SEPTEMBER
Dear Diary,
Today will either be fantastic or horrible. I could make friends, and fit in perfectly, or I could be stuck in a freak school without anywhere to go for the next year. I think it'll be the latter, so many things have been going wrong lately that nothing could possibly be fantastic. I've been thrown out of my house, I missed my birthday completely, and to top it off, I've caught a cold from my night in the cave. Great, just great. Imagine how I'll look to other people, a snot-nosed, dirty little girl who sniffs a lot. I'll be introducing myself as such: "Ello, by nabe is Lily".
I guess I'm lucky I have transport to the station. James will arrive at any second, then my life at my new school will begin. I only hope it's better than home.
[Later]
We entered the station at about 10:30, and my day improved. Sirius and Remus were waiting for us, and when they saw me they came over and gave me a hug, and James explained for me. I cried again when he told them that I couldn't go home until next summer, but it wasn't sorrow anymore, it was anger. I was furious, furious that they kicked me out, furious that my parents gave into Petunia when they should have realised she was obviously trying to destroy me. Well, she hasn't, and at that moment, I realised just how fitting it was that the non-magical part of the train station was playing Elton John's 'I'm Still Standing'. I'm still here, they can't bring me down.
Anyway, enough miserable talk. We asked a guard how to get onto the platform, which happened to be 9¾. He got quite angry with us, he said there was no such thing, and no such train that left at 11:00. Oops. But we found another wizard, so we got on ok. We found a compartment, loaded up our gear and sat down, and we were playing Exploding Snap with a pack of cards Sirius had bought. A nice old lady came buy and we bought some food from her, and we just hung around doing nothing, until eventually nature called and I had to leave the compartment.
On my way back, I wasn't watching where I was going, and I bumped into that nasty boy who was insulting me in Madam Malkins. He had the other boy with him, the one who was hitting on me. Losers. Anyway, this white-haired boy had apparently decided I was pretty, because he told me if I didn't 'get it on' with him, he'd curse me so much I could never snog again. Fortunately snogging isn't something I'll miss much, because he nearly did curse me, after I slapped him and kneed him in a painful place. He and the other boy fled.
I heard applause coming from a nearby compartment, and when I looked there were two other girls sitting there smiling at me. They asked if I wanted to sit with them, but I had to get back to my compartment, so I asked if they wanted to come with me. On the way, we talked about ourselves, and we walked slowly, so by the time we got there I knew all about them. One was tall with long blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She looks like a supermodel. Her name is Regina. The other one was shorter, with brown hair naturally streaked with red and gold, and I don't know what colour her eyes were. There's nothing to describe them, and as I watched, they changed colour. She's called Kate.
I entered the compartment, and all the boys wanted to know what took me so long, so I brought Regina and Kate inside and introduced them, and then I told everyone about this boy. Regina had some information for me, because her family is what she calls 'pure-blood' in other words, all wizard. Sirius and James look guilty, so I was going to ask them later, but I forgot. They never told me much about their families, so I guess there's something magical they've been keeping back. Anyway, Regina says that the white-haired boy is called Lucius Malfoy, and the greasy-haired freak is called Severus Snape. We all get on very well, and so now I have two new female friends. I've never had female friends before. This is very weird.
We got to Hogwarts School, and I swear it's not a school, it's a castle. It's amazing! There was a giant man to greet us, called Hagrid, and we sailed across a huge lake in little boats, and Malfoy seemed to plant himself in my boat for some reason. I was with Regina and Kate, the boys went with some little kid called Peter Pettigrew. So, Malfoy was in our boat. Sweet. Time to play the first prank.
I pushed him in.
Something in the water pulled him out, more's the pity.
Fortunately he went in another boat after that.
We got into the entrance hall of the castle. I bet my house would fit in there a hundred times over. I wish my mother could see this, she loves medieval castles, but then again, I'm not talking to her or seeing her for the rest of the year. A strict witch with her hair pinned back tightly, like Melissa at my old school, told us to wait in a room and tidy ourselves up. I don't know how she doesn't rip all her hair out, or have a huge headache, with her hair pulled back like that.
We went into a bigger room and lined up. Everyone was seated at huge tables, and there were floating candles. I magicked one towards me and I inspected it for strings or something, but it was really floating in midair. The witch with her hair pulled back tightly told us she was Professor McGonagall. She'd only been at the school for a few years as a teacher, according to Regina. She called out our names, and we had to try on this hat thing, which sung a song for the school and put us in school houses. Sirius was one of the first, and I was near the start, but there were a few people before me.
This is what the hat said to me:
Hmmm... you are one of the most complicated students I have seen, but I foresee that your son will be harder to place. What son? How am I difficult to place? You will find out in due time. You will fall in love with him, but beware, there is a rat in your ranks. I would tell you more, but it would scare you. Now I suppose I should get on with sorting you, shouldn't I? I'm confused. Who's the rat? What's he or she going to do? Who will I fall for? Never mind. Oh, here I see Hufflepuff loyalty to the ones you hold dear, yet here also is cleverness enough to slot you perfectly into Ravenclaw. You're cunning, so you would work well in Slytherin, but they would not accept you. As for Gryffindor, there is bravery indeed. What to choose? What did you put Sirius in? Gryffindor, because although he is intelligent, I doubt he'll use his brain much at Hogwarts. Can I be with Sirius and all my friends? We'll see about the rest, but why not put you with Sirius...
Then it screamed out Gryffindor, and I walked over and sat next to Sirius.
["Lily, you haven't told us a story yet." James whined.
"Sorry James, I just got carried away. Where do you want the story to start from?" Lily responded.
"Can I pick, let me choose!" Sirius yelped. Lily and James just rolled their eyes in response, which Sirius took for a yes.
"Go back to when you kneed Malfoy, then skip to when you pushed him in the water, then skip to the sorting, then skip - "
"That'll do, Sirius. I want to finish this story before Christmas, you know!" Lily cried in exasperation. Sirius grinned and hit Lily with a pillow, causing James to return the blow, which resulted in an all-out pillow war while Lily gathered her thoughts for the story. As she began to speak, the feathers slowly drifted to the ground and Sirius and James stopped to listen.]
~Flashback~
Lily finished up in the white tiled train toilet, and turned to head to her compartment, lost in thoughts of what she could do for the term breaks if she wasn't allowed to stay at school, or if she didn't want to. Suddenly she bumped into something, which pushed her to the ground. Lily jumped back on her feet, and started apologising, until she saw who it was.
"Filthy mud blood, I'd just washed these robes. Now I'll have to get them clean again, you scum." Malfoy said.
"You're more scum than I am, to be insulting me for no reason." Lily replied calmly. A strange look came into the boy's eyes, and he stepped closer to Lily. She could feel his breath on her cheek, but she didn't flinch as she stared him down.
"You know, you're very pretty Lily. I'll make you a deal. I stop insulting you, you give me more pleasure than I have ever known." He whispered, his voice barely above a murmur. Lily turned her calm stare into a death glare.
"What if I don't want to make that deal?" She announced, her voice like daggers of ice.
"Then I will curse you so much you'll never be able to use those pretty lips of yours again." He murmured in her ear, his voice full of malice. Lily was shocked, but she didn't let it show.
"Never." She whispered, then stepped back and slapped him with all the force she could muster. His hand flew to his face, and he whipped his wand out, but Lily was too fast for him. Her foot jammed up and out, and he bent over in pain as she pulled her own wand out. Malfoy took one look at this very angry redheaded girl, and fled, followed by Snape.
As he left he called over his shoulder "I'll get you one day, just you wait!". This had no effect on Lily, who simply responded, "I can't wait for that day either, kid. Perhaps you'd better buy a box, if you know what I mean." Malfoy glared and was gone, then Lily turned to her audience.
~End Flashback~
["So that was how I got rid of Malfoy that day." Lily finished, with a grin. Sirius had now collapsed on a huge pile of cushions and was listening avidly, whereas James, who now had no cushions due to Sirius's hoarding, lay himself down with his head on Lily's knee.
"C'mon, tell us about why you pushed him in the lake!" Sirius cried, exasperated that the tale was so short.
"I only did that because I didn't like him!" Lily defended herself. "I wouldn't have done it if it was someone else who insulted me. Anyway, my voice is getting tired."
"All right," James said, "can you just do the sorting, then we'll all have lunch. Plus Remus is coming over later, so he might want to hear some of it."
"Nah, don't do the sorting, we can just finish this entry. I'm starved." Sirius moaned, rubbing his stomach. Lily and James laughed.]
By the end of the sorting, James, Remus, Regina and Kate had got into Gryffindor, but the kid called Peter hadn't. According to Remus, when Sirius offered to push him in the lake, he'd cowered away, so he wasn't brave enough for Gryffindor.
After the feast, Regina, Kate and I went up to our dormitory, and the boys went to theirs. They only had one other boy, we had two girls who were twins, called Vespera and Vanora, but their nicknames are Star and Spray. Star says that her name means 'the evening star' so that's how she got her nickname, and Vanora means 'white wave'. I think they just made up those names on the spot to make it easier for us, but that's fine by me. They're identical twins, but they said since we were in their dorm they'd let us in on a secret. They both have a birthmark on their shoulder, but one's a star, one's a wave. That's how we tell them apart, and that's how their parents named them.
They had a book with them, of what names mean, so we found out ours, and also the boys. Lily means 'a lily flower', Regina means 'queen, royal', Kate means 'pure one' which is a bit of a joke really, considering Kate's personality. James means 'the supplanter', Sirius wasn't in the book but it's pretty obvious he's the Dog Star, and Remus is 'speedy motion'.
I then found out how tired I was, so I went to bed, thinking about how wonderful the day had been. I thought it was going to be horrible, but it was actually amazing. This morning, I didn't have any friends excepting James, Sirius and Remus, I had never kicked a guy downstairs before, I had no home and nowhere to turn, and I had a cold. Tonight, I have seven good friends and I'm sure I'll meet more tomorrow, I've beaten up a guy who's a lot bigger than I am, I have a new home, and my cold has vanished.
I can't believe I wasn't looking forward to this. I can't wait until tomorrow! I've already got prank ideas. Hogwarts will never forget me.
Love,
Lily.
Dear Diary,
Today will either be fantastic or horrible. I could make friends, and fit in perfectly, or I could be stuck in a freak school without anywhere to go for the next year. I think it'll be the latter, so many things have been going wrong lately that nothing could possibly be fantastic. I've been thrown out of my house, I missed my birthday completely, and to top it off, I've caught a cold from my night in the cave. Great, just great. Imagine how I'll look to other people, a snot-nosed, dirty little girl who sniffs a lot. I'll be introducing myself as such: "Ello, by nabe is Lily".
I guess I'm lucky I have transport to the station. James will arrive at any second, then my life at my new school will begin. I only hope it's better than home.
[Later]
We entered the station at about 10:30, and my day improved. Sirius and Remus were waiting for us, and when they saw me they came over and gave me a hug, and James explained for me. I cried again when he told them that I couldn't go home until next summer, but it wasn't sorrow anymore, it was anger. I was furious, furious that they kicked me out, furious that my parents gave into Petunia when they should have realised she was obviously trying to destroy me. Well, she hasn't, and at that moment, I realised just how fitting it was that the non-magical part of the train station was playing Elton John's 'I'm Still Standing'. I'm still here, they can't bring me down.
Anyway, enough miserable talk. We asked a guard how to get onto the platform, which happened to be 9¾. He got quite angry with us, he said there was no such thing, and no such train that left at 11:00. Oops. But we found another wizard, so we got on ok. We found a compartment, loaded up our gear and sat down, and we were playing Exploding Snap with a pack of cards Sirius had bought. A nice old lady came buy and we bought some food from her, and we just hung around doing nothing, until eventually nature called and I had to leave the compartment.
On my way back, I wasn't watching where I was going, and I bumped into that nasty boy who was insulting me in Madam Malkins. He had the other boy with him, the one who was hitting on me. Losers. Anyway, this white-haired boy had apparently decided I was pretty, because he told me if I didn't 'get it on' with him, he'd curse me so much I could never snog again. Fortunately snogging isn't something I'll miss much, because he nearly did curse me, after I slapped him and kneed him in a painful place. He and the other boy fled.
I heard applause coming from a nearby compartment, and when I looked there were two other girls sitting there smiling at me. They asked if I wanted to sit with them, but I had to get back to my compartment, so I asked if they wanted to come with me. On the way, we talked about ourselves, and we walked slowly, so by the time we got there I knew all about them. One was tall with long blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She looks like a supermodel. Her name is Regina. The other one was shorter, with brown hair naturally streaked with red and gold, and I don't know what colour her eyes were. There's nothing to describe them, and as I watched, they changed colour. She's called Kate.
I entered the compartment, and all the boys wanted to know what took me so long, so I brought Regina and Kate inside and introduced them, and then I told everyone about this boy. Regina had some information for me, because her family is what she calls 'pure-blood' in other words, all wizard. Sirius and James look guilty, so I was going to ask them later, but I forgot. They never told me much about their families, so I guess there's something magical they've been keeping back. Anyway, Regina says that the white-haired boy is called Lucius Malfoy, and the greasy-haired freak is called Severus Snape. We all get on very well, and so now I have two new female friends. I've never had female friends before. This is very weird.
We got to Hogwarts School, and I swear it's not a school, it's a castle. It's amazing! There was a giant man to greet us, called Hagrid, and we sailed across a huge lake in little boats, and Malfoy seemed to plant himself in my boat for some reason. I was with Regina and Kate, the boys went with some little kid called Peter Pettigrew. So, Malfoy was in our boat. Sweet. Time to play the first prank.
I pushed him in.
Something in the water pulled him out, more's the pity.
Fortunately he went in another boat after that.
We got into the entrance hall of the castle. I bet my house would fit in there a hundred times over. I wish my mother could see this, she loves medieval castles, but then again, I'm not talking to her or seeing her for the rest of the year. A strict witch with her hair pinned back tightly, like Melissa at my old school, told us to wait in a room and tidy ourselves up. I don't know how she doesn't rip all her hair out, or have a huge headache, with her hair pulled back like that.
We went into a bigger room and lined up. Everyone was seated at huge tables, and there were floating candles. I magicked one towards me and I inspected it for strings or something, but it was really floating in midair. The witch with her hair pulled back tightly told us she was Professor McGonagall. She'd only been at the school for a few years as a teacher, according to Regina. She called out our names, and we had to try on this hat thing, which sung a song for the school and put us in school houses. Sirius was one of the first, and I was near the start, but there were a few people before me.
This is what the hat said to me:
Hmmm... you are one of the most complicated students I have seen, but I foresee that your son will be harder to place. What son? How am I difficult to place? You will find out in due time. You will fall in love with him, but beware, there is a rat in your ranks. I would tell you more, but it would scare you. Now I suppose I should get on with sorting you, shouldn't I? I'm confused. Who's the rat? What's he or she going to do? Who will I fall for? Never mind. Oh, here I see Hufflepuff loyalty to the ones you hold dear, yet here also is cleverness enough to slot you perfectly into Ravenclaw. You're cunning, so you would work well in Slytherin, but they would not accept you. As for Gryffindor, there is bravery indeed. What to choose? What did you put Sirius in? Gryffindor, because although he is intelligent, I doubt he'll use his brain much at Hogwarts. Can I be with Sirius and all my friends? We'll see about the rest, but why not put you with Sirius...
Then it screamed out Gryffindor, and I walked over and sat next to Sirius.
["Lily, you haven't told us a story yet." James whined.
"Sorry James, I just got carried away. Where do you want the story to start from?" Lily responded.
"Can I pick, let me choose!" Sirius yelped. Lily and James just rolled their eyes in response, which Sirius took for a yes.
"Go back to when you kneed Malfoy, then skip to when you pushed him in the water, then skip to the sorting, then skip - "
"That'll do, Sirius. I want to finish this story before Christmas, you know!" Lily cried in exasperation. Sirius grinned and hit Lily with a pillow, causing James to return the blow, which resulted in an all-out pillow war while Lily gathered her thoughts for the story. As she began to speak, the feathers slowly drifted to the ground and Sirius and James stopped to listen.]
~Flashback~
Lily finished up in the white tiled train toilet, and turned to head to her compartment, lost in thoughts of what she could do for the term breaks if she wasn't allowed to stay at school, or if she didn't want to. Suddenly she bumped into something, which pushed her to the ground. Lily jumped back on her feet, and started apologising, until she saw who it was.
"Filthy mud blood, I'd just washed these robes. Now I'll have to get them clean again, you scum." Malfoy said.
"You're more scum than I am, to be insulting me for no reason." Lily replied calmly. A strange look came into the boy's eyes, and he stepped closer to Lily. She could feel his breath on her cheek, but she didn't flinch as she stared him down.
"You know, you're very pretty Lily. I'll make you a deal. I stop insulting you, you give me more pleasure than I have ever known." He whispered, his voice barely above a murmur. Lily turned her calm stare into a death glare.
"What if I don't want to make that deal?" She announced, her voice like daggers of ice.
"Then I will curse you so much you'll never be able to use those pretty lips of yours again." He murmured in her ear, his voice full of malice. Lily was shocked, but she didn't let it show.
"Never." She whispered, then stepped back and slapped him with all the force she could muster. His hand flew to his face, and he whipped his wand out, but Lily was too fast for him. Her foot jammed up and out, and he bent over in pain as she pulled her own wand out. Malfoy took one look at this very angry redheaded girl, and fled, followed by Snape.
As he left he called over his shoulder "I'll get you one day, just you wait!". This had no effect on Lily, who simply responded, "I can't wait for that day either, kid. Perhaps you'd better buy a box, if you know what I mean." Malfoy glared and was gone, then Lily turned to her audience.
~End Flashback~
["So that was how I got rid of Malfoy that day." Lily finished, with a grin. Sirius had now collapsed on a huge pile of cushions and was listening avidly, whereas James, who now had no cushions due to Sirius's hoarding, lay himself down with his head on Lily's knee.
"C'mon, tell us about why you pushed him in the lake!" Sirius cried, exasperated that the tale was so short.
"I only did that because I didn't like him!" Lily defended herself. "I wouldn't have done it if it was someone else who insulted me. Anyway, my voice is getting tired."
"All right," James said, "can you just do the sorting, then we'll all have lunch. Plus Remus is coming over later, so he might want to hear some of it."
"Nah, don't do the sorting, we can just finish this entry. I'm starved." Sirius moaned, rubbing his stomach. Lily and James laughed.]
By the end of the sorting, James, Remus, Regina and Kate had got into Gryffindor, but the kid called Peter hadn't. According to Remus, when Sirius offered to push him in the lake, he'd cowered away, so he wasn't brave enough for Gryffindor.
After the feast, Regina, Kate and I went up to our dormitory, and the boys went to theirs. They only had one other boy, we had two girls who were twins, called Vespera and Vanora, but their nicknames are Star and Spray. Star says that her name means 'the evening star' so that's how she got her nickname, and Vanora means 'white wave'. I think they just made up those names on the spot to make it easier for us, but that's fine by me. They're identical twins, but they said since we were in their dorm they'd let us in on a secret. They both have a birthmark on their shoulder, but one's a star, one's a wave. That's how we tell them apart, and that's how their parents named them.
They had a book with them, of what names mean, so we found out ours, and also the boys. Lily means 'a lily flower', Regina means 'queen, royal', Kate means 'pure one' which is a bit of a joke really, considering Kate's personality. James means 'the supplanter', Sirius wasn't in the book but it's pretty obvious he's the Dog Star, and Remus is 'speedy motion'.
I then found out how tired I was, so I went to bed, thinking about how wonderful the day had been. I thought it was going to be horrible, but it was actually amazing. This morning, I didn't have any friends excepting James, Sirius and Remus, I had never kicked a guy downstairs before, I had no home and nowhere to turn, and I had a cold. Tonight, I have seven good friends and I'm sure I'll meet more tomorrow, I've beaten up a guy who's a lot bigger than I am, I have a new home, and my cold has vanished.
I can't believe I wasn't looking forward to this. I can't wait until tomorrow! I've already got prank ideas. Hogwarts will never forget me.
Love,
Lily.