Aboard the Hogwarts Express
The summer holidays passed by quickly and the day of the first of September approached. Lily had been woken up very late that morning by her mother and had been in a hurry ever since, fearing that she would miss the train. Not even her trunk was fully packed, but she had decided to take only the essentials. She quickly combed her dark red hair again.
When Lily looked in the mirror, her eyes lit up with joy. This was the day she had been waiting for for years, ever since James had received his letter.
"We're going to be late!" grumbled Albus, standing next to the packed carriage and kicking the grass, cursing.
"I'm already here," Lily reassured him as she rushed out of the house and tried to heave her trunk into the car.
Her father came to her rescue.
"Get in!" her mother ordered and the three children sat down in the back seat.
As usual, Lily, because she was the smallest, got the seat in the middle. She held on to Morgan tightly on her lap.
Finally they drove off and Lily's excitement grew. The journey to King's Cross station didn't take too long, thankfully, and the whole family was jubilant when they arrived at ten to eleven.
"Through the barrier!", Ginny urged her sons and James and Albus disappeared behind the stone wall.
Then she went herself and lastly Harry with Lily.
Platform nine-quarter was crowded as usual. Lily saw her brothers just putting their trunks on the train and set off with her father in their direction.
When they arrived at the train, Harry grabbed Lily's suitcase and placed it next to her brothers'.
"Thanks, Dad," she said and her father gave her one last hug.
"Have fun at Hogwarts!" he wished her, "Don't make enemies!"
After he broke away from her, her mother came and kissed her on both cheeks.
"Don't forget to write to us," she reminded.
"Of course not," Lily replied and boarded the train.
Shortly after, the doors closed, the steam locomotive blew a whistle and finally pulled away.
Lily waved goodbye to her parents until she turned a corner and they were no longer in sight. Then she picked up her suitcase and moved on with Morgan in her arms to find a free compartment.
Her brothers had immediately left to look for their friends and now Lily was on her own.
Most of the compartments were already occupied, with older students sitting in groups everywhere.
As Lily walked along the corridor, she was gawked at by the bystanders. Many even pointed their fingers at her or whispered something. With a strange feeling in her stomach, she wondered what was so interesting about her. She felt uneasy at the thought of everyone staring at her. Was there something wrong with her? But Lily didn't have time to rack her brain about it any further. She still had to find a place.
Suddenly she saw a boy sitting alone in a compartment. He was looking out of the window. The boy was Lily's age and she fervently hoped she could sit with him because she felt uncomfortably watched out here in the corridor.
Suddenly he turned his head towards the door of the compartment and, seeing Lily, a grin spread across his face and on Lily's eventually as well. It was Colin and he was now beckoning her in.
She pushed open the compartment door and pulled her suitcase behind her.
"Hi," she said and Colin greeted her too.
"Can you help me get the trunk up there?" asked Lily after she had closed the door again.
She pointed to the luggage rack, where there was already a suitcase and an owl cage with Colin's owl in it.
Colin nodded.
"No problem."
When they had finished, Lily sat down opposite him. Morgan had curled up next to her on the seat.
"How was your holiday?" he asked.
"Pretty good," she replied, "but actually I couldn't wait to finally go to Hogwarts."
"Me neither," Colin explained.
"I'm most looking forward to the food there," he added, "My brother always says it's amazing."
The two of them chatted about Hogwarts again for a while and it didn't seem boring at all, until suddenly the compartment door was pushed open and another boy with brown hair and a narrow face walked in.
"Is this seat free?" he asked.
"Sure," Colin replied and they helped the boy stow his luggage safely too.
"I'm Eric Bedloe," he explained afterwards, extending his hand to them.
"I'm Colin McKinnon and this is Lily Potter," Colin introduced them both, "Are you new to Hogwarts too?"
Eric nodded.
"I had no idea there was such a thing," he said as he dropped into the seat next to Colin, "until I got my letter a few weeks ago then."
"So your parents are Muggles?" asked Colin with interest as he sat down too.
"Muggles?"
Eric looked at him in irritation.
"People with no magical abilities," Lily replied, now also back in her seat.
Again the compartment door was pushed open and again two boys entered with their suitcases. The first was small and petite and had ash blond hair. The second behind him was a little taller and stocky. He looked dreamy and his brown hair was cut short.
Lily knew them both, Lorcan and Lysander were the sons of her godmother Luna. They too were new to Hogwarts this year.
"Can we join you," Lysander asked.
Lysander had always been the more outgoing of the twins. Although he looked like his mother Luna, Lorcan had inherited her nature.
"Come on in," Lily said invitingly.
The two boys closed the door and again they all heaved their luggage into the rack together. Then they dropped into an empty seat on Lily's side next to Morgan, who was still asleep.
"I'm Lysander Scamander," the ash-blond boy introduced himself, "and this is Lorcan."
He pointed to his twin brother.
Colin introduced himself to the two of them and to Eric.
Although there were now five people, a cat and an owl sitting in the compartment, it wasn't crowded at all. They all had plenty of room and they could have had more people.
Shortly afterwards, two girls named Fannie White and Olivia Abbott arrived. Fannie also was a muggleborn, just like Eric, and had known nothing about Hogwarts until now. She had her long blonde hair tied back in a ponytail. Olivia had reddish-blonde shoulder-length curly hair and freckles on her nose.
"Do you know which houses you're going to yet?" asked Colin of the twins and Olivia, who had sat down with Fannie next to Eric.
"Houses?" asked Fannie and Lily explained, "There are four houses, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. We get sorted into those. Gryffindor is where you go if you're brave, Hufflepuff is where you're studious, Ravenclaw is where you're clever and Slytherin is where you're cunning."
"You-know-who was in Slytherin," Colin said in a sombre voice.
Colin's dislike of the Slytherins pleased Lily more and more.
"Who is You-Know-Who?" asked Fannie with interest.
"No one says his name," Colin explained.
"Why not," asked Eric.
"He was the most powerful black wizard of all time. Many are still afraid of him even though he is dead," Colin answered him.
"His name was Lord Voldemort," Lily interjected.
Colin shuddered.
"Fear of a name only makes you more afraid of the thing itself," she explained, "My dad always tells me to call things by their proper names."
Astonished, Colin looked at her, Olivia also looked awestruck, but the twins seemed completely unimpressed.
"We're supposed to call him Voldemort too," Lysander said, shrugging his shoulders.
Colin couldn't believe this was the second time he'd had to hear the name.
"Why don't you try it too?", Lily urged him and Olivia, but they both shook their heads.
For a fourth time since Lily had sat down in the compartment, someone pushed open the door.
It was a girl with long flame-red hair and blue eyes. She was already wearing her brand new black Hogwarts cloak and smiled at Lily.
Lily recognised her and smiled back. It was her cousin Lucy. She too was a newcomer to Hogwarts.
"Do you have a seat for me?" she asked.
Everyone nodded and Lucy sat down on Lily's side next to the twins.
"I'm Lucy Weasley, by the way, Lily's cousin," she said to everyone else in the compartment.
The rest introduced themselves to her as well.
"So Slytherin is evil?" asked Eric again, and with that the topic of houses was back in full swing.
"It doesn't have the best reputation," Colin replied grimly.
"My mum's a muggle, but my dad was a Gryffindor and my aunt a Hufflepuff as has the rest of my family for generations actually," Olivia told him, "I'd like to get into either house because of that."
"My mum was in Ravenclaw," Lucy told me, "but my dad was in Gryffindor and my sister is there too."
"I don't think I want to go to Slytherin," Eric said.
"It's better that way," Colin confirmed.
"Just because you're sorted into Slytherin doesn't mean you're a bad person though, my dad said," Lily told him, but Colin looked at her doubtfully.
"I still don't want to go there," he declared defiantly, "Everyone in my family went to Gryffindor and I want to keep it that way."
"Our dad was a Hufflepuff, but Mum was in Ravenclaw," Lorcan added dreamily to the conversation.
They continued to chat about Hogwarts and about their families. Colin was very interested in Eric's and Fannie's parents, as he himself had no Muggles in the family at all.
Around lunchtime, an elderly round-faced woman came rolling up with a candy cart. Lily immediately took out the purse her father had given her. She bought loads of sweets. She had always dreamed of shovelling in so many chocolate frogs, cauldron cakes, pumpkin pies and Bertie Botts all flavoured beans that it made her sick and today she had the chance. So she bought ten kettle pies, three pumpkin pies, a pack of Bubble's best bubble gum, around seventy chocolate frogs, ten liquorice wands, three bags of fruit gum toads and five packs of Bertie Botts beans in all flavours. She poured all this onto the seat next to Morgan after asking Lorcan, Lysander and Lucy to slide over a bit. The others were amazed at the sight, but Colin had not held back from buying something either. He had spread everything out on his side.
"Help yourselves!" he offered the others.
Lily had already offered them some of her stuff too. She wouldn't be able to manage it all by herself anyway.
Together they ate their way through Colin and Lily's stuff as the train passed meadows and fields. Fannie didn't trust the sweets and eyed everything very carefully before tasting it, but Eric, who had also bought some for himself, filled his belly as if he hadn't had anything to eat for weeks.
The train moved on and Lily looked out of the window. It was getting darker outside.
"Surely we'll be there soon," Lucy guessed.
"Yes, we'd better get our capes on," Colin suggested and they rummaged in their suitcases for their school robes.
In fact, it was soon time. When everyone had finished, a voice sounded telling the students to leave their luggage on the train, it would be brought up later, and to go outside. Lily left Morgan on the train. Surely they would take her upstairs. But she felt a slight pang of conscience when she thought of her cat, and she was kind of sorry to just leave her behind.
"First years over here!" a huge figure with a lantern in his hand roared as they got off, "All first years to me!"
"Hagrid!" shouted Lily.
"Hello Lily," Hagrid greeted them.
He seemed in high spirits. Lily and the others gathered around Hagrid with many more first years.
Once everyone was there, they followed the half-giant until they came to a lake.
"Take a boat four at a time!" ordered Hagrid.
Lily took one with Colin, Eric and Olivia. Soon they were all in their boats (Hagrid had to take one for himself.) and they were ready to go.
As if by magic, they set off and sailed up the glassy lake towards the castle. Lily was mesmerised at the sight of Hogwarts perched on a rock, and the other first-years also marvelled at the huge building with open mouths.
"Heads down!" roared Hagrid as the first boats reached the rock, which also disappeared behind a curtain of ivy shortly afterwards.
They entered a sort of cave and finally arrived at an underground station where the boats eventually stopped.
"Everyone off!" yelled Hagrid over their heads.
Lily, Colin, Eric and Olivia climbed out of their boat. Again the first years gathered around Hagrid. By the light of his lamp, they booted up a passage between the rocks until they emerged on a soft, damp lawn in the shadow of the castle.
In front of the castle was a long flight of stone steps, which Hagrid led them up.
When they had all reached the top, Hagrid checked to see if anyone was missing.
"Is everyone still here?" he called out to the crowd.
Some of the students nodded. Then Hagrid raised his massive fist and rapped three times against the huge oak portal.
