Everyone looked at Robin, who kept on scribbling something in her notebook.
Alexi smiled, "That's Robin "Hood" Shensky, but she doesn't socialize much, as you can see. But if you ever need to sharpen up your hexing skills, I'm definitely sure she'll whack you with a few you haven't yet learned."
Everyone started talking about Quidditch. Well, Lily just listened and sometimes asked some questions, which everyone at once started explaining. James got redder in the face every time Alexi started talking to Lily or Tress, both girls learned not to take seriously anything he said. And, of course, Robin never spoke except until...
"Your cousin's here, hun," she said and everyone stared at her.
And a knock sounded at the door, Tress opened it and let in a boy Lily thought looked familiar. The compartment went still, both Tress and Remus eyed the newcomer like a poisonous plant and James straight out refused to acknowledge his presence. But Alexi stood up and gave his apparently cousin a handshake and a manhug, "Well, you made it!"
"Yes, I did," the boy said coldly, "Now can you undo your window masquerade?"
"Of course not! I'm still waiting for Gill!" Alexi turned around to everyone and with a hand on his cousin's shoulder introduced him, "This is Sirius Black, my long lost brother you might say."
Sirius frowned to the introduction, "Don't let my mother hear that, remember the last family party? I've been forbidden to socialize with the likes of you."
Alexi blinked twice at the boy as tall as him and otherwise no other signs indicating the same blood, "Then what are you doing here? By Merlin's grace! You'll be thrown down the stairs again!"
Sirius snorted, "Is that what happened to you?"
"No, Robin finally managed to hit the bludger in the right direction."
Robin shook her head, "Ooor someone swung his bat the in the wrong direction."
Sirius tsked, "Alexi, hasn't anyone taught you not to help girls win? Especially when they can do that to you?"
With all the talk between Alexi and Sirius and Robin going on the tension began to slowly break, first relax was Tress, then James, but Remus kept on throwing Sirius untrusting glances. Alexi made Sirius sit by the window and sat himself between him and Lily, one arm around each. Next to Lily sat a very tense Remus. And Robin reluctantly made space for James, but only very little. Tress just kept on leaning on the door.
Some time after the clock turned it's longest hand to 12 and beat out eleven, the door opened again, making Tress have to grab Remus and James for support, and a eleven year old with short cut dark blonde hair walked in. Alexi repeated his ritual on standing up, hugging, introducing and sitting again. Gillian MacMada was a first year and not at all shy, she took over the conversation carrying it to the houses. Both Robin and Alexi were second year Gryffindors, wearing their badges on their robes proudly. James had no doubt he'd be in Gryffindor, Remus mentioned that it was only because he was not smart enough for Ravenclaw and too lazy for Hufflepuff. And everyone laughed. Sirius uttered a small prayer that Slytherin house will take sick leave from the list of available houses before he'd have to be sorted. Everyone laughed as well. And Remus seconded that for some reason. The two boys made eye contact there and their tension finally broke. Lily finally recognized Black as the name of one of the wrong kind of pureblood families and decided that Sirius was going for the Rebel label. Alexi nominated Sirius and Lily for future Griffindors and as much as Lily's heart tugged at being in the same house as Alexi and Robin, she did not want to leave Remus, her old friend, alone anywhere.
The discussion had shifted again, this time to summers. Remus, James and Lily related their most exciting event, the creation of Sedgeford Canyon.
"Muggle Mug? Could you get any more pathetic?" Alexi asked jokingly.
James folded his hands on his chest in a peacock like manner, "And you'd come up with a better one?"
"Yeah, just tell the girl a muggle is another name for a beautiful forest nymph and that she reminded you of such. So you wanted to know if she was one."
Lily giggled, "Aww, now I want to be a muggle again!"
James blushed a little, but not wanting to loose face, continued with the mock-argument, "You think you'd pull that off? You can be serious!"
Sirius grinned smuggly, "Well, now that you've asked, yeah, I already have. And I am - Sirius, Sirius Black! Pleased to meet you!"
Lily smiled, "Sirius like the star, Black like the night. How poetic."
Sirius raised an eyebrow at her, "I'm flattered, my muggle," he said imitating Alexi a little, "that you can find me so inspiring, my muggle nymph."
Alexi rolled his eyes, "You two, my lads, have much to learn yet!"
James wanted to say something, but Sirius beat him to it, "Aha, like we want to learn from the likes of you!"
Alexi's brows drew together in mock insult, "What's wrong with the likes of me? Lily likes my likes! Don't you, my lovely muggle?" He added a strange foreign accent to 'muggle' making it sound even more appealing.
