Different is always Good

During the course of the meal Lily had begun talking with Fay Nott and Clarissa Goyle. Both were girls with a long line of Slytherin family. Fay had two older brothers, Luke in 3rd year and Joshua in 6th year. Clarissa on the other hand had only one older brother Aaron. No one asked about Lily's family, everyone had sensed the tension enough when Lily had been placed in Slytherin so there was no point dragging it up.

Fay was very quiet compared to Clarissa but it was clear the girls had known each other before they were sorted. They worked well against each other as they overlapped in tastes yet their personalities were polar opposite. Clarissa was loud and extremely opinionated whereas Fay observed people quietly and seemed to understand the unspoken things well.

Both girls accepted Lily into their conversation after Fay initiated things. It was small talk for a while but soon once Clarissa had fully accepted Lily Fay asked the question Lily knew would arrive at some point.

'So what's it feel like to stun the entire school into silence?'

Lily thought about it for a moment and then laughed quietly,

'A little odd I have to admit but, you know I hope everything will work out.'

'When are you going to go and speak with your cousins and sort everything out?' Clarissa asked.

'As far as I'm concerned there should be nothing to sort out, I haven't done anything wrong so if they want to live up to everything our parents taught us then they'd better move on before tomorrow morning.' Lily stated calmly

'Are you kidding, I doubt they'll get over the shock of their life by 7 am tomorrow morning!' Clarissa exclaimed.

'If the promises they made before we got sorted were true then me being in a different house won't matter.

There was silence for a moment before Fay said quietly, 'Lily, those words were said when there didn't seem like a chance in hell that you wouldn't end up in Gryffindor. They were probably thinking Ravenclaw at the worst. But you're in Slytherin and in your cousins eyes, that is so much worse'

Lily didn't answer for a moment instead looking over at her cousins at the other side of the hall, 'I only hope your wrong on this one'

Fay sighed looking at Lily's wistful gaze at her cousins and said softly 'I hope I'm wrong too'

Lily walked into the dorm rooms to find the five poster beds as her parents had described to her except each had green hangings instead of the royal red she had always been told of. This small reminder made Lily feel slightly ill. It was a reminder of how things weren't going to be the same as she had imagined. Her trunk was already in her room and despite everthing that had happened to her, Lily didn't feel too bad. Her bed was between Fay and Clarissa's and she was comforted by the fact that at least some people around her accepted her. Unfortunately not everyone in the dorm was as welcoming as Fay and Clarissa. Megan and Halley shot Lily cold looks across the dorm room and refused to speak to her. Fay looked at them in a disapproving manner but said nothing.

Lily opened her trunk and pulled out a baggy tee-shirt and slipped it on before pulling the drapes to her bed closed. Inside the drapes, she allowed herself to feel bad for a few moments. This wasn't how Lily had imagined her first night at Hogwarts, she had wanted to play games by the common room fire with her cousins and then stay up late talking to Roxy. Instead she had found herself ignoring people's stares with only Fay and Clarissa to speak to.

She wondered what her parents would say. A few years ago her Dad had told Albus that even great people could come out of Slytherin and they would support him no matter what. Lily now found herself questioning these words, would they turn out to be empty promises like her cousins words might be? How would her aunts and uncles react to her sharing a common room with the descendants of their old school rivals? Would things ever be the same again?

Lily decided to close her eyes and see how things went in the morning. Who knew, maybe everything would work out fine. Her cousins would see nothing had changed and the rest of her house would see that Lily only wanted to fit in and do her best. She'd have to show them that just because her family was all in Gryffindor didn't mean that she wasn't meant to be here. The sorting hat put Lily in Slytherin for a reason; she just had to prove to everyone else and even herself, that the hat was right.

Lily woke early the next morning and took her things to the bathroom the girl in the dorm shared and started getting ready for the day. She tied her hair back into a side ponytail and was just heading out of the bathroom when Clarissa had gotten out of bed.

'Wait for me, I'll take less than five minutes and then we can go down to breakfast together, Fay likes to sleep in as late as possible so she won't be up for a while.'

'Okay.' Lily agreed. She liked the idea of not having to sit alone at breakfast, she had thought that perhaps if she went early no one would know she went and sat alone. However being able to go with Clarissa made Lily smile. Lily had never had a friend outside of her family. None of her cousins had been to a muggle primary school because they all showed signs of magic early on so it wasn't safe for them to be around ordinary children. The few exceptions to this were the Scamander twins, Lily's Godmother Luna's sons and Teddy. However in Lily's eyes Teddy was a real brother. He had practically lived with them before he went to Hogwarts. The way Lily saw things was that she had three brothers who all loved and cared for her. Now all she had to see was how much two of those really loved her.

Lily was pulled out of her thoughts by Clarissa grabbing her arm and pulling her out of the dorm room.

'Sleep alright?'

'I've slept better, that's for sure.' Lily answered

Clarissa only laughed in reply. As they were walking through the common room a voice called out to Clarissa

'Rissa, wait up' a teenage boy said as he jogged to catch up. 'How's things?'

'There alright, Aaron, this is Lily Potter, Lily, Aaron my annoying brother' Clarissa said.

'Rissa, I've not been living under a rock. I know who this is. I know you don't think I pay attention at all in life, but there are some things that you really can't miss.' Aaron joked back as they began to walk towards the Great Hall. Lily look slightly startled that Aaron knew who Lily was. At her confusion Aaron replied.

'Lily, I know in the grand scheme of things you probably think you're pretty insignificant. But at the moment, you're Hogwarts gossip. You are the first member of the Potter Weasley crew not to land up in Gryffindor. I mean they practically had your trunk unpacked in the dorm room before the sorting. Then you go and end up in Slytherin and now everyone is curious. They want to know what makes different enough to end up in a house like Slytherin.'

'I'm really not that special or interesting' Lily mumbled with a pink tint rising to her cheeks at the thought of people discussing her.

'Oh but that's where you are wrong Lily' Aaron told her simply.

'How so?'

'If you were smarter than the others than you probably would have ended up in Ravenclaw and people would have accepted it was because you were bright. If you ended up in Hufflepuff people would have assumed a life in the spotlight made you want to blend into the background a little more and people would have accepted it. You, precious, ended up in Slytherin. Slytherin, the house known for doing whatever it takes to get wherever its members want to get to. The house, which I might add produced your father's enemies! By ending up in Slytherin you are showing everyone you are different. Now we just have to show everyone that you are here for a reason.'

'I guess that makes sense' Lily admitted.

'Jeesh way to dump a lot on someone before 7am Aaron!'

'I have my ways' he teased back.

'Okay, I have one question Aaron, why are you talking to me, I mean everyone else except Fay and your sister blanked me last night, why not you as well?'

'Everyone blanked you last night because they don't trust you. I don't blame them, I mean you Dad put relations of most people in this house on trial, and now we have to accept you as one of our own. It's a difficult thing for them to do, and it will take time. The reason I accept you is because you haven't done anything to me yet that makes me nee to dislike you. However, the moment you rat out any quidditch plans to any relations of yours I will turn my back on you' He said the last part as a joke making Lily and Clarissa laugh.

'Aaron you take quidditch way to seriously.' Clarissa told him

'Rissa, shut up. You don't play the sport which means you don't understand how important it is.' Aaron fired back. 'Do you play Lily?'

'Yeah I do actually but first years aren't really meant to be on the team, so I'll probably try out next year.

'You any good? 'Aaron enquired.

'My mum played for the Harpies. My brothers are all quidditch mad, my dad is an insane seeker, I don't think I had a choice not to be good. Quidditch was like a family bonding session in my house. When my brothers were both still at home we'd play every day. My parents built a quidditch pitch at home for Christmas one year. So when I consider how much practice I've had, yeah I'm not bad.'

Aaron burst out laughing at this. 'Well then maybe if I see you fly I can get you on the team then, now that would make an interesting match against Gryffindor, wouldn't it?'

At the mention of her brothers Lily became a little quieter. Clarissa put a hand on her shoulder as they sat down in the hall, 'If things are meant to be, then they are meant to be. You are a Slytherin for a reason, be proud, different is always good.'

Lily smile at Clarissa knowing she was doing her best to make her feel wanted and appreciated, but something inside of her made her think of how much she missed her family.

Aaron wandered off to go and sit with some other 3rd year boys as the girls began to eat. When Lily was finishing up her toast she looked up as a group of chattering students came in, her family. They didn't look at her once. Roxy was the only one who glanced over but looked away before anyone saw.

At this Lily got up and left the hall muttering to herself over and over again 'Be proud, different is always good.'

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