HI! I'm Katie and a while ago me and my friend Elaine wrote a Harry Potter fanfic called James Potter and the Shrieking Shack, which was set in James' seventh year at Hogwarts. We then thought that we should try and write the whole septology, sad I know! So we started from the beginning! We've tried to keep the characters as in character as possible, it's hard because we haven't really heard much about them from JKR! It is also kinda AU because Sirius has a twin and they have a younger brother, but there's no reason that couldn't be real. Ok I'll shut up now! Here is their first year!

Disclaimer: I don't own much of it but some of it is mine!!!! Mr and Mrs Brown are mine as well as Helen Waxen, Rose Evans, Robert Evans, Caroline Hawker, Shirley Potter, Edward Potter, Gemini Black, Aries Black, Katie Felton, Kate Thompson, Robyn Howe, actually there's quite a few characters I own! So if you don't recognise the character or situation then it belongs to Elaine and me!

Chapter 1

The town of Little Whinging was a lovely place. You couldn't find a nicer community however hard you might look. Children freely played into the streets without their parents worrying, people would talk to each other to and from work and generally everyone got along with one another.

There were however a few exceptions to this rule, for example, Mr and Mrs Brown who lived on the corner of Wisteria Walk. Mrs Brown was a gossip, but no one paid attention to a word she said. They just smiled, nodded and went about their business. Mr Brown was another matter all together. He was terrifying. The small children wouldn't go near his house and the older generations made up stories about him. Children had contests to see who could get closest to his house before he came out and shook his walking stick at them.

He was a very angry man and had had a long and eventful life. It wasn't his fault that he hated children, he had just had some bad run ins in the past with people who stereotyped him as the slow, friendly, old man. From then on he had given up talking sense into them and had started his discrimination of all young people. Young people being anyone under thirty.

Lily Evans was one young person who was particularly afraid of Mr Brown. He seemed to get pleasure out of making her feel terrible about herself. Whenever she walked past his house, which was usually twice a day, to and from school, he would make rude comments about her red hair and freckles. But that wasn't what annoyed Lily, no, what annoyed her was that he wouldn't sing anything but praise to her sister, Petunia. Whenever they walked past and he was outside, pretending to trim his hedge or something, it was always "hear you're getting good grades at school Petunia, shame about your no good sister, disgrace she is, absolute disgrace."

It made Lily furious. And you could tell when Lily was mad. Her face turned the same colour as her hair. You could almost see the smoke coming out of her ears. This seemed to happen whenever she walked down Wisteria Walk.

It wasn't true either, none of it was. Lily was a clever girl and Petunia was, well, not so bright. The only subject at school that Petunia was any good at was Geography, and that was only because all it consisted of was colouring in maps. No, Lily excelled in every academic subject but Mr Brown didn't seem to see this. He was a really bitter old man.

"See you tonight!" said Petunia to her friend Helen Waxen. "Right! You!" she turned to her sister, Lily could see the malice on her face. "You don't mention any of what you just heard to mum. She doesn't need to know anything about the party, you know she doesn't like parties. Walk! Home! Now!" Rose Evans, their mother, liked them to meet up after school and walk home together, because she didn't think that the streets were safe these days. She also said that if they didn't walk through the front door within in two minutes of each other then they would both be grounded.

That particular day was the last day of the school year. Lily had just finished year six at the local primary school and Petunia was in year eight. They were walking along Wisteria Way and were just about to turn into Wisteria Walk when they heard the familiar creaky voice.

"Walking home with your sister are you Petunia. I think that's very brave of someone in your status to be seen with someone with her reputation and hair! Fiery, to match her temper. Well, run along then, wouldn't want to be late home. See you later Petunia." And that was that. Lily was fuming. He always got cheap laughs from her and she was sick of it. She marched all the way home and went and sat in her bedroom.

She hated people making fun of her hair. It was the only part of her that she really hated. It stood out of the crowd when all she really wanted to do was blend in. Which was an odd thing to want when all her hobbies involved her performing in front of people. She liked to play the flute and dance, mostly ballet but she had tried most types.

She sat on her bed when she heard a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" she asked not looking up.

"It's only me" came her mum's voice. The door opened, her mum came in and sat on the bottom of her bed. Lily curled up in her pink, flowery duvet and clutched her toy bunny, Flopsy. Flopsy, as her name, was flopsy. She used to be big, stiff and marshmallow pink but now she was small, grey and, well, flopsy.

Rose Evans put on, what she thought to be a stern yet conscientious face as she entered her daughter's room. She sat down at the end of her bed, paused and then said "you know Lily, some relationships are just not meant to be. We're not supposed to get along with everyone in life. Take Mr Brown for example, there is a perfectly good reason why he favours Petunia over yourself." Lily sniffed sarcastically, she seriously doubted it. She could see no logic behind his attitude. "I'm serious Lily, there is a specific reason why he is afraid of young people, especially with red hair. A couple of years ago he was mugged and he didn't see anything except a flash of red hair when one of them turned around. It's left him traumatised."

Lily, for the first time in her life, felt sorry for Mr Brown, but she still found fault in his argument. "But mum, that doesn't explain his bad attitude towards young people." She said.

"No, it doesn't," her mum said softly, "but sometimes after one event you can start creating false images of groups of people. Stereotyping them and sticking to you're instincts instead of leaving it behind and simply moving on." With that her mum patted her on the shoulder and left the room.

Lily got underneath the covers and stared up at the ceiling, reflecting upon what her mum had just told her and promised to forgive people if they ever judged her again and not to be bothered by snide comments. She knew it may not work but she was willing to try it, just out of sympathy for poor Mr Brown, whoever would have thought that one-day she would think that. Things and relationships change over long periods of time, she had learned that today but that didn't mean that she would remember it in the future.

Lily must have dozed off sometime after that because she woke up still in her clothes. It was dark in her room and she rubbed her eyes until they adjusted to the light. She switched on her lamp and looked at her clock. Quarter past midnight. She switched off her light and tried to get back to sleep but with no luck. She simply wasn't tired anymore.

She lay there thinking about what could get her back to sleep. She thought about reading a book but she couldn't be bothered, she'd read all of her books too recently. She relived the day's events when a thought struck her. She could keep track of all of her favourite memories by finding a box and filling it with special things.

She picked up her photo album and started flicking through it. She finally settled on her favourite five photos. Baby Lily in the autumn leaves, she liked this photo because autumn was her favourite season. Lily at three at her first ballet lesson, Lily loved ballet she had three classes a week. Lily at six learning to play the flute in her bedroom, her mum had taken the photo through the door without Lily knowing. Lily (seven) and Petunia (nine) playing in the snow and Lily at eleven in her first major role in a ballet performance.

She scanned around her room for other things and saw her medallion, first place in the under twelve's woodwind class at a music competition. Her sister had also taken part and had smashed her clarinet when she didn't even get a placement. Their parents weren't too happy about that! Lily could never do that to her flute though, she loved it too much. She put the medallion on the small pile she was collecting on her bed. Lily decided that that was enough for now and found a small, black box, put the stuff in and climbed back into bed.

"But mum! I've told you! It was Lily! Lily did it! It wasn't me! I heard her moving around in the middle of the night too! She must have, I dunno, climbed in through the window after going to a party or something! Sounds like something she would do!" Lily opened her eyes to the dulcet tones of her sister. That was just like her. Do something and then blame it all on Lily.

Lily threw back her covers with anger raging through her; her breathing was fast and sharp. She marched up to her door and flung it open. She faced Petunia and shouted, "STOP! STOP IT! IT'S NOT FAIR! DON'T BLAME ME FOR EVERY SMALL THING YOU DO!" Petunia's hair started to turn pink, vibrant pink, from the roots downwards. "YOU'RE EVIL! YOU ARE PURE EVIL!" The pink flowed down her hair and face. "EVIL I TELL YOU! EVIL!" Fuchsia pink flooded down Petunia's body followed by purple, blue and finally green.

"Lily...what's happening?" asked her mum looking worriedly between her daughters.

"What?" asked Petunia, "is something wrong?"

"Wrong? WRONG!" screamed Lily, "WRONG?" causing tiny freckles to pop up on Petunia's nose. She had lived in luxury freckle-free and now she would pay! "I have spent my whole life living in the shadows of you and your group of friends, too scared to speak up for myself because of you and people like you. I have been carelessly thrown aside by people too self absorbed with their own problems. People like Mr Brown don't see you as I do. They see the sweet innocent Petunia whereas I see the evil, self-centred devil who makes my life a living hell!" and with that she turned around , went back into her room and slammed the door.

Petunia, who was still a rather shocking shade of lime green and with too many freckles to count stared at her mother, who was also in a state of shock after watching her daughter change colours. Rose Evans managed to say "Petunia dear, close your mouth, it's not ladylike for a girl to look like a goldfish." And carried on sorting out the laundry.

Petunia was bewildered. She had never been in a situation like this before, she naturally thought that everyone loved her. She didn't know what to do so she took a deep breath, knocked on her sister's door and waited for a reply.

"Go away!" were the only two words that Lily said.

"Please let me in. Please?" she paused. "Look, I'm really sorry about everything. I didn't know that I was doing that to you. You should have said something to me, talked to me, anything." She paused again and was about to give up when the door slowly opened. Lily came out rubbing her red eyes and she hugged her sister. The effect was instant. The freckles and greeness immediately disappeared, except for three small freckles on the bridge of Petunia's nose to serve as a reminder.

Lily then went down to breakfast. There was a letter on the table, which was addressed to Miss Lily Evans, 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey. She turned it over and saw a seal bearing some crest with a lion, badger, snake and eagle on it. She opened it. 'You have been accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.' This had to be a joke.

Please review! We'd really appreciate it! I will love everyone that reviews forever and ever! The ikkle button is just there, you know you want to click it!

We will use flames to keep us warm as we write more and more and more!

Just one more thing! Could you tell me whether you want me to post chapter five. Because I don't have the in-between chapters that Elaine's writing but I do have chapter five, which is with James and Sirius. If you would rather wait, that's fine! But it could be a while before I see Elaine because we're on holiday and I won't see her 'til school.