Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognise. If I did, you would be reading this in a book and the plot wouldn't be a film.

A Cinderella Story

By Araidel

Hogwarts, 1977

Lily awoke on the morning of October 14th to a loud cry of "LILY!" She jumped and looked to the magical communicator on her desk. It had screamed "LILY!" in her stepmother's voice.

Lily pressed the button on the side of the communicator and said "I'll be right there." She yawned and looked into the mirror above her desk. She was a small, thin girl of 17 with emerald green eyes and long red hair that was messy from her sleep. She looked at her Potions essay and decided that she would finish the last paragraph after she did whatever Linda wanted her to do.

Linda's voice came through the communicator again. "LILY! NOW!" Lily slowly stood up and left her attic room, grabbing her wand off the wall as she went. Lily lived in the attic of the tower above the library in her school, Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. Lily was a witch and she lived in the castle in the holidays because her family ran the library. Her father used to be the librarian but a few months after he had married Linda, he had died in an earthquake. Leaving no will, Linda had got everything. Lily now worked day and night in the library, spending all of her free time there.

Walking into the large room, she spotted Linda immediately. Linda was a frumpy woman with peroxide hair that had previously been dirty blonde, beady brown eyes and a talent to order everyone around.

"I need you to put up the new Newt Salamander posters up, Lily." she said to her step daughter. "It needs to go behind the desk and mind you give your sisters the one you take down. And make sure it is straight. Last week, you put up a poster and it was horribly wonky."

Lily moved to pick up the poster, rolling her eyes as she went. She remembered that incident well. The poster had been barely a millimetre out of alignment and Linda had gone mad. The only thing that Lily could hear for the next few days was Linda's loud voice ringing in her ears saying "IT ISN'T STRAIGHT!"

"Oh and when you are done with the pictures," Linda called after her, "I need you to sort out all of the shelves in the Potions section. Then the Transfiguration section. And then the Charms. And that should take you up until breakfast. I also need you after school today as well."

Lily just nodded and looked over to where her step sisters were sitting. Petunia and Rose were Linda's two daughters. They were fraternal twins and very different to what they looked like when her father had married Linda. Nine years ago, they were the same height and weight, with blonder hair and a horse face. Now, however, Petunia had grown taller and slimmer with her hair cut short; while Rose was short and stubby with longer hair. The twins were reading Witch Weekly and laughing together, relaxing in the early October morning.

As Lily took down the old picture of Newt Salamander, she saw some of the pink paint peeling away from the wall. She wasn't about to tell Linda as the new picture was placed over the blemish. Making sure that the picture was perfectly in line, Lily moved over to the Potions section. She stopped and gasped at the site in front of her; a huge pile of books that were thrown across the floor in a huge pile and no order at all. She picked up one book and placed it on the shelf where it belonged. It took her thirty minutes to clear away the pile taking her from 6:30 until 7:00, the start of breakfast. As Lily moved over to start the pile in the Transfiguration section, she spied Petunia and Rose leaving the library. Sighing to herself, she started to tackle the even bigger Transfiguration pile.

When her watch read 7:45, Lily had started in the Charms section. There was a half hour to go until classes started and the haystack of books was the smallest one she had had to clear up that morning. But as she went to pick up a book, her hand was stopped. Looking up, Lily saw her friend Irma Pince. Irma was a small woman with a big bone structure. She had curly brown hair and warm brown eyes. Irma has worked in the library with her father and had only stayed on, along with all the assistant librarians, to stay with Lily.

"What are you doing here, Lily?" she asked kindly, still holding Lily's hand and preventing her from picking up anymore books.

Lily opened her mouth to answer but was cut of before she could start. "I know, I know about Linda, girl. But you are Head Girl now. And you can't be late for classes now can you?"

"But Irma, as mush as I would love to not do this pile, Linda will know who's fault it is if I isn't -" Lily stopped speaking as Irma flicked her wand and all the books flew into their proper places.

"I can use magic." Irma said a knowing smile on her face. "And don't you need to pick up your friend? Joseph?"

Lily gasped. She had forgotten to get her best friend. They had planned to meet outside the Ravenclaw common room. Stammering a quick thank you to Irma, Lily ran out of the library, saying a rushed hello to the other Assistant Librarians, Natalie Stuarts and Michael Young.

Lily sprinted up three flights of stair and to the other side of the castle, stopping in front of a portrait of a sullen old man with an eagle on his arm. As Head Girl, she knew the password and muttered "Acromantula" before hurrying in and running towards the boys' staircase. She ran up the steps two at a time and flew into the dormitory to find it empty apart from a single bed whose occupant had the curtains closed. Lily ran to the bed, opened the curtains and began to shake her best friend violently.

Joseph groaned and tried to bat Lily's hands away from him, but he missed and moved over so far that he fell, with a loud thump, onto the wooden floor. He looked up at her with his hazel eyes and groped on his bedside table for his glasses. Joseph was only a little bit taller than Lily, making him a medium sized 17 year old. He had brown hair and a dark complexion. When he caught sight of Lily standing with her hands on her hips in front of his bed, he smiled and said weakly "I'll be out in a few minutes." Lily left the dormitory and within two minutes Joseph had joined her.

"Jo, what on Merlin's earth are you wearing?"

Joseph had clearly dressed in the dark as he was wearing his regulation, grey school trousers, a bright orange top and a bright red hat. His glasses, Lily notices were perched on top of his hat and were winking innocently while Joseph squinted to see around his common room.

Lily turned him around at told him to get upstairs and change into something more decent. As they were seventh years, they were aloud to wear their own tops, but they had to be decent and the school bottoms (skirt or trousers) had to be worn. Today, Lily was wearing her grey skirt with her Gryffindor socks (knee-high red socks with a gold band around the top) and a Gryffindor jumper. When Joseph came down again, he had changed into a shirt with a blue 'V-neck' jumper over the top.

Walking down to the Great Hall, a voice came on over the magical intercom. "Yo, yo, yo, all you people out there. Just a reminder that the Hogwarts Halloween Ball is coming up at the end of the month and the Heads all expect you to be there. This is the Hogwarts Radio show, with your student host, Lucy Daniels." Lucy was a girl who had loads of rebel ideas; she had petitioned for a radio show because she said that the entertainment in Hogwarts was nil. As she had organised the petition, Dumbledore had let her be the host.

Lily and Joseph reached the Great Hall with ten minutes to spare. As they were walking in, Lily caught sight of another group of people coming into the hall at the same time.

It was a group of six people; three girls and three boys. Lily recognised them immediately; the girls were all tall and slim, with only difference being their hair. Rosanna Landers, the leader of the girls, had perfectly straight light brown hair that fell gracefully over her shoulders and down her back. Noël Owen had a dark complexion, light Joseph, but had black hair which was in a ponytail. Natasha Callaway's hair was short, dark brown hair which was partially tied up.

The boys were even easier to recognise as they were the three most sought-out boys in Hogwarts. Remus Lupin was the quietist and the smartest. He was a little bit taller than Joseph, with light brown hair and hazel eyes. Unlike most boys, he was pale but this was because he was off sick often. Sirius Black was the most handsome out of the group, being tall and lean. He had long black hair and black eyes that were filled with mischief. He and his best friend, James Potter, had previously been arrogant but, Lily suspected, James' appointment as Head Boy and Remus being a prefect as well had put a dampener on their arrogance. James was also tall and lean, but had short raven hair that stood out at every angle. His hazel eyes were also filled with mischief. The boys had a fourth friend, a small, chubby boy named Peter Pettigrew, and they were the 'pranksters' of Hogwarts; the Marauders. The group of six walked into the Great Hall, Rosanna draped over James attempting to get him to notice her.

Lily and Joseph walked in behind them, only being noticed because they had walked in after the Marauders and the girls. Joseph was staring at Rosanna, his eyes wide. Lily smirked and pulled him over to the Ravenclaw Table. Lily knew that her best friend had a crush on Rosanna and was adamant that she would, one day, notice him despite them being in Hogwarts for seven years.

After the first class, Transfiguration, Lily and Joseph could be found walking past the greenhouses on their way to Care of Magical Creatures. They were in the middle of break so the pair walked slowly past the glass houses.

Suddenly, a boy jumped out in front of the couple. He was a small boy with brown hair and eyes that were concealed by glasses. His right hand was held over his head holding what looked like a bowl. However, the bowl had an antenna sticking through the middle of it. The antenna was connected, with a muggle wire, to a communicator not unlike the one in Lily's attic. His left hand was pressed to the box and was pressing various buttons, making the communicator squeak. He was waving the bowl around in a circle over his head, attracting stared from all of the students around the campus.

"Marcus," Joseph said slowly. He grabbed Lily's arm and began to drag her away from Marcus. "What in Merlin's name are you doing?"

Marcus looked up from his box and regarded Joseph through his dark glasses that were also wired to the communicator box. "I, my dear Joseph, am trying to communicate with other peoples."

Lily and Joseph looked at each other. "Who is it this time? Giants or is it someone else?" Lily asked slowly.

"No, my dearest Lillian." Marcus began, ignoring Lily's wince at the use of her full name. "I am going to talk to the peoples from out of our galaxy." Without another word to the pair, Marcus danced away spinning the bowl over his head faster as he went.

Joseph shook his head. Marcus was forever thinking up new ways to communicate with 'other peoples'. "Poor guys." he said as they carried on walking to the next lesson. "Even for a wizard he is strange."

An owl landed on Lily's shoulder just as Joseph had finished his sentence. It was a small barn owl and it held out a leg to Lily. There was a small roll of parchment tied there and Lily took it of with a smile.

"Ah, yes." Joseph continued. "The secret admirer beckons."

Lily gave him a mock glare and led them over to a near-by bench. She unrolled the scroll and began to read her letter.

Dearest DMLEgirl,

Can you believe that this is our one-year anniversary from meeting in the Ministry owl-room? And we still haven't met?

But, I do suppose that if we ever meet, you will still be DMLEgirl. Forever and always.

As this is our anniversary, I am going to be in the owl-room tonight after my homework is finished. That should be about 9:30. I will be waiting for you.

Love always

Prongs42

Joseph rolled his eyes while Lily smiled to herself. "And how, exactly, are you going to break away from Linda's clutches to talk to Prongs tonight?" he asked

Lily's smile wavered for a few moments. "Well," she answered, "I'll work things out. You are coming to the library tonight, aren't you?"

"Lily, "Joseph said seriously as she bent down to get out a quill and parchment to write a reply to Prongs, "I wouldn't leave you in her clutches. You have Irma, Natalie, Michael and me there for you. I'll be there."

As Lily spread her parchment over her knees, Joseph muttered "Just like I am there every night."

Lily hit him playfully and began to write a reply. When she had finished, her and Joseph reread it once.

Dear Prongs42,

What I really don't believe is how we know each other so well yet haven't met yet. We both know each other's plans for later in life yet we have never met during any of the Ministry's talks and tips talks.

I will try to be in the owl-room tonight, but I think that we need to meet up at one point. This is our final year as Hogwarts students and as you are going into a three year Auror course -well hopefully anyway- we won't meet up for a while at the Ministry.

Lots of Love and Hugs

DMLEgirl

Lily tied the parchment to the owl's leg. As the owl took flight, the bell that signalled the start of second period. As they were where the class was going to be taking place, Lily and Joseph watched the owl as it circled the grounds and dived; it had clearly found Prongs on the grounds of Hogwarts.

AN: I haven't seen the film for a while so on October 19th - when the film comes out in England - I probably will edit the chapters to make them a bit more film-related.

Review responses:

Ken Potter: Yeah, this is based on A Cinderella Story. I saw it in the cinema and I just said (to myself) 'That would make an amazing Lily and James story'. But if forgot to put that in the summary though ...and thanks.

Princess of Rivendell: Thanks too ...