I feel really bad for pulling that evil stunt, even though it did get me more reviews... So for saying that I wouldn't update till I got 10 more reviews, I'm sorry.

I'm so sorry that it took so long to get this chapter out, please don't hate me! I wanted it to come out really well, cuz this is real the beginning of the story (well the Diagon Alley part anyway.). So whatever you do, don't hate me. I have plenty of excuses (plus whether or not they were true): I keep hitting my head, and not purposely either (true) I really hurt myself at my last tennis practice (also true, and I got the scabs to prove it) Aliens abducted me (false, at least I hope so, even though it would be interesting...) Severe writers block, when I wanted to work on the story or rather, wasn't busy (I kept thinking of really good things when I was doing stuff and couldn't write it down, not having a pen and some paper nearby, or a computer...) The devil wouldn't let me (and by the devil I mean my little sister, j/k)

Thanks to everyone who reviewed this story so far, this chapter is especially for Sally, YourCousinSarah, ElfinGirl12, and Caisha Evans (for their characters), Cute Sarah (for having as much Sirius as I can get in.), Lexie, Tiger Girl, and Katie.

Disclaimer: You know the drill, having seen it in many other fanfics... nothing belongs to me, except for a few characters and the plot; the rest belongs to JKR, one of the people who reviewed, or a singer/band that I decided to 'borrow' the music from. (Though the music factor will be decided on how brain dead I manage to get while writing this chapter.)

Thorns by Faerielights

Chapter 3: Trip to Diagon Alley

Last Chapter:

Once they entered the living room, they saw Petunia lying on the ground, with Lily's parents trying to wake their eldest daughter up, and another person, that Lily had never seen before, standing nearby wondering what to do. It was, after all, not the type of circumstance where she'd be able to just use the Enerviate spell to awaken a muggle.

Josephine Evans stepped out of the fire, into her brother's living room.

"Jon! Liz! It's been such a long time since I last saw you. How are you? How are the little ones?" She said while hugging her brother and her sister-in-law.

Before they had a chance to reply, everyone heard a shrill scream, and turned in time to see Petunia faint with a look of shock and horror on her face.

As they tried to figure out what exactly had caused Petunia to faint (coming to the conclusion that it was from seeing Jo step out of the fireplace) and what they could do to revive her, they heard two sets of feet (A/N: does that make any sense? Shrugs shoulders oh well.) and looked up to see Dolores and Lily standing there. Lily had an amused look on her face, as she gazed down at Petunia, who was still out cold. However, Dolores was looking at Jo with a weird look on her face. The look was a mixture of regret, determination, surprise, and hope.

(A/N: right now this is taking a little too long, so I think that instead of going into detail, for 2 reasons: 1. I can't think of what Dolores and Jo should say to each other for their little reunion plus I'm being lazy and 2. It would take too long to explain everything, by which, if I did explain, I would get off topic much like I am now. So too make a whole thing that'll get me off topic shorter, let's just say that after Petunia had been revived and calmed down somewhat well stormed off to her room screaming about the freaks in her family Dolores and Jo had a nice long talk over tea and some food, and after sorting out everything and catching up on 20 or so years, all was forgiven, though not forgotten, and Jo got down to business.)

Talking to Lily:

As soon as Dolores and Jo had finished their chat, Jo went off to find Lily, as Lily and her parents had gone away to give Dolores and her daughter privacy for catching up. Lily was found outside in her tree house.

"Lily, do you mind if come in and talk to you about Hogwarts and Diagon Alley for a little while?"

"I don't mind."

"Okay, now let's makes ourselves comfortable, because this could take a long time to explain to you, as it's pretty complicated. Are you comfortable?" Jo asked, getting a small but eager nod in response. "Alright then, when I was eleven, your age now which was also about twenty-five or twenty-six years ago, I got a letter similar to the one you received yesterday. Me being a muggle born, which is a term for someone that isn't from a magical family, thought it was nothing short of a very clever joke. But, as it turns out, it wasn't a joke. After getting my owl, there was a visit from Albus Dumbledore, who was a transfiguration teacher at the time. He is the headmaster now, appointed that position at the end of last year when Headmaster Dippet retired. He came and explained everything to me, and took me to Diagon Alley to get all of my school supplies. He had told my parents everything that he could about the magical world, and my father had given him some money for me to get my school supplies. We went to Diagon Alley by Knight Bus. The Knight Bus can take you just about anywhere that you want to go, on earth that is, all you have to do is stick out your wand- -"

"There are wands? Like real magical ones?" Lily interrupted excitedly.

"Wah? Of course there are wands silly, how else would you be able to do magic? It's very hard for someone to do magic without a wand. Only really powerful wizards and witches are capable of doing wandless magic. As I was saying." Jo went on to explain about her experiences in Hogwarts, talked about Hogsmeade, and who she had hung out with crowd wise when she went there. At this point she was explaining about the houses and the sorting ceremony to Lily.

"Well Lily, there are four houses, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house has certain characteristics, like Gryffindors main quality is courage. I was a Gryffindor myself, and no wonder with Edward Potter and his gang, although I do suppose it was my choice to hang out with that crowd of people. (A/N: I'm making it so that when her aunt went to school, they were friends with the marauders' parents, kinda complicated, but not too much...) Ravenclaw is for those with high intelligence, not that the other houses aren't smart, but you know what I mean. Hufflepuff is for the loyal and somewhat wishy-washy. And then there's Slytherin. Well, normally Slytherins are sly, cunning and heavily into Dark Arts, but that's not all Slytherins, some are quite nice actually. Now about our trip to Diagon Alley, I'm going there next week, along with my stepson and some of his friends, seeing as I'm friends with their parents. I'll pick you up to go with us, is that okay with you?" Aunt Jo asked Lily.

"Yes but shouldn't we ask my parents?"

"Of course, we're going to ask your parents. Come on let's go ask them now, so we can plan everything." So the two went inside to talk to Lily's parents about her going to Diagon Alley next week.

(A/N: I was just going to leave it there, but I figure that's a little too mean, and I'm not trying to be mean. so, I'll just continue on this way.)

One week later, Lily got up at 9 in the morning, as her aunt and everyone else that she would be going to Diagon Alley with would be there at 10:30. She went downstairs to eat some breakfast, then went back upstairs, took a shower, and went over to her walk-in closet to pick out an outfit, after some contemplating (about 10 minutes, she wanted to make a good impression on her fellow peers after all.) Lily finally decided to wear denim capris with an emerald green tank top. She also grabbed her blue sketchers and a pair of socks, and then proceeded to get dressed. After getting dressed, Lily walked over to her full size mirror and thought of a hairstyle for the day. With ten minutes to spare until her aunt and company would arrive, Lily walked into the family room, with her hair pulled back into a simple french braid. (A/N: simple my butt, those are kinda hard to do)

At about 10:29, Lily heard a big commotion in the living room. Apparently her aunt had her house connected to the, what was it called again - Floozy Work? -No, that's not right, the Floo Network. That was it. Anyway, the people she was going to Diagon Alley with were here, so she went into the living room to see her parents greeting her aunt and uncle, along with several other adults.

'Must be Aunt Jo's friends' thought Lily. Just then she noticed some other people around her age. Among them was 4 young guys that stood out, well seeing as there was only 8 more kids there, it was understandable that she noticed the 4 boys. Besides there only being 8 kids, the guys were trying to drop something slimy down the back of a shirt that a girl with black hair and silver tips had on. However, this was not easily managed, and the girl retaliated by somehow multiplying the slimy blobs and getting one down the back of each boy.

Lily stifled a giggle as she saw the boys flailing and trying to get the slime out of their shirts. Suddenly noticing another person in the room, the boy with sandy blonde hair and hazel eyes looked up to see a young attractive female with large emerald eyes looking at them with amusement. His friends saw that he was staring at something and all looked up to see Lily watching them. Two guys that looked almost like twins started walking towards her as the other two followed their lead.

Lily started to somewhat panic on the inside, but kept her outside demeanor calm and collected. She merely stood there and watched the four boys approach her, hoping that they weren't planning on putting slime down her shirt. The two guys that looked to be twin reached her first.

"Hello there," said the one with short wild messy hair (A/N: now who could that be?).

"Hi," Lily replied shyly.

"Are you Lily? Can I call you Lily Beans? Or Silly Lily? Or maybe even Tiger Lily?" said the over excited boy with long black messy hair (A/N: gee I wonder who that could be... ::sarcasm:: ).

"Yes I'm Lily, but I'd prefer it if you'd call me Lily or Lils, not Lily Bean, and not Silly Lily", she replied, still a little shy, but starting to come out of her shell.

"Alrighty then, Silly Lily it is! Hey, I have a flying monkey, his name is gushy mushy bark meow!! Wanna meet him?" Sirius babbled.

"Sirius, why don't you leave the poor girl alone, her head is spinning from your endless ranting about your non-existent pet," said a boy with strawberry blonde hair (A/N: nope, Peter's not in this fic just yet, you'll find out why later.)

"Yeah Sirius, Jay is right. You're a bloody lunatic!"

"Remus!! The language! You had better watch it young man or you will be grounded!" Hollered someone who looked a lot like Remus, his father Jeff (A/N: I seem to have a thing for names that begin with the letter 'J' I dunno what it is though.).

"Well, kids, why don't we head off to Diagon Alley now?" said one of the other adults. The kids quickly agreed, eager to go exploring in Diagon Alley and to get their supplies and of course their wands. They soon were on their way to Daigon Alley, a few parents went before the kids to ensure that no one would be unsupervised and cause trouble. (cough Sirius and James cough) After the Potters and Blacks (adults) had gone through, the children were allowed to go into the green fire, pretty soon it was Lily's turn to go into the fire to get to the Leaky Cauldron.

"Now Lily, you do remember what I told you about the Floo Network, right?" Jo paused to see her niece nod her head yes. "Good. Now, just keep all that in mind, take a pinch of powder, throw it in the fire, say 'The Leaky Cauldron' loudly and clearly, and keep your elbows tucked in! Oh and be sure to step out and move out of the way as soon as you see everyone else!"

"Okay," Lily replied nervously. She took a pinch of the Floo Powder, and tossed it in the fire, shouting "The Leaky Cauldron", she stepped into the fire, half expecting it to burn her horribly. She felt the pleasantly warm green flames for a second, and tucked in her elbows as she started spinning, once she saw James, Remus, and everyone else, she stepped out of the fire and moved out of the way, very dizzy.

"Was that you're first time traveling by Floo or something?" the girl with Black hair that Sirius had tried to prank asked her.

"Yea, how can you tell?"

"Because you looked unsure of yourself when you stepped out of the fire just now. By the way, my name's Ailana Avralona, but you can call me Lana. Those three are Anya Vell (she pointed to tall brunette with bluish green eyes), Sally Brown (red hair and blue eyes), and Caila Murray (dark brown hair, a hazel eye and a brown eye)" came the reply from 'Lana'.

"Just call me Ann though," said Anya.

"Cai, unless you wanna die a painful death!" joked Caila.

"Sal's good for me."

"Well, you can call me Lil, Lils, or Lily," came Lily's reply to the four girls.

"What house do you hope to be in?" said James butting into the girls conversation.

Gryffindor seemed to be the popular choice, even though a couple of people said that they supposed Ravenclaw wasn't too bad. (A/N: this is a really hard chapter to get out. I mean, I already finished the chapter after this, it was fairly easy, but this is just a big pain, but I think I know what I'm going to do. ::smiles thoughtfully:: )

While all the kids had been introducing themselves and talking about what house they'd like to be in, the rest of the adults had shown up, whether it was through apparation or the Floo Network.

"Ready kids?" Mr. Lupin asked them, receiving nine enthusiastic nods. "Alright then, let's go!"

With that they all headed into the back, the adults had saying hello to some other wizards and witches that they knew. Lily was standing in the front, and was puzzled to see her aunt counting bricks in the wall over the trashcan.

"Now was it two up three across or the other way around?" she heard Jo mumble to herself.

"Three up and two across, dear," Mr. Lupin supplied helpfully.

"Thanks, honey." With that, she tapped a brick, and the wall seemed to melt into an archway large enough for a giant to fit through. After the wall had changed into a doorway for them to pass through, Lily was amazed to see a cobbled street that twisted and turned all over the place. 'I wonder how they did that, and where exactly we are' she mused to herself.

"First stop, Gringotts!" Mr. Potter called out.

"Gringotts?" Lily replied, puzzled.

"It's the wizarding bank. We need to go there so that we can exchange the money your parents gave me for you, into wizard money, and open an account." Aunt Jo replied, looking at the huge marble building warily.

"What's wrong Aunt Jo?" Lily asked, a little worried about the expression on her aunt's face.

"It's nothing much, I just hate the cart rides, they're way too fast, and quite possibly dangerous too, but we've gotta do what we've gotta do!" Jo said, determined.

The group of people walked into the bank somewhat resolutely; well at least the adults did. The kids were giddy about going in.

"There are goblins that run this bank. And rumor has it that there's also dragons to protect the more valuable things in there!" said Ann.

"Blimey, I wish I could see a dragon." Remarked Jay wistfully.

"You and dragons," Sirius snorted.

"You and flying monkeys!" was the comeback.

"At least --" But he was cut off by his parents annoyed looks that clearly said 'No fighting!'.

As they neared the door to the bank, they were told to behave themselves and not touch anything. Lily noticed words engraved on the second set of doors that they were passing through (the doors were silver). The engraved words were:

Enter stranger, but take heed

Of what awaits the sin of greed,

For those who take, but do not earn,

Must pay most dearly in their turn.

So if you seek beneath our floors

A treasure that was never yours,

Thief, you have been warned, beware

Of finding more than treasure there.

Lily shivered after reading the cryptic-like message. She figured that whoever would try and rob this place would have to be out of their mind, like an escaped crazed person from that magical hospital, what was the name of it again? St. Mungo's.

"Everyone, we're going to split up, but we'll meet each other outside of here, on the front steps. So as soon as you're done in here, go and wait there." Orion Black demanded. They all then went their separate ways, Aunt Jo with Lily, and Jeff Lupin with Remus, everyone like that.

"Morning," Aunt Jo said to an unoccupied goblin. "We're here to exchange this muggle money into wizard's money, and also to open an account for Miss Lily Evans here."

The goblin looked over the counter at Lily, and then took the money from Aunt Jo. "Just one second, and Griphook there'll take you to a safe for Miss Evans. Griphook!"

The goblin named Griphook walked over to where he had been summoned, and brought Aunt Jo and Lily to one of the many doors that was in the bank.

"Alright then, we're going to open a vault for you miss, and do you need anything ma'am?" asked Griphook.

"No thank you, I'm not in need of anything from my safe right now."

"Okay," Griphook then whistled and a cart came over to where the three were standing. "Hop in and we'll head over to vault number 314"

Soon they were at the correct safe, and they got out of the cart, Lily's aunt looking a little sick form the ride.

Griphook then unlocked the door, and Lily gasped at the site beholding her eyes. There were mounds of gold, silver, and bronze coins blinking back at her in the torchlight. She was then handed a bag and instructed to fill the purple velvet bag with the coins. As she did this, her aunt explained the wizarding money to her.

"The gold coins are called Galleons, the silver ones are Sickles, and the bronze coins are called Knuts. Now its twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle, and seventeen Sickles to a Galleon. It is fairly easy once you get the hang of it. Could we please go back now? And a bit more slowly, if you can manage." she addressed Griphook.

"Only one speed for the carts," the goblin replied. He then shut the door to Lily's safe, and the three of them climbed back into the cart to head back to the main level of the bank. Jo looked as though she'd be sick, but Lily quite liked it, as it reminded her of a roller coaster, and roller coasters were her favorite sort of ride. 'The faster the better' was her opinion.

After the two had emerged out of Gringotts, they found everyone else waiting for them.

"Shall we go and get your supplies?" was the question first asked by Edward Potter, while his wife Amelia, and the rest of the adults chortled at the groans from the kids.

"I guess" was mumbled by most of them, but Lily's enthusiastic "Yes!" made all of the eleven year olds look at her as though she was an alien. He response was to protest that she liked to read, and she wanted to learn more about the magical world.

"If you say so," Sirius retorted, still looking at her as if she was the insane one.

"We'll get the uniforms first," decided Sarah Black. So they headed for Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. When they entered, there were no lines, thankfully. Madam Malkin walked in and asked "Hogwarts?" getting several nods as a response.

"Okay then, I think I'll take the young gentlemen first."

Lana snorted at this thought, as she had known the four boys since she was five, and had dubbed them as anything but gentlemen. As the boys were being fitted for their Hogwarts robes, cloaks, hats and gloves, the female adults began looking at robes for themselves.

(A/N: okay, I really, really need to take a break right now, cuz I'm getting overly hyper, and I'll be back when I've calmed down some. Also I'm looking for something I wrote a while ago, that was written specially for the Diagon Alley scene. And on top of that I have to get some chores done with so that I won't get grounded. So I'll be back when I've done all that.)

"Oh, and while we're here, why don't we get you those pretty dress robes?" Aunt Jo asked Lily. She was pointing at set of flowing cream-colored robes that would go well with Lily's milky complexion.

"But Aunt Jo, the letter doesn't say anything about dress robes, I probably won't even wear them, and you also said that only people in their fourth year or higher would have the chance to dress all fancy." Lily said, somewhat forlorn because she wanted the dress robes, but also knowing that she probably wouldn't even get to wear them.

"Well, it won't hurt to have a some fancier robes just in case, you never know when they could come in handy, and also, there will be some fancy parties before school begins for you, and around Christmas and Easter time, at the ministers house, mind you." Came the 'voice of reason' a.k.a. Amelia Potter.

In they end it was decided that the cream-colored dress robes and several other nice dress robes along with several casual robes and Lily's black school robes would be necessary. And the other girls got both casual and fancy robes in addition to their Hogwarts robes as well.

(A/N: ok, I'm back, as you may have realized... and a lot less hyper too! Now onto the story.)

The boys had reappeared after getting fitted for their Hogwarts robes, and it was the girls' turn to go get fitted for their uniforms. While the girls had their fitting, the boys' parents had decided to get them dress robes.

After they were done with Madam Malkin's and had payed for all their robes, the group then moved onto Flourish and Blotts, or rather, the bookstore. They got all the necessary books, and all had tried to get the book Curses and Countercurses (bewitch Your Friends and Befuddle Your Enemies with the Latest Revenges: Hair Loss, Jelly Legs, Tongue-Tying and Much, Much More), the only one successful in this was Lily, as she had slipped it in with her other "extra reading" (such as Hogwarts a History, and Quidditch Through the Ages).

After they had finished with Flourish and Blotts, they moved onto the Apothecary, for the potions supplies, and cauldrons. The adults had a difficult time explaining that the list said pewter, and not gold, while the kids insisted that it was gold and not pewter for the cauldrons. They were trying to get the eleven year olds out of the Apothecary store as soon as possible, for the awful smell, a combination of rotted cabbages and bad eggs, was probably going to be permanently stuck to their clothes. All that they had left was to go to Ollivanders and the Owl emporium.

"Well now, should we go to Eeylops first? Or just go home?" teased Orion Black. None of the soon to be first year students were happy about that comment, for they all scowled at the laughing adults, upset that they'd even consider not getting their wands. "Alright, alright, I didn't mean it kids. No need to try and kill me with just the looks on your faces."

They all then headed off to Ollivanders, and went inside. It appeared to be deserted, but they needn't have feared, for soon Mr. Ollivander has walked into the room to see nine anxious looking first years.

"Good afternoon," he said in a soft voice, making everyone jump. They turned to see an old man standing in front of them. He had wide, pale eyes that shone like moons in the gloom from the shop.

"I though that I'd be seeing all of you soon. Now let's see, who would like to go first?" No one volunteered to be the first to get his or her wand. "How about we have Miss Sally Brown go first then? All right now, while we try and find your wand, we'll take the measurements of everyone. He snapped his fingers and nine tape measures appeared and began taking measurements of the shocked students, a quill writing down the measurements as the tape measured.

Sally stepped forward, and began going through wands, while the others looked on interested. All of a sudden, Lily felt something pulling her towards a box. Looking around to see if anyone was watching her, she began to step in the direction of the pull. No one was paying attention to her as Sirius and James had begun play wrestling and everyone was either watching Sally, watching James and Sirius, or trying to break the two apart.

Lily then took the final step towards the box, opened it, and pulled out a wand. She thought she heard someone whisper to her to wave the wand around, so she did, to see what would happen. Suddenly a warm feeling shot up her hand as several different colors of sparks shot out of the end of the wand. Everyone's attention went from Sarah who had just found her 12 inch, oak with dragon heartstring wand that was good for charm work.

"Peculiar." Mr. Ollivander said. "That wand has been there for over 50 years, and it's usually used as a last resort for witches and wizards. And on top of that, the last person to pick out his or her own wand on the first shot was Albus Dumbledore himself! Now let's see, that's ten and a quarter inches long, swishy made of willow and excellent for charm work"

After that each person had found his or her own wand (but I'm not going to go through the whole wand waving thing for each person, you get the idea, it took a little bit or a long time for each person to get the wand that best fit them). The wand matching went as follows:

James - eleven inches, mahogany, pliable great for transfiguration

Sirius - 11 inches, swishy, good for transfiguration

Remus - twelve inch, oak, bendy, good for DADA

Jay - 12 inch rosewood, dragon heartstring

Lana - ebony, phoenix feather, 11 inch

Ann - 9 inch unicorn hair

Cai - 11 inches, Willow, Unicorn hair Phoenix feather ("Very unusual my dear..." was the comment she had gotten from Mr. Ollivander) good for Transfiguration and Charms

After Ollivanders, the then went to Eeylops for their pets. After looking around for a while, everyone decided on his or her own pet

Sal - black cat named Chadow (like shadow, but she liked spelling it with a C

Lily - white owl named Makelina and a dove named Kilikina

James - tan owl named Hermes

Sirius - salamander named Turkey (he later explained that he had been in the mood for a turkey sandwich)

Remus - screech owl named Mitch

Jay - lemur named The-Evil-Donkey-Slash-Monkey-Bird (A/N sorry, I had to steal that from an e-mail my cousin sent to me where she was talking about a lemur named that) we'll just say that Sirius first called it that, and that the lemur refused to answer to anything else after that.

Lana - black eagle

Ann - white cat named Penny

Cai - a black labrador called Orion and a tabby cat called 'Jasmi'

After Eeylops, the group split into two, a guy group (they were going to go look at Quidditch stuff) and a girl group (accessories for their outfits and whatnot)

After a perfectly wonderful day, which had ended with an ice cream cone each at Fortescues (is that the name of it??)

When they had all returned to the Evans manor (Lily had learned that her house was now permanently a part of the Floo Network, compliments of her aunt's influence in the Ministry of Magic), they went to go have dinner. James and Sirius also decided to play a prank on Petunia, as she had been perfectly awful to all of them as soon as they got there.

The joke consisted of them having a "little" magical make-up convention, complete with convention people. The convention people were also known as James and Sirius, who'd decided that they were going to drag Petunia on the makeshift stage and try out all of the stuff on her, which would have been okay, had it been regular makeup. They used some things that most likely shouldn't have been used, earning them punishments for putting ink on someone's face.

This joke enraged Lily's parents, and after the guests had all left, and Petunia, Dolores and Lil had all decided to go to bed, they began to reconsider whether or not they were going to allow Lily to pursue this path in life.

A/N: Ah. Chapter done. Let me know what you think of it, like it, hate it, whatever. Just pleez pleez pleez review! I'm begging you! Look, I'm on my knees begging you to review ::drops down to knees and clasps hands together:: PLEASE REVIEW! Thank you. And yay! I got this out before I said I would have it out, cuz I said I'd have it out by this Saturday, and I got it out way before then.