Author's Note: Needless to say, I own nothing Harry Potter or anything else you might recognize. I own no songs I write about. I have read enough books and stories to forget where I picked up a certain idea or phrase, so I can't give credit to the author. Thank you.

Chapter 4

Far from Home

She couldn't believe what she had done; she had just given up everything she had built up over the past months. She had given into her fear, nervousness and indecision. She had thrown away everything she had ever dreamed of, everything she had looked for. As she watched the train disappear around the corner, she felt herself start to tear up. A strong hand grabbed her upper arm and pulled her up. She looked up at Mr. Remmey with sadness.

"I couldn't do it," she said, her eyes welled up and tears ran down her face.

"It's OK; I don't blame you, Lily. This is a difficult decision." He looked her as her father would have. She smiled. "Come on. We'll go to your parents." Mr. Remmey took Lily through the barrier to find her mother crying in her father's arms on a nearby bench. Petunia had apparently gone to wait in the car. When Mr. Evans saw Lily, he got up abruptly.

"Lily! What happened? Why aren't you on the train?" he asked. Mrs. Evans, in the meantime, had run over to Lily and hugged her. Lily sadly hugged her back.

"She got cold feet. At the last minute, she backed out. The train already left." Mr. Remmey answered for her.

"So, do you not want to go at all?" asked Lily's mother. It was a difficult question. She did want to go, but she didn't want to live without her parents. It was complicated.

"I do want to go, but I'm going to get homesick…I think I got homesick the minute I got on the train." Lily said. Her parents smiled, but it was Mr. Remmey who spoke.

"Lily, it's OK for you to feel this way. It's only natural to want to be with your parents. If you don't want to go, then don't. It's your choice. Remember that this choice is important: it decides whether you want to be a witch or not. Without this education, you'll just be a girl with weird powers. You won't be able to control them." Lily thought about this, and then looked up at Mr. Remmey.

"Is there another way to get there?" asked Lily. "My stuff is there anyway, so it's only me." Mr. Remmey smiled. Lily heard whispered shouts, like someone scolding a person who didn't want everyone to hear. She looked around Mr. Remmey to see what it was. An olive-skinned boy with long hair came into view. His mother was speaking to him in what Lily thought was Spanish. She had been to Spain only twice, but she recognized two or three words.

"No puedo creer que no te apuraste… ¿ahora ves lo que pasa? Llegamos tarde. ¡Al rato ni está el tren! ¿Cómo crees que te vas a ir al colegio?" She said. Lily stared at the sullen looking boy. Apparently, he was used to let his mother rant on.

He looked at Lily and Lily looked at the trunk he carried on his trolley. He appeared to be a Hogwarts student. He looked about Lily's age. Lily went up to her father and told him to ask the woman if her son went to Hogwarts. So he did. He went up her and asked in Spanish if her son was going to Hogwarts. The woman's eyes went wide, and then she answered affirmative, that her son was going into his first year. Mr. Evans told the woman that the train had already left, and that his daughter, who also happened to be entering first year, had also "missed the train". Mr. Remmey told Mr. Evans to tell the woman that he would be taking Lily via "apparition", whatever that was… The woman said that was a good idea, and they should "apparate" to "Hogsmeade". Mr. Remmey said that was a good idea. He helped the woman by banishing all the luggage but a light backpack the boy carried.

With this, the Evans's said goodbye, again, to their daughter. Mr. Remmey took Lily, the woman and her son to a dark, lonely corner of the train station. There, Lily had to hold on tight to Mr. Remmey. There was an enormous pressure on her body as she closed her eyes tight. When the pressure went away, about half a second later, they were in another place. There were people bustling around the shops with bags filled with magical things. This reminded Lily of Diagon Alley, but she knew it wasn't.

"Where are we?" asked Lily, forgetting to let go of Mr. Remmey's arm.

"We're in Hogsmeade. This is a town that Hogwarts lets only 3rd years and higher to come to. You get to see it three years early." Mr. Remmey smiled at Lily as she looked around. "Since the train has only left, you have about 7 or 8 hours of free time. The train usually takes that long to get to school. The school is right up this hill," Mr. Remmey turned around and pointed straight ahead. Lily saw the castle, but it looked tiny from this far away. "Make sure you're there by about 7-7:30, dinnertime." Lily understood that their plan was to leave her with his complete stranger. I guess he can't be so bad; he's only 11, after all… Mr. Remmey gave her a few galleons to shop, since her moneybag was in the trunk she had left on the train. He insisted that her parents would tell her to accept it; after all, she was going to be here for a few hours. She took the money and watched as both grown-ups disappeared with a pop. Lily turned and looked at the boy. His hair was long enough that he had to tie it in a ponytail, maybe it was even longer than Lily's hair. His eyes were dark brown, and his skin was also dark. She imagined he came from the coast of Spain, where the sun was strong.

"What's your name?" He asked. Lily was surprised he could speak English, but even with a bit of an accent, she could tell he had spoken it for a long time.

"Lily Evans. You?" she replied.

"Esteban Aymerich."

"Where are you from?"

"Tordera, in Barcelona"

They started walking around the town and talking. Pretty soon, they were sitting at a table at an ice cream shop, laughing as if they were old friends.

"…then I asked him where he had gotten his hair cut, and he said it wasn't a hair cut, but that his baby sister had played with scissors while he was sleeping!" They laughed again, clutching their stomachs. Lily had only known this boy for a few hours and she felt like they had been friends for years and years. She had easily trusted him with stories that she had told no one but the twins. They spoke of past, future, muggle and wizard. He showed her his pet Jobberknoll, Ludgyar, (called Luddy) which he kept in a cage compartment of his bag. The name had come out of a fairy tale he had written. It was a small blue bird that made absolutely no noise. This pet was his friend since he was seven.

Esteban had trusted her with information that was very personal, like that of his father, who he never knew. And his mother, with their problems at home. She felt like she was playing shrink with this boy, and he was playing shrink with her.

They shopped around, buying a few things that they found amusing. Lily had wanted to buy a camera, and she found a magical camera. The pictures that came out automatically from the camera moved. It was a bit expensive (Esteban had said), but she bought it anyway along with a few extra blank photo packages… she still had a few galleons and sickles to spend. She saw a magical thermos that was self-refillable. All you had to do was fill it with a liquid and it would keep refilling with the same liquid. The only thing you needed to clean it out and put a new liquid in it was the simple cleaning charm that came on the tag (Scourgify). Lily was going to try this charm out as soon as she could. She paid for the thermos as well, leaving her pockets clean of any money.

The sun had started setting when Esteban suggested they should get going if they wanted to reach the castle in time. They walked the distance to Hogwarts only to find that the gates were shut. What to do… Lily was thinking of this while Esteban was already kneeling on the ground, looking in his backpack. He took out a muggle pen, a small piece of parchment and his Jobberknoll. He took the parchment and scribbled something on it. He folded it into a tiny square and gave it to Luddy. He beat his wings and slowly flew off. He wasn't very fast, but if he could reach the person in charge, it would be fine. They waited patiently for almost 20 minutes. Then a man came strolling down the walk…a gigantic man…

"You kids a'righ' there? What'cha doin' out here? You shoul' still be on the train, you shoul'." The man said.

They let him speak, for they couldn't say a word. He was more than twice their height, and ten times their width; trying to look up at his face made their necks hurt. They were silenced just by his size. He opened the chain on the gate with a key on a ring filled with keys. They went inside and the man closed up the gate again. He looked at them and reached to his shoulder, retrieving a blue thing.

"Whose Joberknoll is this?" He held out the small creature in his massive hand. Esteban walked forward and took the bird in his hand. He seemed shaky, but he didn't really look scared.

"Tha' there's a well trained bird. You do tha' yourself?" asked the man. Esteban nodded and the man smiled through his great bushy beard.

"Me name's Hagrid." The man stretched out his hand and smiled. Both children introduced themselves and shook hands with him. While for Hagrid it was a normal handshake, they both felt him shaking their entire bodies. They walked up to the front doors, and entered the grand castle. This is what Lily had been waiting for since she received her letter. The entrance was colossal. They walked until they reached a door; behind this door was apparently a room where there were many people. They could hear chatter and laughter. Hagrid turned to face them.

"I need to get the rest o' the students… ya better stay put for a while. I'll be bringin' all your classmates up in a sec." He said. He walked out the door and Lily leaned on the wall and slid down until she was in a sitting position. Esteban followed her as he slumped down, Luddy still in his hands. They talked for about half an hour when they started to hear noise from their left. They stood up to see what it was. A corridor that led to several flights of stairs was filled with children, all in black cloaks… oh, no! Lily hadn't changed…well, Esteban hadn't either, they had an excuse. They waited for the rest to come closer. They were followed by a witch in a dark green cloak. She was speaking, and Lily could hardly catch a word of what she was saying.

"…Hufflepuff and Slytherin. These houses will be your homes. Your classmates will be like your family. You will eat, study and go to class with your house mates. A house cup is awarded at the end of the year. It is awarded to the house with… excuse me, why aren't you with the group? And why aren't you in uniform?" This last part was addressed to Lily and Esteban.

"Well, Professor, we had a bit of a mishap, and missed our train. The luggage, unfortunately, went with the train. We didn't have our uniforms to change into, you see? And we came by means of Hogsmeade instead of by the train." Esteban appeared to be good with words, because it all came out so naturally, and even better, this strict looking professor just examined them with her eyes and nodded. They waited for her to continue speaking, and she led them to a hall, bigger than any place Lily had ever seen before. There were hundreds of students all dressed in black. They were sitting at four enormously long tables, and the teachers sat at a smaller one perpendicular to those four. Lily looked up and gasped. Through the ceiling, she could see the cloudy night sky, with a few stars peeking through. She forgot to move, and someone bumped into her. Seemingly, this person was also looking up. She looked back and yelled, receiving two yells in return. Arlene and Trish hugged Lily. They had forgotten where they were and looked around only to receive weird glances and looks from the other students.

They continued walking. Thy arrived at a dais and stopped. There was a stool and a hat and someone was singing, but Lily couldn't see too much. The person in front of her said the hat was singing. The strict-looking professor started calling out names. The student was to sit on the stool, put on the hat, and wait for something. Lily was utterly surprised when she saw the hat open its "mouth" and yell something. She remembered that these were "house" names. Esteban was called fourth. He sat on the stool and waited. The hat yelled "GRYFFINDOR!" after a few seconds. He got up and went to sit at the table. Each person who got "Ravenclaw" went to the third table, and every "Gryffindor" went to the first table. A boy named Black had jumped off the stool and onto the stool, and started doing a jig and singing "I didn't get Slytherin" a few times before the professor yanked him down and asked him to go sit down. Lily was the thirteenth on the list. When her name was called, she went to sit on the stool. The moment she sat down, complete darkness covered her eyes. There was a voice that sounded around her ears and this made her turn her head to "see" who was speaking to her; then she remembered it was the hat.

"Well, you have a lot of courage. I see you put others in front of your own needs, a very loyal thing to do, maybe Hufflepuff. But then there's the bravery and intelligence, you would do well in Ravenclaw…unless…there is something in you that wants to excel, maybe Slytherin. But I believe love prevails over desire. You will go to…"

"GRYFFINDOR!" everyone at the Gryffindor table applauded. She smiled, still inside the hat. When it was taken off, she went to sit by Esteban, who had started talking to the Black boy. She was so excited! All her fears of earlier today had been erased. Trish and Arlene had also gotten into Gryffindor, along with two other girls. There were two other boys put into Gryffindor, as well.

When all the students had been set into houses an old man stood up and said words that made no sense. Then the food appeared. Lily had never seen so many different dishes in her life! There was so much to chose from. She had about two or three bites of each thing, making her total meal two plates of "spoonfuls". Then they had eaten dessert, the food disappeared. The old man, named Dumbledore, was giving announcements about the forest, a tree that hit people, the banned items, the curfew and then off to bed. The Gryffindors followed a fifth year female prefect up several flights of stairs. Lily was scared when the staircase she was on began to move. The prefect, who had already gotten off the staircase, told the remaining Gryffindors to follow the prefect at the bottom of the stairs. A sixth year male prefect had made them go down two flights of stairs, through several doors, and up four more staircases.

They eventually reached the grand portrait of a large woman in a pink dress. She said "password" and the prefect said "Kennilworthy Whisp". The picture nodded and swung open. A large round opening led to a room covered in gold and red. The prefect indicated where their rooms were, and said that their things had already been placed in their rooms. Lily had told Esteban they should meet up in about an hour. Then Lily and the twins ran to their room. It was a round room with five large four-poster beds, all with red curtains. Lily found her trunk at the foot of the first bed on the right. There was a bed between hers and Trish's. Next to Trish's was Arlene's and then another bed. Right at that moment, two girls came in talking. One of them had dark skin, like Esteban, and curly hair. The other was blonde and had large blue eyes. When they saw the other girls in the room, they stopped talking and introduced themselves.

"Hi. I'm Johanna King." The girl with the curly hair shook hands with all three. They smiled.

"I'm Samantha Lowe" she shyly waved.

"Lily Evans" Lily introduced herself, the twins did as well.

"Arlene Remmey"

"Trisha Remmey"

They did the usual "first day talk", usually what they expected to get out of Hogwarts, where they were going after Hogwarts, guys, home… Lily said she should go to the main circular room to look for Esteban.

Downstairs, the room was almost empty of students. Probably most of them were fixing their rooms. Lily spotted Esteban on a couch near the fire. She went to sit down with him.

"How's your room?" she asked. He immediately started talking about his roommates. There were three roommates, and one empty bed. Esteban imagined this would be filled later. One of the boys had really messy hair; he was making jokes all the time. There was another boy, who reminded him of a muggle actor called Richard Burton, but she had no idea who he was. This boy was the exact opposite of the word 'shy'. The third boy, a small fat boy, didn't speak too much. He mostly sat on his bed, listening to the other people talk. Lily was glad that Esteban had found people that he liked.

Lily then proceeded to speak of her roommates. Trish and Arlene she had know forever, Johanna, or Jo, as she had asked to be called, was excited about everything. She was all about Quidditch, the wizard sport. On the other hand, Samantha, Sam, was very calm and didn't like riding a broom. A broom! Like the witches in cartoons. She was going to be the real thing. It was a good thing that real witches and wizards were nothing like in the cartoons or movies. They were regular people with special gifts. Lily felt happy that she had come to Hogwarts.

An hour later, almost at 10, the common room was empty, Lily and Esteban said goodnight and went up to sleep in their respective rooms. Lily had never been happier than right now. She lied in bed and wondered if all the things that had happened were real. She slept to dream of magic, flying and a fairyland of perfection.

There it is, sorry it took soooo long. I promised my friend to include him in the story, and here he is. ;-D. Ojala q le haya gustado: solo para ud!

BTW: the real Esteban isn't Spanish, just Latin. Since Hogwarts is Hogwarts, I had to make him Spanish.