Disclaimer: Harry Potter is J.K.Rowlings, and this story is mine :P

"Nothing is great or little otherwise by comparison" (II:1;5) – Gulliver's Travels by Jonathon Swift. Mention of Gulliver and the Lilliputians is from here.

Chapter 3:- Holycrackamoley!

Biiiiggggg! Lily only barely kept her jaw in place as she found herself looking up…

and up…

and up…

into a ball of fuzz with clothes. Well, it looked like fuzz. Then the fuzz started moving…

"Firs' years! Follo' me!" Stepping back from the booming voice Lily blinked and realized that the ball of fuzz was actually a person. Um..at least I think it's a person. Who just happens to be really…really big.

"I'm Hagrid and I'm in charge of yer till we get to 'ogwarts." Is that a West Country or Yorkshire accent? I can't really tell. Although at first glance she'd been a bit intimidated by Hagrid's sheer size, after listening to his jokes and rumbling laughter on the way across the lake, she started to find him quite endearing. Like a big teddy bear. But her smile dropped along with her jaw as they approached Hogwarts. What had been patches of shadow now solidified into walls and towers that loomed over all of them.

Biiiiggggg!

Honestly what is it with these people? First giant men, now giant castles! As if I wasn't already aware that I was small. As long as the monsters aren't this big I'll be happy. I feel like the Lilliputians seeing Gulliver and his world. Hehe…talk about huge impressions……right……I think I need some sleep.

Unfortunately for her, sleep was not a viable option as she was herded into the Great hall by a bony old woman with square-rimmed glasses and beady eyes who started reading names from a list. What was her name again? Professor Macdonald? Haha… No…wait…Professor Mahogany? No...that was a type of wood. Um…

"Lily Evans."

Wha…? Uh oh…what am I doing? Hiding her rapidly increasing panic, Lily moved to the front of the crowd towards the chair that Professor…McGonagall (that's it!) was impatiently gesturing towards. Attempting (and probably failing) to look as if she knew what was going on, Lily picked up the dingy old hat resting on it and sat down slowly, leaning forward slightly so the tips of her toes touched the floor. Just so I don't look that short. Looking timidly at Professor McGonagall, who vaguely motioned for her to put the hat on her head, Lily gingerly placed it on her head, hoping it would not give her head lice. Instantly she found herself suspended in darkness, prevented from being pitch black by numerous tiny glimmers of light. Like the Twilight zone…

Well, well, well. What do we have here? Muggle-born, are you? And you have no idea what I am or what this is about. I see that a brief explanation is in order. I am the sorting hat. There are four houses in Hogwarts - Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. My job is to sort new students into their respective houses, and you'll find that people in the same house tend to have similar character traits. For example Gryffindors are known to be brave, Ravenclaws smart, Hufflepuffs loyal and Slytherins ambitious. Now, where do I put you…hmm…

Stunned into silence by the creaky voice, Lily really didn't know what to think, and so just listened as the hat conducted a one-sided conversation.

My, my I think you could fit just about anywhere. Yes…it's all there. The knowledge, quite an intelligent little thing aren't you?

I resent that…

Untapped though….hmm…I suppose you'll grow into yourself. Practical…yes…Ooo, and what's this? Ambition…yes…you could do great things you know. You have a big heart for one so small

Would you stop rubbing it in!

Hmm…decisions, decisions. Then I suppose it'll have to be…

"Gryffindor!"

That last word was shouted, and a wave of applause swept across the hall, the loudest and most rambunctious cheers originating from the house she assumed was Gryffindor. She hesitantly walked towards the table, where a rush of people greeted her with slaps on the back and handshakes. Sirius grinned and waved from his seat at the table as she sat down next to an older girl she learned was Valerie Tse from third year. Brushing back untidy long black hair that hung past her waist, she smiled amiably and welcomed Lily to Gryffindor, her glasses not hiding the kindness in her dark brown eyes. Lily smiled back and settled down, watching the rest of the students getting sorted.

Remus cheerfully joined them when his turn came and went and when a widely grinning James headed for the table a minute later, Lily saw that he had on a pair of black-rimmed glasses. Turning to Sirius, she inquired,

"Was he wearing glasses on the train?"

Letting out a short bark of laughter, Sirius flicked a glance at Remus before saying,

"Nope," and at Lily's questioning gaze continued, "Cos I hid them." Lily could see that there was something more to it from the looks on their faces and so probed a bit.

"Where?"

Sirius's grin grew even wider as he said smugly,

"In his spectacle case."

She couldn't stop the laughter that burst out of her and without much hesitation the boys joined her . When they stopped to breathe Lily asked Sirius,

"So what made you give them back to him?" And was taken aback when a fierce look of disgust warring with amusement appeared on both his and Remus's faces.

" Well, Remus and I decided it would be a good idea when he actually started a conversation with Malfoy since he couldn't see who it was." Seeing Lily's blank face, Sirius went on to explain, "Malfoy," he said, spitting the name out, " is the slimmest git on the face of this planet. Maybe you've seen him. Blond hair…gray eyes…?"

Oh.

HIM…

With an understanding grimace, Lily said, " Yeah I know who you're talking about. Accidentally bumped into him in the train. Not a nice experience."

Sirius nodded in sympathy, "Well, then you'll understand why we gave James his glasses back." By this point James had made it to the table relatively unharmed from the enthusiastic Gryffindor welcome so Sirius started chatting to him and Lily just sat there, observing and absorbing the whole environment.

Everything after that just sped by as all the first years were sorted and a certain Professor Dumbledore with twinkling sky-blue eyes said his words of welcome (Goody goody gumdrops?). The highlight of her evening was when various dishes appeared on the table with a 'pop', including some of her favourites, and Lily proceeded to stuff herself.

Me like food…she thought contentedly as she followed a prefect through a maze of hallways before they arrived in front of a network of staircases.

Wait a second…they're…

"Holycrackamoley! They're moving!"

Turning around in surprise, Lily looked with amusement at the girl who had stolen the words right out of her mouth. She had a slight build and pale white skin that contrasted startlingly with her intense light blue eyes. Her smoky brown hair was short and curled at the ends. In all the right places…Lily thought with envy as she fingered her own unruly curls. Smiling good-naturedly at Lily, the girl said animatedly,

"Where I'm from, the staircases are firmly attached to both ends. If they ever move, it's generally a good idea to get the heck out of the way before the entire building collapses on you!"

Chuckling a bit, Lily said, " I know what you mean. Are you a …what do they call it here…a muggle? Are you a muggle as well?"

"I'm a half-muggle. We live in muggle London and Dad just apparates to work in the Ministry. I'm Natalie by the way. Natalie Beauford. But everyone calls me Nat"

"I'm Lily. Lily Evans. Pleased to meet you." Lily shook Natalie's outstretched hand with a smile.

"Oh, pish posh. No need to be so formal. Oh, we're moving!"

Both girls clung to the banister; faces alight with wonder as the staircase moved towards a large painting of a …generously endowed lady dressed in a red and gold Victorian gown.

On the way, various other smaller paintings featured maids and shepherds, some of whom whispered behind their hands while others smiled pleasantly as the students went by them.

The paintings move? Lily's eyes widened a fraction further as she took in the remarkable sight of mobile paintings that could not only move but travel outside their own frames into other ones.

Holycrackamoley indeed.

"Welcome to Gryffindor!" The lady in the painting said warmly, and the prefect leading them greeted her politely before addressing the crowd in front of him, wondering nostalgically if that same look of awe and wonder had been on his face on his first day.

"This is the painting that leads to the Gryffindor common room and all your dorms, and you'll need to remember the painting and say the password to the Fat Lady to enter. Now remember not to tell anyone from the other houses the way to this place or the password or you'll be in big trouble. This month's password is dufflebogey. Say it with me, duf-fle-bo-gey. Good."

Who on earth would want to be known as the Fat Lady? Lily thought incredulously.

"A bit patronising isn't he? We're eleven, not four." Natalie muttered softly to Lily who stifled a laugh as they were led into a huge room with two fireplaces on opposite ends of the room. A few burgundy couches with gold embroidered pillows were arranged around cherry wood tables into cosy corners near the fireplaces. Various shades of red and gold throws and rugs covered parts of the solid timber floor, and even the velvet curtains were …(you guessed it), a dark red with golden ties.

"Wow…either the interior designer's favourite colours are red and gold, or those are our house colours. Somehow I doubt it's the former. Talk about house spirit. I hope it isn't considered blasphemy that I have a purple and blue scarf," Lily said dryly before she really thought about what she was saying. Ooops, I didn't mean to say it that loud. Hoping she hadn't offended anyone, she was relieved when Natalie burst out laughing and another girl beside her giggled. Some of the students around her also threw a few amused glances in her direction.

"Is there a problem back there?" the 'patronising prefect' as Natalie had dubbed him called from the front.

"No, we're fine. Just dandy." Lily said blandly, which only caused the other girls to laugh harder. Feeling just a bit more confident of herself, she added, "Love the colour scheme by the way. It's…very…um..." looking around, she tried to find a word that fit the description …okay… have to finish what I started… "um…very……red……I mean, rich." By this time most of the students who had heard the Lily's first observation were laughing, and their laughter only increased at the baffled look on the prefect's face. Deciding it best to just ignore it he continued leading the students, pointing the girls and boys up to their respective dorms.

Unfortunately, everyone was assigned dorms, so Lily found herself heading towards the right with Linda (Anabelle had ended up in Slytherin if she was remembered right) and six other girls she did not know while Natalie went off towards the left with the remaining seven girls. Great…I actually meet someone I could be friends with, and she ends up in a different dorm. And as fate would have it, I'm in the room at the end with the 'bimbos'. Oh bother…Lily felt her heart sink as she walked in front of the three giggling girls behind her. It appeared that she hadn't been the only one to make new friends. Shaking her head in resignation Lily came to an abrupt stop at the door. The girls behind were so busy exchanging hair tips that they didn't even notice it till Linda stumbled into Lily.

"Oomph! Owwww, hey what did you do that for? Like who stops in the middle of the door like that?" Linda's whiny voice broke through Lily's daze and she moved inside, hoping to let the girls see why she had stopped so suddenly. Four poster beds sat in the four corners of the room, a small oak closet and matching set of drawers next to each of them. In between the beds at the left end of the room was a door that Lily presumed led to the bathroom and on the right hand side was a charming little fireplace. But what had really caught Lily's attention was the huge window that displayed the grounds of Hogwarts. Moving quickly to the bed next to the window and the fireplace, Lily ignored the other girls as they fought over who got the beds closest to the bathroom. She'd always wanted a room with huge windows that opened out to the open sky and mountains and lakes, just nature really.

And here it was.

The silver crescent moon cast a glimmering path down the middle of the lake and shadows danced in the forest as a gentle breeze rippled through the trees. Something (a mermaid?) rose gracefully out of the lake, and sparkles of water created ever-widening ripples as the droplets landed in the otherwise still water. Strangely enough, it was at this magical sight and not the ghosts and moving staircases that Lily finally realised that she was actually in Hogwarts, in the wizarding world, and not good old London. Lifting a hand and placing it on the window, as if searching for a connection to the world outside, she said softly to herself,

"I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto."