Chapter Two: - On the Hogwarts Express

Lily spent the rest of the summer in constant anticipation for the start of her new term. Her parents had also made several more trips to London namely to buy all the things that they had forgotten to buy for petunia and even though Lily pleaded with them they didn't return back to Diagon Ally, so Lily consoled herself by reading all of her new books. The magical contract that she had signed meant that she wasn't allowed to use magic outside of the school term and even though she was extremely tempted she didn't want to be expelled before she had even started.

Finally September 1st arrived Lily had packed her trunk the night before and was the first to wake in the Evens house, she washed and changed into jeans and a jumper and headed into her parents bedroom to wake them up. Mr Evens complained loudly with a long sting of curses, it was only five o'clock in the morning but has they had to drive up to kings cross he and Mrs Evens both agreed they'd better get up. By seven clock all the Evens' were packed and ready to leave. Mrs Evens had made the girls Sandwiches and was making sure that Petunia had every

thing she needed for her first day back at St Periwinkles, while Mr Evens loaded Lily's trunk into the boot of the car.

Waving goodbye to Petunia has they dropped her off at a friends house the Evens' set off to London.

It was half past ten when they arrived at kings cross station, Mr Evens unloaded Lily's trunk from the car and found a trolley for it, while Lily checked the instructions that she had been given at the leaky cauldron, it told Lily that the Platform from which the Hogwarts Express would leave from was numbered nine and three-quarters. To anyone else this would have seemed extremely strange but after a month of reading the most strangest books she had ever seen in her entire life the number of the platform seemed quite normal.

Following the instructions the Evens' headed down the platforms, Mr Evens pushing the trolley with lily's trunk,

"Are you sure that's what it says?" Mrs Evens asked sounding extremely concerned when Lily had told her how they had to get on the platform,

"Yes" Lily told her mother for the third time "we have to walk straight at the barrier between platforms nine and ten", Mr Evens seemed to think it was a wonderful idea, but Lily's mother wasn't entirely convinced.

They reached the barrier with fifteen minuets to spear (The instructions was adamant that the train would leave at exactly eleven o'clock) After taking a deep breath all three Evens' leaned against the wall and sank right through it to find themselves standing on the platform with a beautiful scarlet steam train waiting at the platforms edge. The platform itself was packed with people and a sign overhead read Hogwarts Express 11 o'clock: they had done it!

Lily was overjoyed and by the looks on her parent's faces she wasn't the only one, Mr Evens led them off into the crowd to find a compartment.

"There's more and more Mudbloods every year!" Lily heard a stern looking woman say, has she and her parents made their way down the platform. Lily didn't really know what a Mudblood was but what ever it was it didn't sound like a very nice term to use.

"This one 'ill do" Lily heard her father say has he stopped outside an empty compartment and after safely storing Lily's trunk in the luggage rack, he climbed back down onto the platform to kiss his Daughter goodbye,

"Me and your Mother are really going to miss you -"

"-And you have to promise that you'll write to us everyday" Mrs Evens said cutting across her husband and hugging her daughter so tightly that Lily thought she'd never be able to breath again,

"I will mum; I promise!" Lily said after she regained her breath, and then from the engine end of the platform a whistle blew and they heard the Guards Calling "All aboard".

Lily's parents beamed down at her their faces looked so happy and proud and so Lily forced a smile onto her face, she felt so nervous now, she hadn't so much has spent a week away from her family before and what if she didn't make any new friends and what if she wasn't any good at magic and it turned out that the letter had meant to go to another Lily Evens who did know magic?

Some of her thoughts must have been showing on her face because has her father helped her up into the trains compartment he leaned in close and whispered into her ear.

"Don't you go worrying now, you'll fit in just right, I bet there'll be lots of new 'ns starting and they'll all be in the same boat too" he kissed her on the cheek again and closed the compartments door. But Lily wasn't so sure her father was right, has she leaned out of the window to wave her parents goodbye she could hear the stern woman talking again,

"Now you two take good care of my little girl" Lily heard her say and turning her head to look at her Lily could see she was talking to two boys, one looked to be in his late teens, he was tall and thin with shoulder length black hair, the other was slightly shorter and stockier and looked to be in his mid teens, he too had dark hair but it was cut shorter at the back and sides and the front hung slightly in his eyes.

"I want you to sit with your brothers" the woman continued has she rounded on a girl who was no older then Lily herself. Lily couldn't see much of the girl has her back was facing Lily but she had the same jet black hair has her brothers which was tied in pigtails and she was already wearing her school robes.

"Oh mum I don't want to sit with them-" the girl said indicating her brothers, "I need to make other friends you know"

"And so you shall my precious," said the man standing next to the stern woman, he looked exactly like an older version of the eldest son, Tall, thin with long sleek black hair and immaculately dressed, but unlike his son he was sporting a goatee, he patted his daughter on the head and looked around at the other students boarding the train

"Look there's the Snapes', Severus is starting this year and so is little Walden Macnair and I think one of the Black girls is, see you'll know lots of people"

The girl sighed loudly and climbed into her compartment looking thoroughly annoyed, followed by her two older brothers who were grinning with amusement.

Lily wished she now hadn't listened to the family's conversation she felt even worse now, obviously that girl wasn't going to have trouble making friends, by the sounds of it her family had been through this a lot of times before and so knew lots of other students and their families.

"Don't Worry" Lily heard her father calling again as the guards walked up the platform closing the compartment doors "You'll be fine!"

"We Love you Lily" Lily hared her mother call has the train slowly pulled out of the station, Lily watched her parents waving until the train went round a bend and they where blocked from view.

Sighing and feeling now utterly lonely and nervous and slightly depressed Lily sank down into one of the padded seats, '

'Now what?' she thought after a little while of looking out of the window at the fleeting scenery. She could hear loud snippets of excited conversations from the other compartments, from friends meeting up for the first time after the holidays telling each other what they had done and where they had been, while other more boisterous students chased each other up and down the corridor shouting and calling to each other gleefully.

Lily decided to re-read some of her school text books so that it was all fresh in her mind when she arrived at school and so by climbing up onto her seat she could just reach her trunk, putting the horrid thought of how she was going to be able to get it down from the luggage rack when the train came to a stop to the back of her mind she pulled out her charms book and found her wand.

"Hi" Said a voice from the corridor which startled Lily and she slipped backwards off the seat and fell to the floor still holding her book and wand.

"Sorry I didn't mean to startle you" said the voice again; it was the girl from the platform who Lily had seen with her brothers, stern looking mother and immaculately dressed father. Up close she was a very pretty looking girl with blue eyes. Crossing the compartment the girl helped Lily onto her feet.

"Sorry" she said again "It's a little formal I know but my name's Miriam, Miriam Artemis" she said offering Lily her hand.

"Oh hi" Lily said a little nervously but slightly glad that someone had decided to come to speak to her "I'm Lily Evens" they shook hands and grinned at each other.

"Evens" Miriam said frowning "never heard of you, so that must mean your Muggle born"

"Muggle Born" repeated Lily, she had heard several people over the past month refer to her and her family as 'Muggles' and again she didn't really like the sound of it, mostly because she didn't know the meaning of the term.

"You know non-magical parents" continued Miriam. Feeling slightly relived now that she knew what a Muggle was, Lily sat down again

"Yes I guess I am M-Muggle born".

"Cool" Miriam said has she flung herself down on the seat opposite, "I've never met anyone who was Muggle born before" She said smiling

"Most of the students on this train I know already, I'm related to half of them as well!"

"Oh" was all that Lily could find to say she felt even lonelier and miserable now, and again some of what she was feeling must have shown on her face because Miriam smiled at her,

"Don't worry about it, you'll be fine, we're all at the same level magically anyway, and if anyone does know more spells then normal they wouldn't have had a chance to have practiced them".

They spent the next couple of minuets talking about their families and Miriam was just as fascinated about Lily's family as much as Lily was about Miriam's. It turned out that Miriam was from a very ancient wizarding family that dated back to the middle ages and beyond, this made Lily even more nervous because it meant that Miriam was bound to know a lot of magic even if she hadn't been able to have used it.

"Have you given any thought to which house you think you'll be in?" Miriam said has she returned to the compartment after buying lots of sweets from a merry old witch pushing a food trolley,

"Houses?" Lily didn't know anything about any houses but Miriam continued anyway

"Both my brothers are in Slytherin house, in fact all my families been in Slytherin for centuries" she said gloomily passing Lily a hand full of strange sweets that Lily had never seen before. "I hope I'm in Hufflepuff, that'll shock my folks they'd probably die of shame, or disown me, but at least then dad would notice me!"

"I'm kind of surplus to requirements" she added because of the shocked look on Lily's face, "I can't pass on the family name you see, because I'm a girl. Jed he's my older brother he's the athletic one, made the house team in his second year, plays Chaser, I've been helping him for years to train by belting Bludgers at him. Whereas Tad, he's our eldest brother, he's the intelligent one. He's sitting seventeen NEWTS this year, ministry's given him a time turner so he can get to all his lessons, model student you see, was a prefect now he's head boy, apple of mum's eye.

"So I came to the decision ages ago that if I couldn't please them and get noticed by being good - because it's all been done before- then I'll get noticed by being good at being bad, and the first step of my new regime starts at Hogwarts, so I have to get into Hufflepuff it's my only way of braking free you see!?"

Lily was stunned, there was too much that Lily didn't understand from what Miriam had just said Chaser, Bludger, NEWTS, Time Turner, and even the words Hufflepuff and Slytherin where strange, and what was Miriam so eager of braking free from?

"I'm not insane, if that's what you're thinking" Miriam said smiling,

"Oh Sorry" Lily had just realised that she was staring at Miriam with her mouth slightly open.

"You've got a lot to learn about our world, more then just spells and wand waving let me explain-" and so Miriam told Lily all about the different Hogwarts houses, There was four in total Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, each founded by a different person over a thousand years ago.

She also explained about her favourite sport which sounded extremely strange to Lily, it was called Quidditch and was played on broomsticks ("It's a shame first years aren't aloud to have broomsticks, I've got a really cool one" Miriam said in a misty voice "League standard as well") Quidditch, Miriam explained was a game played by seven team members the main task was for the three players called 'Chasers' to get a big red ball called the 'Quaffle' through one of the three gaol hoops at the end of the pitch which was guarded by a Keeper, while two other players named 'Beaters' used bats to keep two smaller balls named 'Bludgers' away from the Chasers and the final team member which was called a 'Seeker', who's job it was to catch an extremely small ball called the 'Golden Snitch' which zoomed around the pitch and if caught finished the game giving the Seekers team an additional 150 points.

It was obvious to Lily that apart from wanting to annoy her parents Quidditch was Miriam's favourite thing, she talked for over an hour about the team which she and her Brother, Jed, both supported it was called the Wimbourne Wasps. ("Jed's hoping to get a job as a Chaser with the Wasps when he's finished school, he's got along way to go yet though he's only in his fourth year")

It felt nice sitting there with Miriam talking to her has they sped across the countryside, Lily's book and wand laid forgotten on the seat next to her has the time passed her nervousness was also forgotten.

Several other students popped their heads around the compartment doorway throughout the day, mostly to say hi to Miriam, each time Miriam would always introduce Lily to them. Some on seeing Lily would scowl and disappear immediately, one boy who Miriam introduced as Severus Snape did this, he looked at Lily like she was an extremely slimy slug, he didn't even bother to enter the compartment but said he was going to talk to Miriam's brothers and that Miriam should also go and sit with them. But all Miriam did was smile and say she was happy where she was, so the boy slinked off.

After that an other first year girl came into the compartment called Alice she was a really friendly cubby girl with dark short bobbed hair and a round friendly face, she and Miriam obviously already knew each other and she spent the best part of the afternoon in the compartment with them until her twin brother and his new friend came into the compartment laughing and saying that they'd accidentally set fire to Alice's school hat with the deck of cards they where playing with, Alice followed the boys out of the cabin mumbling something about Owling their mother.

"You'd better change into your robes" Miriam said abruptly has she looked out of the compartments window at the now dark scenery "We'll be arriving soon, I'd better head back to my brothers I only told them I was nipping to the toilet, I'll be back soon" Miriam assured her and after sliding the compartment door closed behind her she headed down the corridor.

Lily climbed back onto her seat and reached inside her trunk in search of her robes when the compartment door slid open again,

"That was quick" Lily said turning her head expecting to see Miriam, but it wasn't Miriam who was standing in the doorway, it was a girl Lily had never seen before, she had long black hair and heavily lidded eyes and she was looking at Lily with the utmost disgust on her face, like Lily was something horrible on the bottom of her shoe.

"So there's more of you this year are there?" the girl said walking into the compartment, Lily was frozen to the seat where she stood, she didn't like this girl, she was kind of creepy and a shiver ran down Lily's spin.

"Scared?" the girl said her lips twisting into a cruel smile, she eyed Lily's wand and charms book which was on the seat next to where Lily stood still unable to move even as the girl picked Lily's wand up,

"You should be scared Mu-"

"Hi ya-" said the voice of Alice has she popped her head around the door again cutting the dark haired girl off in mid sentence, some how the sight of Alice made a wave of relief flooded over Lily and her legs remember that they could move, and she jumped down from the seat, the heavily lidded girl threw Lily's wand back down and stormed out of the compartment banging into Alice on her way out.

"What was that all about?" Alice asked rubbing her arm

"I wish I knew" lily said earnestly picking her wand and book up "Who was she any way?"

"That was Bellatrix Black. Unfortunately she's a first year as well" Alice said looking gloomy "knowing my luck I'll probably end up in the same house as her!"

"You and me both" Lily laughed trying to make light of the situation but has she climbed back up onto her seat stuffing her wand and book back into her trunk and removing her robes she couldn't help but feel that Bellatrix Black was somebody that she should try to avoid.