Ok hi everyone! I guess I should say that I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters! :) I want to thank my friend Shel (Aly) for helping me decide to write this story and helping me come up with title (I'm bad with titles).

The World Isn't Perfect: Ch. 1

Looking into the mirror in her room, Lily sighed to herself. Sadly, her appearance was the one thing about herself that she did not like. She was short, but she could deal with that. Many great people in the world were short, take Napoleon for example. Another down point for her was that she was red-headed, but she usually called it strawberry blonde, which was good because strawberry blonde sounded so much more distinguished. The one thing that bothered her most about her appearance was her nose. It was a little too big for her face and had freckles all over it.

After a moment she stepped away from the mirror and decided to think of a happier topic. Hogwarts. She was very excited that she, Lily Evans, muggle (she still thought that this was a strange word) born, could be trained to be a witch. True she was smart, talented, kind hearted and just plain wonderful, but in her wildest dreams she never thought of herself as truly magical.

"Lily, are you coming? You don't want to be late...I don't know what we'd do if you missed the train!"

She ran out of her bedroom door, jumped down the stairs and started trying to help her father drag her trunk out to the car. The time had come at last.

***

It wasn't until after she had arrived at the train station that she realized she had no idea how to get onto the platform. She looked desperately around, and finally decided to go somewhere in between platforms Nine and Ten and see if anything happened.

When Lily got there, she saw a boy standing by the barrier between the two platforms that looked about a year or so older than her. He was tall, slightly handsome, with slightly greasy dark hair. The thing that made her decide to like him at once was the fact that he has a big nose just like me! Well, in truth it wasn't just like hers, his looked like it was big by nature and hers looked like she just hadn't grown into it yet, but she didn't care.

She walked right up to him, feeling confident and asked, "Excuse me, but I am looking for platform 9 and 3/4, and I don't know how to get there. You look like you're going to Hogwarts too. I was wondering..."

He turned slightly towards her and looked down at her in a haughty manner. "Muggle born are you?" He asked in a slightly snobbish voice.

"Y-y-yes," she stammered, feeling much less confident than before. "I was wondering if you could help me...you see..."

He raised his eyebrows slightly and said grudgingly, "Fine, I'll help you...you walk through this barrier and it takes you 9 and 3/4." He looked at her lost looking face and finally his own face softened. "Here," he said holding out his hand, "Shall we go?"

She took his hand and stepped through the barrier to platform 9 and 3/4.

Even though she knew what was coming, she was not used to magic, and so she was shocked at her new surroundings. She looked around in slight awe at the train and the boy who had just let go of her hand laughed.

"Here," he said lifting her trunk into the train. "You probably can't lift this by yourself."

Lily stared at him for a moment wondering whether she should thank him for the help or be mad at him for the insult. True, she couldn't lift the trunk by herself, but he wasn't supposed to point that out to her.

She didn't have much time to think about this, though, because a moment later some people called out to someone named "Severus," and he turned away to wave. He then turned back to her and said, "Well, it looks like this is goodbye. I think you'll be all right from here on out.

Lily smiled and nodded and felt more confident. Of course she'd be all right. "Thank you...I hope I'll be able to see you around Hogwarts...uh...what's your name again?"

He smiled very slightly back and said in a cocky voice, "Severus-Severus Snape. Maybe I'll see you around, but I somehow doubt it. I don't think there's a chance you'll be in Slytherin, which is my house. They don't usually accept many Mud..." he looked at her and changed what he was going to say, "Muggle borns."

She nodded slowly. "Well, my name's Lily Evans and I..."

A voice yelled through the crowd, this time sounding impatient, "SEVERUS!"

He turned to see who was calling, then hastily back to Lily. "Well, Lily, maybe I'll see you around." And with that, he walked off and disappeared into the crowd.

***

Lily had easily found herself a seat on the train. There were two other people seated on the opposite side of the car. One of them was tall, handsome with dark hair, which was so untidy it made her want to brush it. He had glasses and looked confident in himself. The second was also dark haired, but his was much tidier. He was shorter than the first, and had a cocky look about him.

She was sitting there thinking how on earth she was going to make any friends when the second boy came up to her and smiled. Lily nearly melted. His smile made him look as handsome as a few movie stars she loved, and also took away his cocky look. He now looked cheerful and friendly.

"Hi," he said cheerfully, "how are you? My name's Sirius, and I'm a second year Gryffindor. Who are you?"

She smiled back feeling relieved and said, "I'm Lily, and I'm new. I'm..." She hesitated. Judging on how Severus acted, not many people liked Muggle borns. She finally decided she couldn't keep it a secret forever. "Muggle born." She finished.

He smiled again and sat down opposite her. "Hello, Lily." Then he looked over in the corner where his friend was still seated and yelled, "James! Get over her and meet Lily. I promise she won't bite."

James stood up and walked over looking a little embarrased. "Hello Lily," he said, "Uh...as Sirius told you, I'm James and um...well...I'm a second year Gryffindor too." He sat down quickly next to Sirius.

"Hi James!" She said cheerily. Maybe things weren't going to be so bad. She already had three friends. Guy friends even and those were usually harder to make for her than friends that were girls.

She started slightly as the train jolted forward. This is it, she thought, I'm finally on my way to Hogwarts.

The three of them sat in a slightly awkward silence for a while, until Lily decided to break it. "Do you two know Severus? I just met him at the train station. He's from Slytherin."

Sirius and James looked at each other.

"Uh yes...we know Severus," Sirius finally said.

"Well?" She asked. "I think he's nice. He helped me get here in the first place."

"Did he?" Sirius said after a slight pause.

Finally James spoke up. "Well, let me put it this way. Slytherin isn't exactly our favorite house, and Snape isn't exactly one of our favorite people. He is rude and well, just plain awful. At least he could wash his hair."

Lily retorted, "He was nice to me...and maybe its not his fault that his hair is that way."

Sirius smiled slightly and shook his head. "Slytherin and Gryffindor houses aren't exactly friends." He leaned forward slightly. "Take it from me, Lily, you don't want to be in Slytherin."

"Oh," she said sounding disappointed. "Well, I hope I get into Gryffindor with you then."

"You probably will," said James smiling, "that's where all the cool people go...and you seem cool to me."

Beaming at the compliment, Lily enjoyed the rest of the ride to the school. She was especially happy after Sirius bought them all chocolate frogs.

Things are going all right. She thought to herself

***

When the train arrived at Hogwarts, she was shuffled off into a separate group with all of the other first years. She looked back into the crowd for some trace of James or Sirius. She didn't find any; they had disappeared into the crowd.

She got aboard a boat with a few more students and took in her surroundings. Far away she could see the castle that was Hogwarts school. It looked so...well...magical. She had never seen a place like this before.

Their boat ride was soon over and they were lead up the castle steps to the entrance way where they waited. Soon they were led into a room off to the right. It was a grand, wonderful room with the roof matching the sky outside, a cloudless starry sky.

The whole school was seated looking at them. A teacher came up with a stool and a tattered looking hat. "The sorting hat," the teacher called it. Lily was surprised when it spoke and rattled off a long poem about Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, and Hufflepuff.

After the poem was through, the teacher called out a name, "Adams, Ralf!" He sat down on the stool and put the hat on his head. It yelled out quickly, "Gryffindor!." The next two people also went to Gryffindor. Lily felt a little worried about this. What if the hat only chooses a certain number of students for each house? She thought.

Soon, it was her turn. She went up to the stool, sat down, and put on the hat. She was very surprised when she heard it muttering quietly. "Hmm...interesting...could fit in any house if she'd try more...Too lazy to be in Ravenclaw...hasn't spent enough time studying...Too self centered to be in Hufflepuff...and also too self centered to be Gryffindor...Selfishness fits best in Slythiern after all..." No! Please no! She thought desperately. "Slytherin!" It called out.

Lily's heart sank. She was in Slytherin! She thought that Muggle borns couldn't be in Slytherin! She walked forward slowly to the Slytherin table and then realized something that was different from when the others had been chosen for their houses. Before they were all cheered. Now there was almost silence. She heard slight mutters of "mudblood" coming from the Slytherin table.

She felt ready to cry. She hurried and sat down at the very end of the Slytherin table, alone. She wanted to go rip that sorting hat to shreds. And then a sound filled her ears; it was the sound of someone clapping. She looked around slowly and saw towards the other end of the table. Severus was clapping, looking like he was bringing every ounce of courage he possessed to do it.

After a few seconds, she heard a few other claps coming from the Gryffindor table. Finally a few people around Severus started clapping, but they looked put out about it. The clapping slowly grew until she received a small, but polite applause.

She looked down the table for Severus, to try to thank him, but he was looking away from her now, towards the new student putting on the hat. That student was placed in Ravenclaw, and the next two in Hufflepuff. This continued for a few more minutes.

After a small speech by the headmaster, the feast started. She felt very isolated, sitting all by herself. She became depressed and felt like she was going to cry again. Again, Severus came to her rescue. "Its time to go now, Lily. I must admit that I'm shocked you're in Slytherin, but I know the Sorting Hat doesn't make mistakes. Come on, I'll show you the way to the Slytherin common room."

She looked up gratefully at him. They walked out of the Great Hall and caught up with a few of Severus's friends. He introduced her to them. None of them seemed very excited to meet her, but they were polite. Even if they were only civil for Severus's sake, it was something.

Life would be bearable, all because of Severus. That night she could never found an opportunity to thank him, though. She was hurried upstairs to her dormitory which she shared with four other first year girls. They looked at her as though she were dirt under their feet, but for the most part, their words were polite enough.

She sighed and crawled into bed. She would be all right. Her life at Hogwarts was just beginning; she had plenty of time to make more friends later.