The sound of birds rang loud through the silent room drawing Lily away from the dream world. She held tightly to the last image, her in a flowing white dress standing at the alter of a church; she never saw the grooms face but she knew she had loved whoever it was.
Lily looked at her surroundings, the first thing she saw were ruby drapes, she pulled them open to find four other beds identical to her own, remembering where she was and with whom she smiled. She slowly made her way out of bed. She looked around and found what she had been looking for.
Slowly as not to make a noise she pulled the curtains back and looked at her friend Branwen sleeping. Without stopping to think she jumped on her friend's bed.
"Arr… What are you doing, get off get off."
Their yells caused all the remaining curtains to be swung open and three blurry-eyed girls looked out. The laughter that followed was mighty and before anyone could react Ginny and Amanda were bouncing on Branwen's bed.
Branwen looked at the girls and then burst out laughing as she joined the others jumping on her bed. Branwen noticed that Alice was sitting on her bed looking at them.
"Alice come join us."
The smile that spread over the girls face was priceless as the five new friends enjoyed their first morning in Hogwarts. Amanda who had jumped off the bed looked at the clock.
"Guys it's time for breakfast, come on I'm starving."
The girls quickly got ready and headed down to the common room. They stopped there and noticed that only Remus was sitting there, he was reading a book. Ginny walked up to him and sat next to him.
"Hey Remus, what you doing?"
"Reading."
"Oh do you want to come down to breakfast?"
"I'm waiting for the guys, they're still sleeping."
Amanda who was standing behind them smiled an evil grin.
"Really, well if I know Sirius he's not getting up anytime soon, why don't you guys head down and I'll meet you with the other guys."
Remus looked up at the smiling girl, something about that smile told him she was planning something, something that Sirius wouldn't like. He knew he didn't want to be around for that.
"Okay, I'm hungry anyway; we'll meet you down there."
Remus closed his book placing it carefully on the table before getting to his feet, he looked at the other girls, he noticed that Branwen and Alice were laughing at something; Ginny stared hard at Amanda while Lily watched him.
"Go on then if you're going!"
Waving to Amanda the others set off, Branwen and Alice walked slightly ahead giving Remus and Lily some time to talk.
"Its lovely here isn't it Remus."
He smiled at the girl as she grabbed his hand, he held her while she gathered her balance and they started walking again.
"Lily, its weird, already I feel at home and it's only been hours."
"I know what you mean Remus, what do you think Ginny?"
Silence
The two exchanged a look as they turned to find themselves rather alone; it seemed as if Ginny had stayed with Amanda for some unknown reason. Shaking their heads they carried on walking in silence.
"Umm… Remus, Lily do either of you know the way?"
For the first time they all stopped walking to look at they're surroundings, they were lost.
Alice began to panic, while the others stood together trying to find something that looked familiar from the night before
"Help, help we're lost, oh please someone help."
"Are you looking for the Great Hall?"
The four spun around to find a boy not much older than themselves looking at them. He had short black hair that fell just behind his ears, and sparkling hazel eyes that were full of kindness. He wore the same colour tie as them signalling Gryffindor.
Branwen spoke up before any of the others.
"We want some breakfast but we seem to be lost."
"Oh, well if you just pull that tapestry forward you'll find a staircase, it'll take you to the second floor, then follow the corridor to the end and you'll find the moving staircases, go down one floor and across then there's the marble staircase. Down that you'll find the Entrance Hall and the Great Hall is through the main doors."
He watched Alice's face closely and saw confusion in it. He smiled as Remus pulled back the tapestry he had indicated to.
"I'm Frank, Frank Longbottom, I'm on my way to breakfast, would you care to join me?"
"Oh yes please, I'm Alice Scott, that's Remus Lupin, the girl with red hair is Lily Evans, and that's Branwen Ddraig."
"It's nice to meet you all." He turned to look at Branwen, "You'll be Professor Ddraig's Branwen then, he was in a state last night when that Potter boy said you were missing."
"Oh yeah he's my nhad, I mean dad."
Without saying another word Branwen linked her arm with Lily's and pulled her through the passage way and down the stairs. Remus raised his eyebrow at Frank who shook his head.
"So Remus, where's the other boys?"
"Still in bed, I think that Amanda and Ginny may have just gone to wake them up mind."
They walked down to the hall with Frank telling Alice and Remus all about classes, in the hall they found Branwen and Lily already seated and serving themselves breakfast. Frank excused himself saying he was going to join his friends Alex and Katie.
"He was nice," Remus smiled as he sat down.
"Yeah it was good of him to say how to get here." Lily spoke up.
They then sat and eat their breakfast waiting for the others to join them.