Disclaimer: All I have to say is if I wrote it, Fred wouldn't be dead.

A/N: According to my friend Ferretess, today is Moony's birthday. Nobody answered my question about Quidditch, so I will ask again. Does anyone know when Quidditch try-outs are? Please, please, please, please, please answer me! Anyway, enjoy!

Chapter 12: New Discoveries

Friday September 1st 1972

"'Kay, now it's your guys' turn to guard the luggage." Marlene said when Lily and Dorcas came back to the compartment.

"You know, you didn't have to 'guard' the luggage," Lily said uncertainly.

"We know, we just wanted to be good for something." Marlene burst into fake tears as she said this.

"Lily, now look at what you've done," Mary said in mock disapproval. Yeah, 'cause Lily's so mean and evil and awful, I said to myself. She started patting Marlene on the back.

"You guys are crazy," Dorcas said quietly as she plopped herself down onto an empty seat.

"Thank you, thank you," exclaimed Marlene as she gave us a bow. "Anyway, off to go get changed." She grabbed Mary's hand, and the girls ran off.

"I was starting to feel really bad," Lily said as Dorcas rolled her eyes.

"That's because you're such a good person." Dorcas said meaningfully. Lily just blushed and looked away.

"You're a good person too, Dork," Dorcas just rolled her eyes. "No, I really mean it."

The memory swirled to when the girls were getting off of the train.

"Firs' Years over here! Firs' Years over here!" Hagrid yelled. Lily and Mary started turning towards him before Marlene and Dorcas pulled them back.

"We ride in the horseless carriages this year." Marlene said. They got in the stagecoach and sat in silence before Mary leaned over to Lily

"I don't get it, what makes them move?" Mary asked Lily. She just shrugged her shoulders but Dorcas answered the question.

"They're Thestrals,"

"They're what?" Mary asked.

"Thestrals. You can only see them if you've seen someone die." Lily answered quietly. Mary was going to ask another question before she realised what that meant.

"You mean…" she whispered. Lily slowly nodded her head. Dorcas has seen someone die? I wonder who it was…, I thought to myself. The girls spent the rest of the carriage ride in an uncomfortable silence. When they finally arrived at the castle, Professor Slughorn was there to greet the more senior students.

"Lovely Lily!" Slughorn yelled excitedly. "How was your summer, my dear?" Barf, barf, barf.

"It was really good. We went to Los Angeles in California and to Disneyland. We had a blast." She said.

"Well, you better over into the Great Hall." He said.

"Bye Professor!" The four Second Years exclaimed at once.

When the girls got to the Great Hall and took their seats, Marlene asked, "Lily, why didn't you tell us you went to California?"

"Because I didn't," she said simply. Marlene, Dorcas and Mary exchanged confused looks and looked at Lily for a more in deep explanation. "I told him before the Year ended that that was where I was going."

"Why?" Dorcas and Mary asked simultaneously.

"So that he wouldn't follow me to London," they nodded their heads in understanding. Wow, this Lily is clever and sneaky, not unlike myself, actually, I thought to myself.

"He is kinda creepy, especially towards you. I wonder why he didn't invite me into the 'Slug Club'," Marlene said.

"Once he sees your amazing Quidditch skills, you're in for sure. It's me who should be planning to weasel her way into the 'Slug Club'." Mary said. "I mean, Lily's already in it. Dorcas and Marlene will be in it for Quidditch, but what have I ever or will I ever do to get into it?"

"Trust me guys, it's really not all that," Lily said. The girls just looked at her. "Seriously, we just sit around and eat, and then Slughorn asks us how we, or whoever he let us in for, are doing. It's actually rather boring, to be honest. I don't get why you guys are so taken with it."

"Well, it's because –" but Marlene never had the chance to finish what she was saying, because McGonagall called attention to the petrified First Years.

"Do you guys remember being that terrified?" Dorcas whispered, but Lily shushed her saying that the Sorting Hat was going to start singing. I remember being that petrified. I also remember being so proud of myself when the Sorting Hat placed me in Gryffindor, though I'm sure I would have felt exactly the same way had I been Sorted into any other House, I remembered.

Sadly, I never got to hear the Sorting Hat's song, because the memory swirled. When the world stopped spinning around and around, I found myself in the Gryffindor Common Room. Judging by the three billion First Years who looked incredibly lost, I figured that it was still the first day of school. I guess Lily really didn't care about the Sorting of the students who were younger than her 'cause either it had no importance to her or it was just incredibly boring, which is what happened to me during my Second Year, 'cause none of my cousins were being Sorted.

Anyway, I looked around, trying to figure out what was so special about this specific moment, when I saw James and Sirius, it's weird to say that with the 'and', talking to some of the new First Years. The young boys were telling the even younger boys to do something but I couldn't hear what.

The three First Years broke away from James and Sirius and started walking towards the girls' dormitory staircase. Don't the girls' dormitory stairs turn into a slide if a boy steps on them? They started walking up the stairs and, just as I imagined, the stairs turned into a chute and the poor First Years slid down.

Lily, who had seen James and Sirius talking to the First Years but had apparently thought nothing of it, marched over to him.

"Potter! Black!" She yelled. "Why did you tell those poor First Years to go up the girls' staircase? You knew very well what would happen; you did it last year. Why would you tell them to do it?"

"Calm down, Evans," James said. "We told them that the girls' staircase turns into a slide and they wanted to try it."

"It's true," Sirius said.

"And how on earth am I to believe that?" Lily demanded.

"You could ask them." Sirius suggested. Just then, the three young boys sidled up beside James and Sirius.

"It's true," one of the boys with curly auburn hair said.

"Why would you want to do that?" Lily asked a bit more calmly.

"Because we thought it would be fun." The First Year who had his black hair in a mullet said. He's got a mullet, those things are really funny. It makes him look like a blowfish.

"It's fun discovering new things," the last First Year said. Isn't that more of a Ravenclaw quality? Though I guess that means that his bravery outweighs his love of learning, like Lily and aunt Hermione.

"Whatever, just don't do it again." Lily said sternly.