- A/N -

Introductions for this chapter won't be long, don't worry. Actually, this time all I have to say is that I'm really glad that people are both following and even favouriting this story, although I do wish that I could read some more of your lovely reviews as well. Because, while it is encouraging to a writer to know that people love what they write, sometimes we also need to know the specifics, you know? If I know part of what everyone things works and what doesn't, then there's room for improvement, right?

Anyways, that's just food for thought. Ahem, moving on to the next chapter now...

5 — Fitting In and Locking Out

The next morning, Lily woke up feeling drowsy and disoriented, and it didn't take her long to figure out that her trouble falling asleep the previous night, coupled with her unfortunate experience of being locked out of the Ravenclaw common room, was the cause of it.

So far, she decided as she started to put on her robes after getting out of bed, things weren't looking so cheery for her at Hogwarts but, since her first day of classes hadn't even started yet, maybe it was safe to still be optimistic. Catching sight of Laura also getting dressed at the foot of the bed next to hers, Lily decided to try her hand at friendship, seeing as she hadn't as of yet, too quiet and shy to really put forth an effort.

"Good morning, Laura," she greeted, giving a small smile.

Laura blinked, probably not having expected her roommate to say anything, but readily returned the smile. "Good morning, er, Lily, right?"

Lily nodded. "Yep, that's me! So...do you want to go down to the Great Hall together?"

Laura furrowed her brow awkwardly. "Well, um, thanks for the offer, but I'm not planning to stick around. I never eat breakfast anyway, and once I get my timetable, I'm heading over to the library to check on more of those books I saw last night. The librarian told me that, apparently, no first year's ever tried to borrow books that quickly from the library, except for this one girl years ago." Shrugging, she reached for her wand and slid it somewhere in her robes. "You could try asking Elena or Bella?" she suggested.

Lily nodded but, once Laura left, she noticed that the room was already empty, Elena and Belladonna probably having done down to the Great Hall already. Sighing, she continued dressing, after which she made her way down to the Great Hall alone, thankful that at least she hadn't gotten lost. But, then again, it wasn't her sense of direction that was weak, but rather, her intellectual capabilities at solving a riddle.

Sitting down at the Ravenclaw table, she noticed that Elena and Belladonna weren't seated anywhere at all, but instead were standing near the Gryffindor table, chatting with who Lily guessed were the third year boys they had encountered the previous night. A little ways further down the table, she also noticed Hugo, scarfing down his food just like his father, and listening to one of the boys in his house prattle on and on about something.

Everyone fit in. Everyone except her.

Looking down at the assortment of food in front of her, Lily deemed it best to at least focus on filling up her gut before she tried to face the events of the day. Just as she was about to reach for some toast, a scroll was placed down right in front of her by one of the Ravenclaw prefects, who quickly moved on to someone else, their arms full of scrolls. Curious, Lily opened the scroll before her, wondering what it was, only to be slightly disappointed, even though she hadn't been expecting anything particularly grand: her timetable. All around her, the Great Hall buzzed with activity as other people got their timetables, friends huddling together to compare what classes they had together and what classes they didn't. There was a general excitement about receiving one's timetable, it seemed, but Lily couldn't share in this, seeing as she had no friends to begin with. Still though, it wouldn't hurt to have a look at what her first class was...

Charms with Professor Flitwick. Well, that didn't seem so bad, especially seeing as Lily already knew how to do Lumos and even cast a patronus—this had been one of the only pieces of magic that she had been allowed to practice before coming to Hogwarts, especially with her father particularly insisting on getting her patronus to form just right.

"He's had a lot of unfortunate encounters with Dementors, that's why," her mother had explained. "He just wants to make certain that you can find happiness even in the most miserable and hopeless of times."

James's patronus was a coyote, Albus's was a lizard, and Lily's own was a groundhog. Neither James nor Albus had ever complained about their patronuses, but Lily had never felt that hers really suited her. After all, what part of her was anything like a groundhog?

"The form that a patronus takes doesn't really matter, as long as you can focus all of your happiness and energy into them," her father always said after hearing her complain. While that may've been true in a practical sense though, Lily still remained unsatisfied.

Lately, actually, she had gone through several disappointing developments with regards to herself, so maybe a patronus that disappointed her matched perfectly.

"Hey sis, how's it going?"

Looking up, Lily was stirred out of her thoughts as none other than her brother, Albus, and his best friend, Scorpius, came over to see her. Lily was happy to see him, but at the same time noted a little disappointingly that her eldest brother hadn't saw fit to do the same. She already knew from both her parents and Albus that James didn't really bother with anyone outside of his house, and thus had avoided Albus ever since he was sorted into Slytherin, but Lily thought that it might be different, seeing as she was only in Ravenclaw and thus not a direct rival of Gryffindor house. But then, maybe James was disappointed in her for not making it into Gryffindor, just like Rose was—yeah, it hadn't taken Lily a long time to piece that together.

"Hi, Albus," she greeted, scooting over so as to make room for the boys.

"Don't bother; we won't be here long,. I just wanted to know how you were doing?" Albus prompted.

Lily shrugged, forcing a smile on her face. "Alright. It's only the first day."

Albus nodded, then followed Scorpius's gaze over to the Gryffindor table, where Rose had just taken a seat after distributing her portion of the timetable scrolls. "Uh-huh. Well, I'm glad that you got what you wanted—not being sorted into Gryffindor, I mean. That makes two of us now."

Lily nodded. "Yeah, it's great."

Albus didn't look entirely convinced, but it was obvious that there wasn't enough time for him to address the matter now, particularly as Scorpius muttered the time to him, no doubt drawing his attention to the fact that they'd both be late if they didn't get a move on.

"Ok, so...good luck. I'll see you later," Albus called, turning to leave with his friend.

Lily watched as they left, side by side as inseparable best friends. Somehow, despite her father getting in the way, Albus and Scorpius had still managed to maintain a friendship and, although she had never said it, she both admired and envied them for that. After all, if it was the right person, even just one friend was enough, and that was more than she could say she had herself.

Giving a light sigh, Lily stood to leave as well, only to be confronted with Elena and Belladonna as they came to the Ravenclaw table.

"Breakfast's already over, you know," Belladonna chided as Elena grabbed a mint tart and shoved it into her mouth.

"So wuf? I'm huhngrreee," Elena said, reaching for another tart with her mouth still full.

Belladonna sighed and brushed her fingers through her wavy, silver-blonde hair. By chance, she noticed Lily, who was now wondering whether or not to try striking up a friendship with them just as she had tried with Laura, and addressed her instead.

"Morning, Potter," she greeted. "On your way to class now?"

Lily paused and nodded. "Uh-huh."

"Which class do you have?"

"Charms."

"Oh, same for us. Hey, Elen, want to go over there with Potter?" Elena nodded. "Well, what do you say?"

"J-just Lily is fine," Lily stammered, blushing as she was met with the emotionless yet confident scrutiny of Belladonna's clear blue eyes.

Belladonna nodded. "Alright then, Lily. Let's get moving." And she began leading the way out of the Great Hall, Lily and Elena at her heels.

Once in charms class, Lily found herself seated at Belladonna's left, Elena on the girl's right, and Laura several rows back, apparently not interested in conversation with the girls she shared a room with, but focusing her attention slowly on the professor at the front of the classroom. For all that Lily could tell though, he was hardly doing anything interesting, and was instead just giving a brief introduction on the many uses of charms, their importance, etc. etc.

"Merlin, I hope not every class is going to be this boring," Elena mumbled, leaning forward and placing her round face in her hands.

Belladonna shrugged, seemingly indifferent.

Lily herself also made no comment, not really sure on whether to agree or not. True, Professor Flitwick's lecture was proving quite boring, but it was rather rude to call him out on it, even if he didn't hear them, and she preferred to take things one step at a time and focus on the class at hand. After all, even with Laura's quick note-taking, her quill practically flying across her parchment behind them (she was the only one taking notes), it wasn't a guarantee that they would benefit by missing anything.

Rose would want me to pay attention, Lily thought, remembering all of the tips that her cousin had given her about Hogwarts during her free time that summer. But, then again, Rose would want me to be in Gryffindor... And that was the one thing she hadn't accounted for when she had voiced her desire not to be put in Gryffindor: her cousin's disappointment. As for her parents, she knew that they wouldn't care where she was sorted, but Rose...was a different matter. Had it seemed like a double betrayal to her or something, particularly considering what had happened to Albus?

Well, at least Hugo's in Gryffindor. I think Rose might've had a fit if he wasn't sorted there, Lily concluded, then shifted her focus back to their short professor once more.

"Now, one of the most basic charms is levitation, for which only a simple incantation and wand movement is needed," Flitwick said.

"Isn't that true for every spell?" Elena muttered under her breath.

"First, we will practice saying this incantation and doing the wand movement necessary. Afterwards, you may need to practice these on your own until our next class, when you will be given your first objects to levitate. The movement of the wand is the 'swish and flick'." And he demonstrated it. "The incantation is 'wingardium leviosa'. All together now..."

The class repeated both the wrist movement and the incantation separately, after which Flitwick actually demonstrated its effectiveness by levitating a piece of chalk and getting it to write on the board for him, a que for everyone, besides Laura, who was already at it, to start taking notes. While Elena scrambled to take out her quill, Lily noticed that Belladonna hadn't moved an inch, but was instead staring intently at the blackboard as the levitating piece of chalk kept on writing.

"Aren't you going to take notes?" Lily asked after a while, when three-quarters of the chalkboard was full of writing, and yet Belladonna hadn't made so much as a reach for her quill.

"I don't need to," came the curt reply, in a tone that warned Lily not to try talking to her again.

Shrugging, the Potter girl returned to her own note-taking, surprised with how quickly the class progressed after that first initial lecture. Apparently, she wasn't the only one happy to be moving on to another class.

- End Note -

I hope that no one minds too much that this entire chapter centered only on Lily. But, like James, I think that she deserves more of the spotlight among Harry's children, and so, long story short, I decided to dedicate an entire chapter to her first day at Hogwarts. My apologies if this chapter was slow-going as a result.

In the next chapter, I can promise a lot more on Rose and James, as I will be skipping past the rest of the week and moving on to the Quidditch tryouts of the weekend. So...yeah, more of a dynamic on those two, and then of course some more on Albus and Scorpius, who won't just be waiting from the sidelines or anything. I know that there still hasn't been a life-threatening conflict or anything introduced yet, but even in the original Harry Potter series, some of the chapters were just dedicated to describing life at Hogwarts. I think that we can all safely say that the castle in itself is entertaining enough to read about.

As usual, reviews, follows, and favourite are all appreciated, thank you!