Chapter 4

A bell's toll shook the castle awake the next morning. Lily sat bolt upright, half expecting James to be standing in her door, laughing, holding one of her Uncle George's toys, but James wasn't there, and she wasn't home. She was at Hogwarts. A fresh thrill of excitement flooded over her and she jumped out of bed.

"Umph," came a soft voice from under her feet. She hadn't landed on the cold, stone floor, but instead on a girl who had fallen out of bed at the jolt of the bell's toll.

"Sorry," Lily squeaked, jumping off of the pile of blankets that buried the girl.

"S'okay." The girl uncovered herself and sat up; it was Cal. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and stumbled to her feet with eyes only half open. "I certainly hope they don't do that every morning."

Lily giggled, giddy with the prospect of starting classes. "I'm sure you'll get used to it."

"Doubtful," Cal grumbled. She was clearly not a morning person.

Lily giggled again, and started getting dressed into her new Gryffindor Robes. For the first time, Lily looked around her dorm room. Two other girls were sitting on the edge of their beds, chatting and giggling, already dressed, and the girl on the other side of Lily was pulling on her robes anxiously. Cal was struggling to navigate the billowing fabric of her robes, it was quite pathetic, but comical for someone who had donned the heavy clothes her whole life. In the middle of the circular room was a heater, but despite the fire raging inside, there was a chill to the air that took some getting used to.

Lily's robes were warm as a result of having sat beside the fire all night, and she wrapped them tightly around her, sinking her hands into the pockets. Instead of being enveloped by warm, soft material, her right hand touched a bit of scratchy parchment. Curious, she pulled the parchment out of her pocket and unfolded it. It was a note. She recognized her mother's writing scrawled over it in black ink. Congratulations on making Gryffindor, it read, your father and I are very proud of you. Have fun Lily, these next seven years are going to be everything you ever dreamed them to be. Love, Mum. P.S. Kreacher sends his condolences.

Lily traced the note with her fingers, and laughed at the post script. She had been the house elf's last Slytherin hope—according to him, being sorted into Gryffindor was the equivalent of being bitten by a werewolf. Her mother must have convinced Kreacher to deliver the note to her robes after reporting what had happened during the sorting.

"What's that?" Cal asked, finally settled into her robes though her tie was crooked and her robes were now very wrinkled.

"It's a note from my mum."

"Oh no, did I miss the post?"

"I think that's supposed to happen at breakfast. Mum had our house elf put it in my robes."

"Good, let's go down for breakfast then. I don't want to miss it." Cal ran past Lily, grabbing her hand and dragging her along after her. She got them lost, twice, before they stopped and asked for directions to the Great hall.

"My brothers and I live with my mum out on a farm, and she taught us our maths and stuff at home. When weird stuff started happening around me, my brothers just teased me about it, but just like they teased each other. If someone came over and started making fun, or saying bad stuff about me, my brothers always stepped up for me," Cal was telling Lily as they walked the stairs.

"So they're all muggles then?"

"Yup, I'm the only one who's magic. Well, I never knew my dad, he ran out on us before I was born, but no one's ever said anything about him being a wizard."

"I have a muggle uncle, but we don't see him much. Really, he's a cousin or something, but my dad was raised with him after my grandparents died. He's really quite awful. When we're at his place, we aren't allowed to talk about magic, or touch anything, or fight, or play, or do anything."

"Well, my family isn't like that. We fight all the time, and everyone's really interested in Hogwarts and magic. My brothers went crazy when we went to Diagon Ally. They really liked that joke shop on the corner. You know, the really colorful one."

Lily smiled, "That's my uncle's shop."

"No way! Just wait until I tell them." Lily smiled, she had acquired somewhat of a celebrity status with her friend's family.

The two girls could see the entrance to the Great Hall from the stairs. Hugo was there, and so was Rose. They looked like they were arguing, or at least like Rose was arguing – Hugh just looked at his shoes and waited for Rose to be done scolding him. As they got closer, Lily heard Rose say, "I'm not going to tell them, but you should," and then she huffed and marched off to the Ravenclaw table.

"Hugh," Lily called, waving her arm. He looked up and put on an embarrassed smile.

"Hey, Lily."

She pulled him into a hug that he didn't return. "Why didn't you tell me you were in Hufflepuff?"

Hugo shrugged, "I dunno, I thought you'd laugh at me."

"How could you think that?"

"James did."

Lily rolled her eyes. "James laughs at everything."

"Yeah, sure, just don't tell anyone, okay? Dad will be so disappointed if he finds out."

"Sometimes you can be really thick, Hugo."

"That's just what Rose was telling me."

"But it means more coming from me. Rose thinks everyone but her is stupid. Come on, let's go have breakfast. This is my friend, Cal, by the way. Cal, this is my cousin, Hugo."

Breakfast was just as delightful, if lighter, as the feast the night before. Lily and Cal sat at the Gryffindor table, and Hugo joined his friends at the Hufflepuff table. One of his friends looked rather familiar to Lily. He had messy, blonde hair, pale blue eyes, and a rather handsome face, but she couldn't remember where she had seen him before.

Al plopped himself down at the table next to Lily and sighed at the food in front of him. He had never been one for mornings, often reading until early in the morning and only getting a few hours of sleep. "Morning," he yawned, reluctantly piling food onto his plate.

"Morning," Lily answered. "Hey Al, whose that, talking to Hugh?"

Al looked over to the Hufflepuff table, squinting to counteract his bleary eyes. "That's Scorpius, one of Hugh's friends. I think he's the one who gave him the idea of hiding which house he's in. He wears Slytherin robes and slicks his hair when he's on the train—makes him look like a complete prat if you ask me."

"Well, aren't you grumbly this morning." Lily remembered now. She had seen him on the platform the year Al started at Hogwarts. She had been given the impression that Uncle Ron wasn't all that fond of Scorpius's family.

"Pass the pumpkin juice, will you? I have History of Magic first thing this morning, it's impossible to stay awake in that stuffy old classroom—even Binns falls asleep, and he's the professor! By the way, here's the first-year schedule. Professor Longbottom made it up for you. There's another copy hanging up in the common room if you lose this one." Al swallowed his pumpkin juice in one gulp and shoved a piece of toast in his mouth before getting up to go.

"Aren't you going to stick around for the post? Classes don't start for a while yet," Lily said, checking her schedule.

"I have to make a stop at the library before class. See you in the common room."

"Was that one of your brothers?" Cal asked once Al had gone.

Lily nodded. "Why?"

"He's so handsome." Cal stared after where he had gone with love-struck eyes. Lily couldn't see what Cal saw; Al was, after all, her older brother.

"Yeah, I guess. Good news, it looks like we have Herbology first with Professor Longbottom."

The morning post flocked into the Great Hall, and the screeching owls drowned out anything Lily had said, or was going to say. Cal watched the owls excitedly as they delivered their letters.

AN: I apologise whole-heartedly for misspelling "Kreacher" as "Kreature" in Chapter 2. I am very upset with myself. Also, I have to say sorry for neglecting this for so long. Hopefully I will have more time to write now that school's out. Also, it feels like things are moving a little slowly, and I am sorry about that. I promise that there will be some more interesting chapters coming.