Charms

Chapter Two
Set...

About a week later found Lily standing and telling her parents goodbye next to the barrier between platforms 9 and 10 at King's Cross station. All of her belongings that she was taking to Hogwarts was piled onto a cart, and there were a few other people who looked like they had the same destination. Lily pushed an errant clump of dark red hairout of her green eyes, and hugged her parents one last time. She said her goodbyes and promised to write.

"I'll be home for break, so I'll see you for-"

"Oh! I forgot to tell you!" her dad interrupted. "We're going to visit the relatives over Christmas, but we have to leave before your break starts. I've already cleared with the Headmaster that you are to stay at Hogwarts for winter break. So, we'll see you after you've completed your first year!"

"Hurry, Lily, or you'll miss the train!" Her mother's eyes were slightly watery, but she held herself together.

And with that, she leaned against the barrier, eyes alight without a shread of doubt. She went through, and almost fell down. She heard a derisive sneer from an oily looking boy and turned to glare at him. The boy seemed not to notice, and instead quickly stepped on the train.

Lily stood up, dusted herself off, and picked up her baggage off of the cart. She stepped onto the train as a wave of nervousness hit her. She hoped she could find an empty compartment. She walked for a while, looking.

As it was, there were no more empty compartments. However, there was a compartment with one girl in it, who looked friendly enough. She had long black hair, dark blue eyes, a slightly roundish face, grey and white patterned bellbottoms, and a dark grey tee inscribed with the word 'Jinxed' in acid green. Although her face was blank, her lips seemed to naturally curl up in a smile.

"May I sit here?" Lily asked, nervously fingering her hair. The girl grinned.

"Of course, of course! Sit!" Lily proceeded to stuff her bags into an overhead compartment, and sat down. "What's your name?"

"My name's Lily, Lily Evans." After the girl's warm welcome, Lily felt happier.

"I'm Katie Hoobler. You must be a first year, I haven't seen you around before." At that, Lily nodded. Katie continued. "I'm second year, Ravenclaw."

"Ravenclaw?" Lily asked, hesitantly.

Katie pulled her dark hair into a ponytail absentmindedly. "One of the four houses. Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Slytherin. You're muggle-born, then?"

"Muggle?" Lily felt like she knew nothing of this new world she was entering.

"Non-magical. I'll take that as a yes." Katie grinned. "I'm pureblood, myself. Not that it means much to people worth hanging out with."

Two more girls entered the compartment. "Tater! Ree! This is Lily Evans, and she's a first year, so be nice. Lily, Valerie Tate, Ria Somers."

In contrast to Katie's dark hair, Valerie Tate was a platinum blonde, with equally light skin.Her eyes were an icy light blue, and her gaze was peircing. Valerie wore a white bellbottom jumpsuit with a slight eyelet print and an angel-sleeved pale blue blouse over top. Her hair was pulled back loosely with a baby blue headband. Lily couldn't tell if Val was going for looking like an angel or an icicle, but she wasn't going to ask. If she hadn't had a smile on her face, Val would have looked quite intimidating. Lily didn't think Katie could look serious if she tried. Ria looked tanner than Val and Katie, and her hair was honey brown. She was much more colorful in her clothing decisions than Val, with bright red bellbottoms with a denim top that looked like it had been made from a pair of regular jeans, and was desheveled in an artsy way. Her face was spattered with freckles, and her mischevious hazel eyes danced as she looked at Lily.

"Hey Lily! I see you've already picked the best bunch to hang out with... Not that I'm bragging, or anything." Ria said, straightfaced. She twiddled her thumbs and whistled slightly.

"Oh yes, we're quite modest and we never lie." Katie retorted. Lily could tell she was biting her tongue to keep from laughing. Katie's face was slightly pink and her eyes were slightly squinted with mirth.

"So, what-" Lily was cut off by a loud whistle from the train, telling everyone that it was departing. She made a face and everyone burst out laughing. "Let's try that again. What houses are you two from?" The two tried to speak at the same time, so it ended up sounding something like Ryffinclor. Katie laughed.

"Okay, one more- Katie, stop tickling me!- time. Ria, what house?" Lily tried talking through her laughter. She had been laughing already, but Katie had decided this would be a good time to tickle Lily unrepentantly, which made everyone laugh harder.

"I'm Gryffindor. I'll see you in the common room, Lily!"

"How? Is she going to sneak in? She's going to be in Ravenclaw, with me and Val!" Katie replied jokingly. "Hey, where's Phae? Did she miss the train?"

Val's expression darkened severely. "I got an owl from her just before we left. Her parents are in St. Mungos." Katie flinched noticeably.

"Did she say why?" asked Ria nervously. Lily didn't know what was going on, except that this was not good, and she only knew that by the obvious expressions on the trio's faces.

"Huge memory charm. Phae's mum doesn't even know her own children. 'Er dad doesn't know what to do. The healers say they don't know when she'll be released." Valerie stopped short, fear obvious on her taut face.

"Why'd they go after 'em? What threat are they?" Ria asked angrily, fury obvious on her face.

"No clue, really. Probably Phae's mum learned something she shouldn't. Phae said she had a secret, but I doubt it would be that imprortant. Lucky she wasn't killed right off," replied Val.

"Poor Phaedra. Is she going to come to Hogwarts, then?" asked Katie, wrinkling her nose.

"Yeah, she'll be back before classes start tomorrow, unless something goes wrong." Val replied.

"Then, let's hope nothing goes wrong!" Everyone nodded, giving a quick 'yes.' Lily stayed quiet, not exactly knowing what was going on in this rapid exchange. Katie caught her eye, and mouthed "I'll explain later."

"Oh look! Sugar quills!" exclaimed Ria, trying to cheer everyone up as the snack trolley went by. Lily hurriedly pulled out her bag of wizard money, and bought a sugar quill, a chocolate frog, and a licorice wand. The sugar quill was by far her favorite.

After they were done snacking, Katie reminded everyone to change before the train ride was over. Lily followed the trio out of the compartment to go get their robes on. They all took turns getting their robes out of their trunks and walked together to where the girls were slipping on their school robes.

Katie and Lily were the first two ready, and so they went back to sit in their compartment. Lily rested her head against the window(It was now raining lightly), and Katie casually opened a book (History of Magic, which she had absolutely no interest in).

"So, Lily, did you understand anything we were talking about?" Katie asked kindly, keeping her voice down.

"Um. Not really... Uh, sorry." Lily replied sheepishly.

"Okay, I'll hurry to fill you in before Tate and Ree come back. St. Mungo's is the magical hospital. Phaedra Banks is also a second year Gryffindor, with Ria. Someone got her mum with a memory charm- that wipes part of your memory, by the way -that blanked out more than the caster wanted, I'm expecting, not like the caster probably cares."

"Thank you.That must be horrid!" Lily shuddered, and went back to staring out the window.

Katie was about to respond when Val and Ria walked back into the compartment. "We went to ask the conductor. We're almost there, good thing we got our robes on when we did." Katie nodded, pretending to be engrossed in her schoolbook. Ria didn't notice what Katie was reading, but Val gave her an odd look. Katie raised her eyebrows, daring Val to confront her.

Ria opened her mouth to say something, but the train whistle cut her off as the train pulled to a stop.