Disclaimer: In no way, shape or form to I own Harry Potter.


Stronger Than Love

Chapter Four: Beginning Dreams

September 1st could not have come slower for the youngsters. Lily woke up at four in the morning that day and could not fall back asleep, no matter how hard she tried. James, on the other hand, joined the waking three hours later. They both had first day jitters along with the nervousness of what would come. Lily had packed her things the night before, just to make sure that she wouldn't forget anything. James had not. His parents were trying to teach him responsibility and wanted him to do it himself.

So, at seven am James was running around with his head cut off, trying to find everything. He stuffed all of his clothing into his trunk first and then tried to squish the remaining materials along with supplies and books. Needless to say this wasn't working. Barely half of the school supplies could fit.

Across the country Lily fumed through all of her book for the final time. She didn't want to forget anything when classes started. Going farther than reading the books, Lily had even complied an outline of the things she needed to remember when socially interacting with her peers. These notes had come from several other volumes she found at Flourish and Blotts, along with her spell books. Jackie had specially purchased these for Lily because she didn't want her to be on average knowledge of her new world. These novels were about Hogwarts, what is was and its history; Sports, some nonsense about Quidditch; Health, everything from healing and mending to how the medical field worked; Famous witches and wizards, what they'd done to earn there place; History, everything that happened beginning from when records were written to 1965, and finally there was also a book about the government that held the wizarding world together. Reading each of this books five times, Lily particularly liked the novel on history as it provided her with information she never even thought had existed. She hoped that the lengthy book's information would be covered in her History of Magic class.

The remaining members of Lily's family awoke around seven thirty. They had an hour and a half to make sure everything was set for Leilabeth before she left. Petunia, for some odd reason kept dawdling on everything she was doing, making the family later by the minute. It took about two hours to get to London from their home. After a breakfast of peanut-butter pancakes, Lily's favorite, they were ready to go.

Harold loaded all of his youngest daughter's items into their family Pontiac. The car was packed, and everyone may have been a little squished but they were ready to go. Over the span of the two hours, Lily became so nervous and impatient that she hummed every song she knew, annoying everyone else in the car with her.

As the family reached London, they arrived at King's Cross with twenty minutes to spare. Lily's legs became jelly as she shut the car door and walked inside the station. Lena and Sean had instructed her on how to find the entrance. While the four turned around the final corner so that the platforms nine and ten were in perfect view, the anxiousness Lily had exploded and she began to cry. This would be the first time she would be away from her parents, and it didn't help much that Lily was going somewhere she considered a place that she didn't know much about. What if this was all a big hallucination she was having?

James Potter had a bright, confident smile playing on his lips as his family entered the muggle train station. He had heard so much about Hogwarts. Finally, he would be going there. Weaving his cart through the thickets of people, he reached the number his parent's had suggested him to find.

Laughing, as James saw a girl with bright red hair about his age crying, "What a baby," he said to himself out loud, chuckling. Apparently what he thought was a whisper had been loud enough, though, as the girl whipped around to glare at him. He heard the mother behind her say, "How inconsiderate," as the girl turned back around to her parents.

Lily Evans frowned at the boy who had laughed about her. For a second he looked like he was alone. For a second Lily didn't blame him because he looked as if his parent's didn't spend much time with him. But, at that moment a couple appeared around the corner saying, "James, don't walk so fast. We aren't young enough anymore," they laughed. This made her even matter. So he did have parents teaching him respect. The rude little devil!

"Bye, honey-bunches," Harold smiled and hugged his little girl.

"By Daddy, love you," Lily sniffed and kissed her check. "By Mum," she said, turning to face her mother.

"Have a good year darling," Jackie said, hugging and kissing her daughter good-bye. If Lily had attended Arete like Jackie wanted the mother realized that she wouldn't have to do a good-bye. "All the more reason why Lily should attend Arete the next year," Jackie thought to herself.

Finally, turning towards her sister, Lily smiled. "Love you Petunia," she hugged her sister. Petunia just nodded and brushed off her arms where they had touched. "Erm, yeah, bye," she nodded.

Lily looked oddly defeated as she looked at Petunia. She had been acting strangely towards her lately. But, as naïve as Lily was, she thought nothing of it. "Love you all! See you at Christmas," Lily shouted, as she looked the destination. It was bizarre, but that was magic. Running forward as the muggles looked the other way Lily was transported to the platform.

As Lily glared at James, he got a good look at the good. She was really pretty, except for the blotches on her face from crying. Her red hair was at just the right length while her eyes sparkled. Lily might not have known it and James might have missed it, but it was love at first sight. Or maybe it was hate. We may never know. Maybe it was a crush, in James' case. We'll leave it at that.

Margaret and Charley Potter looked at their son and laughed, "James, don't walk so fast. We aren't young enough anymore." Guiding James towards the barrier, she noticed him staring at some angry little girl. At the time she didn't think anything of it, but later on she would slap herself mentally. Her James's first crush. As James ran, his parents followed behind.

They helped their son load up his items onto the train and said their good-byes minutes before the express departed.

'Now Jamie," Margaret snuffled.

"Aww, mum. Don't start the waterworks," he pleaded.

Behind him his father laughed, but seeing the sharp look from his wife, he intervened. "James," he said, giving him the sternest look he could at the moment. He wasn't doing very well because he broke out laughing a second later.

"We want you to have fun this year, but," Margaret continued, rolling her eyes at her husband.

"Come on, save the surprise. Don't tell me the but,"

"But," she repeated herself, "we get any, and I mean any, word you misbehaving or screwing around and forget attending the Cup. It's in Germany next summer. That's a great place to have it, and I'm positive we'll get good seats. We can always let you bring along on one your friends, if you're super."

"Sure mum," he said, his eyes shining. "Love you," James smiled, turning around.

"And aren't you going to give your mummy a kiss?" his dad interjected.

"Come on dad, there's people around," his father raised an eyebrow. James walked over to his mother and kissed her on the cheek and hugged his father, his own cheeks glowing.

"That wasn't so bad, kissing your old mummy, now was it?" she asked. Rolling his eyes, James waved and walked towards the train as the whistles began to blow.

Lily could only keep her eyes wide open in shock. Everywhere she looked there were kids of all sizes running about. There were crying parents and loose animals hopping and flying crazed. Students with gleaming badges dauntlessly shook each others hand and friends who had missed a missed away cried in happiness and glee. Right away Lily knew she wanted one of those badges.

Standing in awe for minutes Lily stared at everyone and thing around her. There had to be more than a thousand people gathered together. She was finally jerked back into reality when a boy with gleaming eyes and a devilish smile bumped into her, winking as he gallivanted away without an apology. She didn't care, this was her new world and nothing would stop her at this point.

Running to the entrance, Lily lugged her cart behind her, with difficulty she pushed the trunk onto the train with her, along with Rudy in her cage. She must have gotten on at the beginning of the train, because older students were pouring in and out through reserved compartments for their friends and themselves. It took a bit of a walk to find where the younger students were located. After a few minutes she felt the train lurch as it departed the station. Apparently the only empty rooms were at the far back.

The only room left had a group of giggly girls, looking to be about her age. The five girls peered up at her as she pushed open the door. She'd have to meet people sometime. This was a start, "Erm… is it alright if I join you guys?" Lily asked.

"Sure," the bleach-blonde sitting next to the window piped up. The girl had chocolate brown eyes and had a dazed expression, making her look extremely dumb. Even without her 'dumbness' though, she did look very pretty. "I'm Delaney. Delaney Wittaker," she introduced herself. "But you can call me Laney, if you want. Or Delaney, too. But just don't call me Del. It makes me sound like a piece of meat. Anyway, that's Clara," she introduced another blonde, this one with much darker hair, pointing to where she sat. "And her twin's Carla. It's odd how close their names are, isn't it?" Delaney asked out loud, Carla rolling her eyes and continuing to stare down at the newspaper she was reading. "Their purebloods. Next to me is Emma," she gestured. "And finally, that's Marcalie. They're half bloods. Oh! And I'm a half-blood too! Who're you?" Delaney concluded with a question.

Just from the minute Lily had known Delaney, she could already tell you what her favorite pastime was. It was odd for Lily, to meet someone like that. This was the time of person that was written about in books, but she because of the special schooling had never met. Lily pondered these thoughts as she secured her trunk and finally sat across from Carla, all the time Delaney talked. "I'm Leilabeth, but please, it's Lily. I'm a muggle born," she answered.

"So Lily, we were talking about what houses we were going to be in. What house do you think you'll be in," Marcalie pleaded, over-exaggerating the you. Marcalie looked of African descent. She had dark skin, elbow length black hair, and dark mysterious brown eyes.

"From what I've read about the qualities and traits that define the difference between houses, I presume I'll be sorted into Ravenclaw," she answered, smiling.

"You want to be in Ravenclaw with all the other nerds?" Delaney asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Who says that all the nerds go to Ravenclaw?" Emma inquired defiantly.

"My brother. He's 17 and in Ravenclaw. He's head boy, if that says anything," Delaney responded matter-of-a-factly.

"Just because he's head boy, doesn't mean he knows everything," Emma retorted, rolling her eyes.

"Says who?" Delaney snarled, her temper rising a bit.

"It's your own problem if you can't figure it out," Emma aggressively reacted.

Lily, again, sat watching these two girls' interactions. She only saw people act like this in the movies. And, of course, in the movies someone always acted as a bystander. "Delaney, Emmy's not saying there's anything wrong with your brother. You challenged her and she rebutted in a hostile way." Delaney turned to give the coldest look she could muster at Lily.

"Fine, I'm always the problem! Delaney's the wrong one. It's no use being around people who are against me!" Delaney stormed out of the compartment, slamming the door shut and leaving her belongings.

"Why'd you have to be so mean to her?" Clara glared, following Delaney out of the room.

"She'll be back," Carla stated, folding her newspaper shut.

"Thanks," Emma uttered softly, looking Lily deep into her eyes.

"Well, if it helps at all, I'm glad you made she left. She talked too much," Marcalie laughed.

"You know, there really is nothing wrong with being in Ravenclaw. Delaney's just… well, I don't know. There just isn't. I guarantee you I'll be in Ravenclaw," Carla assured Lily, as if she were reading her thoughts. It seeming didn't though, as Lily reviewed the last conversation she became more dejected. Delaney, although she didn't like her, had given her a strong reason to not want to be in Ravenclaw. She made it sound like all the weird, smart, outcasts were put in that house.

The rest of the train ride was a lot less eventful than it had been. It also went by much slower. Lily didn't have much in common with the three other girls.

James had gotten on the train at exactly the right time. It began to roll forward as the final whistle bellowed. The doors were about to magically shut, when James caught sight of another student trying to jump on. This boy had a crazed expression on his face. James quickly, with all his strength, held the door open with all the pressure he could. The boy ran forward and jumped, barely grabbing onto a piece of the train as it entered the tunnel that would lead it outside. So, as it sputtered forward through the dark area this odd boy hung on for his life.

James already had vision problems and having no light didn't help him as he felt for the other person's had, trying to help him hold on. It didn't occur to him one bit to scream for an older student, or someone better who could help. He was focused on saving the rash boy from having his legs demolished by the turning wheels. Trying to help him, James crouched down on his knees as light ensued.

"Give me your hand," James shouted, as he watched the frightened boy's legs dangle over the tracks.

"WHAT?" he yelled back. His voice was shaky and his arms looked like they were going to give. He also kept glancing down at the tracks.

Quickly looking down the hall to see if there was help, James didn't notice anyone. "Hand," he repeated and stuck his out at far as it could go, still holding open the down with force. It was much harder know that there were strong gusts of wind flying in at him. Looking very uncertain, the boy trusted James to bring him to safety, while using what was left of his strength, James pulled him up. Tugging with all his might, the boy seized hold of the floor and landed inside. His work down, James left go of the door. It slammed shut with a bang loud enough to wake Antarctica.

Catching his breath, the boy lay on the floor until he had collected enough energy to push himself off the ground. "So I guess, I should thank you," he genuinely smiled. "I'm Sirius," he introduced himself, pushing a strand of dark bangs to reveal a pair of stunning gray eyes.

"I guess you should," James nodded, also grinning. "I'm James Potter," he greeted shaking Sirius' hand.

"What the hell was that?" A group of older students questioned, as they filed to where the duo stood. They all had special badges.

Look at Sirius straight through his eyeballs, the head girl sighed, "Please, will you tell me you didn't light off fireworks?" She inspected the area around her. It didn't look damaged.

"I didn't!" he truthfully answered.

"Than what did you do?" she asked.

"I got on the train and the door shut!"

"Just now?" Sirius nodded. "Don't lie to me."

"I'm not!"

"Urg…detention. You'll out what it is when we get back to the castle. Behave yourself, you know how to act. Please don't cause any more trouble, Sirius," the head girl begged, as she motioned the prefects to return to finish their meeting. "And Sirius," she added, "please don't make me look bad. I don't want to end up babysitting you for the rest of the ride." With that she turned around and trooped back to where she had left.

"That's my favorite cousin, Andromeda," Sirius explained. "Anyway, I've got to have set a record. Detention before term even began," He jabbed excitedly.

"Aren't you mad she didn't believe you?" James wondered.

Sirius shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. "Naw… Andie's just trying to do her job."

Sometimes people go through a trial that bring themselves closer together with another person, that cannot even be explained. This had just happened to James and Sirius.


A/n- I am sooooooooo sorry for my absence. I live in the middle of nowhere and my computer gets its signal from my dad's pc. Well, somehow the connection broke and we didn't know how to fix it. All my stuff is saved on the computer I'm on, so I didn't have a way to update. Again, I'm really sorry. Iam not in no way shape or form quitting this story. I love you all!