Platform nine and three-quarters was easy enough to find, just watch the weirdly dressed people walk through a wall. Crossing it was another story, Severus didn't see the magical family walk through the barrier and didn't believe her. It was only a few days since she pranked him so she could understand the distrust. Seeing the argument was going nowhere Lily pushed her trolley through the wall ignoring Severus' screams of terror.
Bracing herself she almost trips when the wall fades around her to reveal a fog-covered platform. Throwing a cheeky grin over her shoulder she takes in her surroundings.
A large red train was pumping smoke over everyone, clusters of people stood in robes. Animals of all sizes chirped, squeaked, and squawked. Bits of conversations floated through.
"Come along dear we mustn't be late." An elderly woman said to a boy with messy black hair and glasses, he groaned and pulled at his tie.
"Don't fail to get into the right house." another woman said, but whereas the first one was kind looking and soft this one was creaky and mean. She roughly grabbed a small boy's arm while glaring at her other son.
"Listen to the teachers, be good, stay safe." A man said while putting his son's trunk on the train. The boy scratched one of his scars before smiling at his father.
"Lily, you're staring again. Come on, we've got to get on the train." Severus said from behind her.
Lily turned from the other families and grabbed her trolley. The two friends moved to the back of the train and hefted their large trunks into the locomotive. Sitting in the empty compartment Lily strokes her raven, the bird trills happily. Seeing Lily play with her pet Severus gently picks up his newt and watches as it walks around his lap. Moments later two boys from the platform walked in, they were laughing and pushing each other about. Sparing a glance at the other two occupants, they moved to the back, still as loud. A sharp whistle sounded off and the Hogwarts Express started to move.
The train ride was going well with comfortable silence, the only sound coming from the other boys, Lily sent one or two glares their way. Putting his double-ended newt back in its tank Severus started talking.
"This is it! We're off to Hogwarts!" He smiled broadly, "I've been wanting to start since mum told me about magic."
"I know the feeling, though I can't say I'm too excited about the sorting. All the secrecy spooks me." Lily shook her head good-naturedly thinking of different ways to be sorted.
Snape leaned into his chair, "You won't have to worry about that, you'll make it into Slytherin for sure."
"Slytherin?" The black-haired boy said, "who'd want to be in Slytherin? I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" He asked his companion, who grimaced.
"My whole family has been in Slytherin."
"Blimey," glasses said, "and I thought you seemed all right!" The other boy was about to speak up but Lily had enough.
"There's nothing wrong with being in Slytherin!" She said standing up, her raven squawked at the sudden movement. Glasses scrunched his nose.
"Nothing wrong, Slytherin is a cesspool for bad guys. Nobody good comes out of that house."
"Merlin did," interjected Severus, "and he was the greatest wizard of all times."
The two boys' mouths hung open, but glasses got over his shock too soon. He crossed his arms in a huff and dragged the other boy out.
Lily sat back down and stroked her bird, "sorry Poe, I didn't mean to frighten you. But those boys," she grits her teeth, "if they try something you bet I'll give them an ass-whooping."
"Lily!" Severus laughed, "I didn't know you had such house pride, and you're not even sorted."
She smiled sheepishly and shrugged.
The rest of the train ride passed with no complications. The two entertained themselves by naming Severus's newt (they picked Gemini), creating voodoo dolls (the stabbing type not the animating ones) for the two boys, and eating sweets from the cart. When they neared the school they pulled on the robes and stuck the ugly hats into their pockets.
A crisp voice echoed through the train, "we will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."
Lily and Severus jumped up and picked up their compartment, internally stressing what was to come.
"Do pets count as luggage?" Severus said while locking Gemini's tank shut.
"Haven't a clue, to play it safe just bring them along, and if we're wrong just say the instructions were unclear."
Severus nodded and the two walked off the train once it stopped. Following the cluster of nervous-looking robe-wearing children, they are led by a giant of a man, Hagrid was his name, to a black lake.
And across the lake was Hogwarts.
Lily felt her breath taken away. The castle was magnificent, it glowed by the light of its windows, tall towers stood in pride, the castle itself was a being of magic filling Lily with mischievous delight. She stood transfixed looking at the building that will achieve all her dreams.
"No more'n four to a boat," Hagrid's voice snapped Lily out of her reprieve and she followed Severus to the small boats. Two other children were sitting already, a girl with a round face and a boy with large ears. Lily smiled at the two and pushed Severus down, he was trying to find an empty boat.
"You have to be sociable at some point," Lily whispered to Severus before smiling at the other two, "Hello I'm Lily, who are you?"
"Alice Fortescue and that's Frank Longbottom," Alice said pointing to the boy.
"Nice to meet you," Frank said. Lily shook his hand and with a nudge so did Severus.
"Severus Snape."
"Why'd you both bring your pets?" Alice asked.
"The speakers said to leave your luggage but didn't mention anything about animals, we were worried something might happen if we left them behind." At Lily's words, Alice began fretting.
"Oh you're right, I just assumed that the pets would be taken, mother has said I need to stop assuming, but I never think things through. And now my poor owl could be trapped on the train, stuck in her cage," She wailed and almost tipped the ship.
"Oi! Stop moving so much you'll knock us over, and besides I doubt the train will set off before checking the cars." Severus snapped.
"Duck!" called Hagrid and the group of children passed under a vine-covered tunnel which led to a harbor. Alice stopped fretting once Hagrid helped the kid out of their boats. He then knocked on a wooden door three times.
The door swung open to reveal Professor Mcgonagall, Lily waved at her madly (causing Poe to squawk again) and she swore she saw McGonagall smiled. Following Mcgonagall they are led to a small chamber.
"Welcome to Hogwarts, the start of term banquet will begin shortly but before you take your seats in the great hall, you will be sorted into your houses."
She then went on about the importance of the houses but Lily zoned her out thinking of all the foods she was about to eat. McGonagall left the students to mull over her words, though being left only made the students more nervous. And then McGonagall came back to whisk the first years into the great hall.
The same mischievous magic washed over Lily as she looked over the throng of students. The faces that she could see looked bored, hungry, and interested at the same time. The teachers, who sat at a fancy table horizontally from everyone else, shared the same look. Moving through the children, Mcgonagall places a frayed hat on top of a stool.
"That's it?"
Lily raised an eyebrow ignoring Severus's question, the hat was moving. A seam tore open in the shape of a mouth and the hat started singing. It wasn't half bad, it sang of its purpose, how it sorted the children and the traits of each house. Once it finished the hall exploded in applause and Mcgonagall read from a list of names.
"Black, Sirius." The mean boy's friend walked to the hat. The Sorting Hat wiggled a bit in thought before shouting.
"Gryffindor!"
Whoops and cheers sounded from a red and gold decorated table before quieting down. More students were called up and went to sit at the four tables, Severus and Lily started playing a game of "can you shout the house before the hat." It was very entertaining.
"Fortescue, Alice." Lily watched her possible new friend, after all, they did have a civil conversation on the boat, sit under the hat before being sorted into Gryffindor.
"Bugger and she seemed so nice," Severus said. Lily pushed him as a dark-skinned boy was called up.
"Don't let your house pride get to you Sev, what happens if we get sorted into different houses?"
"I'll cut off all ties from you and burn any happy memories," he said straight-faced, Lily blinked, "I'm joking, relax even if we are in different houses it won't be that big of a deal. Although I will make it my mission to beat you for the house cup." Lily laughed.
"Jones, Lily!"
Lily's laugh quickly died out as sudden nervousness flooded in. She handed Severus her raven and walked to the stool as she looked at the faces of her potential housemates. Severus had told her the importance of the houses; get in the right one and you could have connections for life, but in the wrong one… well homeschooling was always an option. The hat slid over her face and started talking.
"Hmmm, interesting. A tricky one for sure, a strong sense of loyalty to friends, you've definitely had moments of nobility," Lily handing the cursed bracelet to Severus flashed behind her eyes, "but the methods don't have the best morals."
"I don't think you have much place to judge me, seeing as you're only a hat."
The hat shook her head with laughter.
"You're feisty too, oh yes I know where you belong. It's SLYTHERIN."
The hat shouted the last words out loud and Lily walked over to the green and silver table, ignoring the jeers from a certain black-haired boy. She sat down at the table ignoring the curious looks for now and focused on the rest of the sorting. Frank went to Griffindor, along with the scared boy ("Lupin, Remus."), and James Potter, Lily's newly found enemy. But who she was watching was Severus. When the hat went over his eyes she held her breath, then released it once the hat shouted.
"Slytherin!"
She happily scooched over for her friend to sit down. Hoping for some food to turn up she almost didn't catch the headmaster standing up. He was an old man, with a long white beard and half-moon spectacles. His speech was utter nonsense and didn't make sense. Lily mock-whispered to the boy on her left, he had long blond hair and wore a badge with a P on it.
"Is he insane?" The boy looked at her in surprise then sneered up at Dumbledore.
"Unfortunately so. Sadly it seems that the rest of the wizarding world is as well, seeing how they adore him so much."
Lily nodded at that and made to start eating. Severus was over-excited about his food and kept piling his plate full, then going to Lily's plate and filling hers. After eating in silence she starts another conversation with the blond boy.
"I'm Lily Jones, by the way, well guess you already know that since I just had my name yelled in front of everyone."
"Hmm, yes Jones. I don't believe I've heard that name before." The boy said not so subtle. Lily debated what to say next, it was obvious that he was trying to find out her blood status. Well, twisting of words ought to get him off her back.
"Yes it's my mother's maiden name, I've just recently moved back to England after her passing… but you never shared your name?"
The boy seemed satisfied, and Lily would let him believe she was a half-blood for now. She had various scenarios for revealing her true blood status but none of them sparkled.
"Lucius Malfoy," the blond said before turning and talking to an older student. With a sigh, Lily smirks at Severus's shocked face.
"What? Just because I have house pride doesn't mean I'm ignorant of prejudices." She whispered.
After dinner and an unhealthy amount of dessert, the students of Hogwarts were escorted to their dorms by their respective prefects. The students trickled through the hallways, voices bouncing across the walls. The Gryffindors and Ravenclaws separated from the Hufflepuffs and Slytherins going up the stairs, the noise noticeably went down once the Gryffindors left. Taking a staircase the first years collectively shivered as cold dungeon air blew on them. Lily noticed the Hufflepuffs waving good-bye and heading to a corridor covered in paintings of fruit.
Finally, the Slytherins stopped walking. Lily shared a look with Severus who shrugged, why had they stopped in an empty corridor. Lucius turned with a sharp eye while addressing the confusing first years, the older students behind them sighed at his theatrics.
"This is the entrance to the Slytherin common room, the password is silvered tongue," at his words the brick wall reveals a tunnel; reminding Lily of Diagon Alley, "the password changes weekly and you are not to write it down, tell anyone, or allow someone else into this room. The common room is for Slytherins only. Is that clear?" His tone hinted at a painful death if one should break his rules. Smirking at the frightened nods he struts down the tunnel, the female prefect whispered good-naturedly to the others behind his back.
"Don't listen to him, he's a drama queen. It's rare for a Slytherin to make friends outside of their house, so the ones we do have are invited into our common room. Just make sure the person is someone you completely trust." With a wink, she stepped away and Lily got her first glimpse at the Slytherin common room.
The walls were made of a rough grey stone that glowed eerily in green light. Tapestries lined the walls and in between were large windows that arched into the roof. Looking out of them was the lake, small fishes and other creatures swam past. An ornate fireplace kept the cold at bay but the room still had a chill to it, not an unwelcome one as it balanced the heat well. The upper students walked past the cluster of first years and moved to sit on the leather couches or up the stairs, which lead to the rooms.
Lucius took the boys up the left stairs and the female prefect led the girls up the right. With a brief instruction on how to find their rooms ("just look for your name plaque.") She left the first years alone.
Looking around the green and silver-themed room, Lily walks past the three other four-post beds to the one with her trunk and an empty birdcage. Putting a tired Poe into his cage Lily flumped onto her bed thinking once more of her blood status.
It wasn't that she was ashamed of her muggle background but she does not want to worry over the bullying that is bound to happen if any supremacist found out. Rolling over Lily pulls out her voodoo dolls, smiling as they busy themselves with unpacking her trunk before pushing herself up abruptly. That's it, she can use her skills to build a base of respect. That way once her muggle-born status is out most would already know of her powers and won't bother her, of course, the occasional idiot would try to get the jump on her but her shadow will watch her back. Smirking to herself Lily began scheming for future revenge.
AN:
Unnavox: So first off I would like to thank the guest who left me a super nice review. I was getting bored with the story and was considering ending it prematurely but seeing your review I've decided to stick with my original plan. Secondly, this chapter was a pain in the butt, it's taken me at least 3 weeks to write it. Normally I knock out three to five chapters in a single week but for some reason, this just didn't want to be written. And thirdly! Lily's roommates, I don't want to add in too many OCs but I can't find any first-year Slytherin students beyond Severus and Lily. So… I will make three Slytherin girls but not have them super important.
DuoAnimi: Just a small shoutout to those who have shown us so much support we really appreciate it and hope to give you our best every chapter! :D