DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter.
Chapter 1: First Year
11-year-old Lily Evans sighed as she pulled on her new robes. Her first day of classes at a magic school… she still couldn't believe it, magic was really real. All those weird things that used to happen around her, all magic. The only downside was that all of the other girls in her dormitory came from magic families, same with all the boys in her dormitory. She was the only 'Muggle-born', as they called it here.
She could still remember the Sorting Ceremony so clearly, feeling very looked-at as she sat on the stool with the hat on her head. A voice inside was muttering, "Much bravery, very brave little girl, I see. Intelligence and talent, oh yes… gentle spirit and yet a thirst for independence, for a feeling of… oh-ho, little Lily Evans wants power, does she? Well, you are a tough nut to crack but we will find a place for you. I think it had better be… GRYFFINDOR!"
It still irked her. She didn't want power, what did that stupid old Hat think she was, some kind of warmonger?
"Lily, are you coming?" Persia March asked impatiently, waiting at the door with Danielle Zacharias and Sarah Sinclare and Janet Bones.
"Yeah, in a minute," Lily replied quietly; all these other girls knew each other for years, they were clearly reluctant to let her into their little group. "You go ahead."
It took a few minutes to calm herself enough to enter the common room, where she saw one of the other first-year boys, the sandy-haired one – Ryan, was he? – sitting in one of the armchairs, looking about as nervous as she felt.
"Oh, hi," he said, looking up when she sat down in another chair. "Lily, isn't it?"
Lily nodded and smiled briefly. "Lily Evans. I'm afraid your name has slipped my mind. I know it starts with an R."
He smiled at her, a soft and gentle smile. It wasn't the type of smile she normally associated with a boy, they always seemed to have cocky smiles, like they were confident in every situation. This one seemed to admit that he had weaknesses and that he didn't always have confidence. "Remus," he replied quietly. "Remus Lupin."
"Are you as nervous as I am, Remus?" Lily asked softly, curling up in the chair. "It seems like everybody else already knows all these things that I don't. I'm sure I'm going to be horrible at everything, everyone else is from magic families and I'm not."
"You can't be the only Muggle-born in the year," Remus told her reassuringly. "They're just all in another house. I'm only halfblood, my mum was Muggle-born. Most of us are halfblood or less these days any way. Just your luck that most of the Gryffindors in our year are purebloods. James, Sirius, Peter, Persia, Sarah, Janet…"
"So why aren't you at breakfast?" Lily asked curiously.
"Too nervous to eat, I feel like I'm going to be sick," Remus admitted. "I didn't think I'd be coming to school, you know. I thought for sure I wasn't going to be accepted – not good enough, you see."
"Me, too," Lily agreed. "Well, about being too nervous to eat and feeling like I'm going to be sick. I was supposed to be starting secondary school today, it's nothing like these proper private boarding schools. They said I was a bright student, but I don't know if that'll translate to this kind of school. We learned much different things at Muggle schools than I imagine we will here."
A tapping at the window interrupted their conversation. Remus looked over and his face brightened momentarily as he spotted an owl hovering outside with an envelope in its beak. Dashing over, he opened the window and took the envelope. "Thanks, Rierke." He smiled again as he looked at the envelope. Sitting back down in his chair, he ripped open the envelope and read the letter folded inside.
"Do you mind my asking who it's from?" Lily asked enviously. She wasn't getting post from her mother and Raymond, they certainly didn't own an owl.
"My mum," Remus replied, eyes sparkling. "Just writing to wish me luck on the first day of classes. You know, I think I'm hungry now. You want to come to the Great Hall with me? I think I remember how to get there…"
Charms was their very first class, with the Ravenclaw first-years. Professor Flitwick, a tiny little man, immediately started into the roll.
"Sirius Black," he called, looking around.
One of the dark-haired Gryffindor boys in the back of the class called, "Back here, Professor."
"Ah, yes, there you are, Black. Janet Bones. Andrew Burgh," he called, and one of the Ravenclaw boys raised his hand. "Emanuel Carlotti. Emily Clarence. Lily Evans."
"Here, Professor," Lily said softly, raising her hand.
"Ah, so that's your name, is it?" the other dark-haired Gryffindor boy asked teasingly from behind her as he twitched one of her plaits. "I'd have thought Carrots, you know, your hair's certainly red enough."
"I'll thank you to shut up," Lily said stiffly, not looking at him as Flitwick called "Sara James" and "Olivia Langley".
"Aw, I don't think she liked your little joke, there, James," Sirius snickered when Remus raised his hand at Flitwick's calling his name.
"Persia March. Peter Pettigrew. James Potter. Sarah Sinclare. William Thomas. Henry Thomas." He closed the roll book. "Very well, let us begin."
By lunch, Lily had forgotten all about being nervous. She listened to the other Gryffindor girls discussing their afternoon class – Potions with Professor Slughorn and the Slytherins.
"He's Head of Slytherin, you know," Persia said. "My brother told me. Says he plays loads of favourites. Picks them in first year."
"My sister was in the Slug Club," Janet spoke up. "Said it was all right, but he likes some more than others. Says his most favourite right now is Katharine Gordon, the Head Girl. She gets to go to all the parties, even the ones that not everybody gets invited to. Inner circle, that's what they call it. Only a select few ever get in."
Their Potions class was in the dungeons. As Lily set up her cauldron with some help from Persia and Danielle, who had taken pity on her state of confusion, a rotund old man walked in. "Welcome to Potions, first-years!" he cried jovially. "I am Professor Slughorn, and I will be your guide through this wondrous world! Will you open your books to page 28, please? We'll be working on a boil cure today, don't hesitate to call me if you need help!" He paused while the students started working. "Let us get to know each other! Where is…" he consulted his roll. "Sirius Black?"
Sirius raised his hand from the table across from Lily, Persia and Danielle. "Right here, Professor." He turned back to his textbook and started adding ingredients.
"Ah, yes, would you be related in any way to Bellatrix, Andromeda and Narcissa Black?" Slughorn asked excitedly. "Wonderful girls, just brilliant… I had Bellatrix in Slytherin a few years ago, Narcissa is one of my prefects, in fact. Bright girl, that Andromeda, even if she was a Hufflepuff, couldn't believe it, I always get the Blacks in my house…"
"Those are my cousins, sir," Sirius replied, and Lily detected a hint of displeasure in his voice.
"So then you must be related to Phineas Nigellus, one of this fine establishment's former headmasters?" Slughorn continued, his voice rising a few octaves at that.
"Yeah, my great-great-grandfather," Sirius replied indifferently, grinning when James elbowed him.
Lily continued to concentrate on her potion, delighted that this wasn't hard at all: she loved chemistry in school, and this was just like chemistry with different ingredients.
"How are you doing that?" Persia demanded in astonishment as she watched Lily's potion turn the smooth sky-blue described in the book. "I've done all the stupid book says and look at it! It's like tar!"
Lily looked at it. "Well, did you use the counter-clockwise stirring?" she asked.
"Yeah," Persia replied.
"With the clockwise half-stir every five rounds?"
"Ye… no," Persia said, looking crestfallen. "Blast it, and my dad is a potioneer too, he's going to be expecting outstanding results in this class."
"Excellent work, excellent work, just fabulous!" Slughorn exclaimed and with a start, Lily realized he was speaking to her. "What's your name, there?"
"Lily," she replied quietly, adding the last ingredient. "Lily Evans."
"Evans, Evans, Evans… you're not related to the Marguerite Evans of International Bureau of Magical Development, are you?"
"No, sir," Lily replied. "I don't come from a magic family."
"Really? Astounding, I'd think with talent like that there'd be some wizarding blood in you."
"Blood isn't everything, you know," Remus spoke up suddenly. "Some of the best witches and wizards of our time are Muggle-born."
"Lupin, isn't it?" Slughorn asked. "Yes, I remember your mother. Anna Carson, wasn't it? Excellent student, though she didn't quite have the judgment and maturity that you'd see in most sixth-years… terrible scandal, that was. And I remember your father as well. Terrible way to go, just terrible…"
Remus' face flushed bright red and he frowned down at his cauldron, angrily throwing in his next ingredient. He growled in frustration when his potion started fizzing and foaming. "What did I do?" he demanded James, who was standing next to him. Frowning, James peered into his cauldron.
"You're not supposed to just throw it in, you're supposed to mix it in," he replied, stirring his own potion, which was the same smooth sky-blue as Lily's, Sirius' and one Slytherin boy's across the room. They were the only ones who had managed to do it, though.
"And you must be…" Slughorn looked down his roll book. "Ah, yes, James Potter. I do remember your father William, he was one of my first students. Haven't had the pleasure of meeting your mother, I believe she's Irish, isn't she?" He didn't wait for James' muttered reply but continued on through the roll, recounting anecdotes and asking for relational ties as he went.
"Man, Potter's parents must be really old," Danielle muttered to Persia and Lily, "Slughorn's been here forever. My grandparents were starting second year when he took the position. Started the same time as Dumbledore, when he taught Transfiguration."
By the end of the class, Slughorn had raved over Lily's potion some more, giving Gryffindor twenty points for a perfect concoction. That made even the older Gryffindors burst into cheers at the sight of points board – imagine, a first-year getting that many points in a single class, and on the first day! Add that the total of twenty points she had gotten in her other classes, and Lily felt like she was having a pretty good first day.
"He likes you, Lily," Persia said at dinner. "He didn't even give Severus Snape twenty points and he's in his own house. Gave him, what, five? Shame he didn't give Potter and Black points, they had potions that worked too. We could've been far in the lead on the very first day."
Lily bit back her smile – all three of the aforementioned boys were glowering at her.
Remus laughed and leaned over. "'I'm going to be rubbish at everything,' she said. Would you like to change your statement?" Lily laughed back and gave him a smile.
"Thanks, Remus," she said.
Lily approached Slughorn's class cautiously. He had called her to join 'the Slug Club' for a start-of-term party, but it seemed rather quiet…
"Professor?" she called softly, opening the door. The room was completely empty. "Professor?"
"Ah, Lily, yes, come in," Slughorn called, appearing from the doorway to his living quarters. Lily came inside and closed the door again. She was starting to feel a little uneasy about this… "Come in, come in, Lily, I won't bite," he laughed.
"I thought there was supposed to be…" she started to say uncertainly, stepping into his living quarters.
"Oh, yes, the rest of the Slug Club will be arriving shortly," Slughorn replied. "I just wanted to talk with you before they all got here. Close the door, please, I don't want them overhearing."
Lily started to cry and struggle when he took her arm and forced her down onto the bed. "No, please, no…" she begged, memories of a terrified four-year-old haunting her. "Don't…"
Slughorn pointed his wand at her. "Complianus," he muttered, and Lily felt her muscles relax, no matter how much she was telling them not to stop struggling. Her voice cut out. She couldn't fight…
And nobody could hear her scream.