ok, so i'm back, & i'm updating, if you're reading this i hope you are enjoying it... it does get alot better, trust me, darker too, its not all about how she goes to Hogwarts, stuff happens, it picks up in a little while, they discover something vital about her in one of the next chapters. so read, enjoy, review, & correct me if i mess things up really bad, cuz i do tend to do that.

Chapter 5: So This Is Home

Ron and Hermione walked into the compartment about an hour later and were throughly surprised at the change that had taken place over that brief amount of time. Harry was laughing after just winning while Emily looked frustrated and a little burnt.

"When you said you were bad, I had no idea it would be this bad." Harry said teasing her.

Ron stared at the two, especially Emily for doing something in a short amount of time, that he had been trying to do all summer.

The rest of the train ride was spent in pure bliss and the time passed quickly for all of them..

Lily walked off the train with Hermione beside her and Harry and Ron behind them. "Welcome to Hogsmeade," she said grinning. "We'll take trips later in the year, but for now, we'll get in these and head to the school." Lily nodded as Hermione grabbed Ron to snag a carriage for the four of them. Harry fell into step beside her and smiled down at her.

"You look better when you smile; angry and broody is definitely overrated, so don't do it again." she said teasing.

"Oh, don't worry, I won't... you ready to see the school?" he asked, still a few feet away from the carriages Lily stopped short.

"Please tell me those things aren't horses, Harry." Lily said pointing a shaking finger at the strange creatures in front of each carriage.

Harry glanced at her and shook his head, "They aren't, they're called Thestrals; you only see them if you see someone die." Harry finished slowly, Lily nodded solemnly and hurried into the carriage.

The first few minutes were spent in silence, finally to be broken by Ron. "So what house do you wanna be in?" he asked, starring at the girl. She glanced at him, averting her gaze from the window, she smiled nervously and sighed.

"I don't have a choice, there's no, 'I want'... its, 'you are or you're dead'... I have to be in Slytherin."

Ron jumped out of slight rage. "You aren't Slytherin material though, I can tell."

Lily snorted and stared at him, "you barely know me Ron, you have no idea... I can be more ruthless than my uncle, have been at times... but I choose not to be, so I guess that sets me apart.

"But you can choose to no be in Slytherin." Ron insisted.

"Yeah, if I feel like dying young." Lily snapped. Hermione grabbed Ron's arm to signal him to stop, and Harry stared at him.

"Get over it Ron, if that's where she is, that's where she is, it doesn't mean we can never talk to her again." Ron nodded his head in agreement.

As soon as the carriage pulled up to the castle the four of them quickly stumbled out, three of them smiling in contentment, glad to be back again. While they were looking around happily, Lily found herself staring at the castle in wonder.

"Its nice isn't it?" Ron asked from behind her, Lily nodded as they walked to the front doors with the rest of the crowd.

Once inside Lily was pulled to the side by a stern faced teacher who looked like her hair was pulled back way to tight; she smiled at the woman and quickly had a hat placed over her head, covering her eyes.

"What's going on here?" Lily asked, trying to remove the hat, but soon a found strong grip holding her own arms down.

"It's the sorting hat, this wont take long," said the person, she assumed it was the woman with the tight hair.

"Hello my dear," came voice whispering into her ear, which caused her to jump but she remained silent, "a house too place you in is my task; now lets have a look...ah bravery and knowledge, look here, even strength...Gryffindor would suit you well, as would Slytherin, hmm."

"I have to be in Slytherin," she thought.

"Have you, eh?" Lily nodded, she heard the hat sigh and then out loud yelled 'Slytherin.' the hat was quickly removed from her head and she found herself staring up at the woman.

"I'm professor McGonagall, welcome to Hogwarts, your table is the farthest one to your left when you enter the hall. Good day." with that she turned and hurried down the hall. Lily walked into what she assumed was an entrance hall and hound Harry, Ron and Hermione waiting for her expectantly.

"So what happened?" Hermione asked.

"Um, I wore a talking hat- meet the newest Slytherin," she said quietly. The three of them said nothing. Lily sighed and walked into the dining hall finding her house table quickly. She went to sit at the end of the table, away from everyone, but Draco caught her eyes and waved her over. Once there she seated herself her cousin and across from a girl whose face reminded her a little of a dog.

"Em, meet Pansy Parkinson, Pansy, this is my cousin, Emily Fitzgerald," Pansy smiled at her and said a quick 'hello,' all before turning back to oogiling Draco.

Lily paid little attention to the sorting and the speech. She ate her food and talked briefly to Pansy. Once dinner was over, Draco got up to usher the first years to the dorms and Pansy grinned at her.

"So, do you tink you could get Draco to go out with me?" she asked, her brown eyes sparkling.

Lily giggled, and then looked at the girl seriously.

"Why would you want to? He's arrogant and selfish, and definitely wouldn't give you the attention you deserve."

Pansy pouted, "but I like him."

"And I'm related to him, you don't want someone like him, you can do better than him."

Lily stood and Pansy quickly followed suit, catching up to her at the entrance way to the Great Hall.

"Where are you going?" she asking, looking at Lily.

"Not sure."

Pansy smiled. "I'll show you, we're rooming together, we'll have a private room because you would have been to much for the normal dorms, that would be seven girls, and six is a little crazy, so I volunteered to doom with you," Pansy gushed.

"How exciting," Lily said, now following Pansy into the dungeons. "So, why Draco?" she asked.

Pansy stopped and turned, looking at the girl perplexed, "well, I don't know, there just wasn't anyone else," Pansy almost sighed.

"Bull." Lily retorted in a bored tone.

Pansy sighed, "ok, well I only like him for his looks, I know random facts about him though; like how he wont eat peanut butter, only on Wednesdays, he loves vegetables and sleeps in the nude on the third weekend of every month," Pansy grinned triumphantly as Lily paled.

"I don't think I even want to know how you would know something like that."

"Good, cz I made the last bit up... you aren't like Draco are you?" Pansy asled, continuing the walk down the hall.

"I like to think that, why?"

"Well, you aren't a Death Eater are you?"

"Hack no, are you kidding me. I'd never want to be one of those things."

"Good, then you and I will get along great. I'm only in Slytherin because I have to be, my father threatened to kill me if I wasn't." Lily nodded, realizing yet again that you can't judge a book by its cover. "Most of the people in this house fight on the side of evil, I want on the side of good, but its kinda hard, seeing as how I've been pretending I'm on evil's side for years now." Lily nodded as Pansy stopped walking. "This is the common room entrance, I'll let you in here so you can get familiar with it, but we also have our own private entrance, just for our room." she smiled and turned to the Portrait that reminded Lily of a French Nobleman. "Figby."

The portrait swung open and the two girls stepped through into a dark common room that was bustling with activity.

"Welcome to Slytherin, Emily, enjoy your stay." Pansy said, waiting for the new girl.

"Whats with the dark colors? Makes the place seem kinda drab doesn't it?" Lily asked, surveying the room she was now standing in.

Pansy sniggered. "Suppose so, but come on, lets get settled in." Lily gratefully agreed and started following Pansy. The two were almost to the steps when a tall, sturdy, dark haired boy stopped them. "Well Parkinson, you gonna say hello?"

"Hi, Blaise." Blaise smirked and looked over her shoulder to where Lily was standing, his smirk grew as he looked at her and then he looked back at Pansy.

"So, you gonna introduce me to your friend or not, Pans?" Pansy rolled her eyes and was about to say something when Lily stepped beside her and stared at Blaise.

"Last time I checked her friend had a tongue and could talk all on her own," Blaise looked momentarily stunned. "My name is Emily Fitzgerald, American transfer." Blaise smiled at her, a very charming smiled, she had to admit. Blaise reached for her hand and kissed it softly.

"Did she not mention that she is my cousin? Hands off Zabini." Blaise dropped her hand like it burned him and he quickly stood up straight, staring at Draco.

Lily whipped around and glared at her cousin, "and didn't anyone tell you that you aren't my keeper?" Draco smirked and Lily spun back around. "I'm, not interested Blaise, see you all tomorrow," and with that her and Pansy went quickly up to their dorm room.

"So this is home." Lily said, looking around the room in silence.

"Yes, thats your bed, and everything on this side of the room is yours as well." Lily nodded and sat herself down on her bed, it was a canopy four poster with green silk sheets and a faux black rabbit fur comforter on top with a Slytherin emblem spread across the top. Her side of the room was huge, it was a little smaller than her accommodations at the malfoy manor; the whole room was probably the size of their family dining room, the smallest of their four dining rooms. There were two desks in the middle of the room facing each other, and on each side of the desks were cabinets for storing things. To her left along the whole wall was a bookshelf filled with books with a few shelves to spare for personal books. The middle portion of the bookshelf opened up tot he common room. A few feet away on the perpendicular wall to the bookshelves were two doors, she wandered over to them and opened then, he jaw dropped as she stepped into a large closet that went far into the wall, on the left side was another door, which she quickly opened and walked through. Lily found herself in a large master bath, complete with a Jacuzzi tub and shower, which was beautifully decked out in Slytherin colors. She went back to the main room and opened her trunk, quickly grabbing her portable closet and putting the contents in he new closet, shoes went next and then her many sets of pj's and slippers. Finally she got out her books and set them on her extra shelf space. She finished by closing her trunk back up, pulling her broomstick out of its hidden compartment and putting it into the special broom case in her closet.

Lily walked back out, closed the doors and pushed her trunk under her bed. She quickly took a shower, got dressed for bed and went to sit with Pansy in their small lounge area.

"See that picture to your right?" Pansy asked, right before Lily had the time to sit down in what looked to be a really comfy chair.

"I do why?" Lily asked, going over to look at it. It was tall and narrow and depicted the storming of some ancient castle.

"Thats the way out, our personal way. Just tug on the frame and your in the hallway," Pansy said drowsily. Lily did as she was suggested and sure enough she found herself looking into the Slytherin hallway. She quickly shut the door and went over to the chair.

"So what's the password to get in?" Lily asked, a slight sigh escaping her mouth as she sank into the chair.

"Hippogriff. I'm turning in for the night, you should too, we have to be up early for everything, Lily quickly agreed and went over to her bed, crawling in a snuggling down into the blankets. Summer was ending, it was still warm out, but she was in the dungeons, and it was already chilly. Quickly Lily fell into a deep sleep, dreaming of peasant things for the first time all summer. Things she wouldn't remember the next morning, but that didn't matter, as long as she woke up happy.

That night Lily wasn't concerned or worried about the upcoming school year, things were already going better than she thought they would be. After all, she did have almost four new friends, and it wasn't technically a day yet; her past wasn't known, and it was temporarily forgotten, the way it would remain for at least a few months, but how long she could keep up the lying without telling Harry, Ron, Hermione and Pansy, she didn't know, because it wasn't her policy to lie to friends, no matter whatthe circumstances are.