CHAPTER 2- Meeting New People
When I walked through the Grand Entrance doors a woman approached me.
"I'm Professor Minerva McGonagall. I'll be your Transfiguration teacher. I'm Head of House for Gryffindor and Deputy Head mistress to the school. Welcome to Hogwarts Miss Evans." She said.
She was nice, but stern. Her stature demanded respect but her eyes showed kindness and sympathy.
"Thank you Professor McGonagall." I said with a polite smile.
She nodded.
"You will be sorted into your house with the other first year students." She said as she led me to them and addressed us all.
"In a few moments the start-of-term banquet will begin, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will need to be sorted into your houses."
"The sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room. The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points will be awarded the house cup, a great honor. We will begin shortly, I suggest you prepare yourselves." She said.
Wow, this was definitely going to be an interesting year. But after her speech I was extremely nervous. The whole school would be watching the ceremony! How were you sorted anyways? The doors to the Great Hall opened before I was ready.
"Follow me, Miss Evans in front." McGonagall said.
Oh how lovely. Am I to go first? Just wonderful. I feel sick. I walked behind McGonagall in-between two long tables all the way to the back of the room where there was a raised platform. I could see the students all staring at me. They were probably staring because I'm a good two feet taller than the other actual first year students who are all only eleven years old.
McGonagall stopped us before she walked onto the platform and stood next to a stool with a hat on it. Behind them were the tables of the other professors that were overlooking the students. The Headmaster stood up.
"Before we begin our traditional ceremony I would like to announce that we have a new student transferring from Drumstrang Institute into the seventh year class. May you all help her to feel welcome at Hogwarts." Dumbledore said.
He sat back down as the hat in front of me began to sing! I looked around and found almost everyone ignoring it to stare at me. This was terrifying!
"When I call your name, you will step forward onto the platform and place the sorting hat on your head. Once you are sorted into your house, you will join your fellow housemates at their house table." McGonagall said when the hat finished its song.
"Evans, Lillian." She said.
Here goes! I walked forward and sat on the stool as McGonagall placed the hat on my head.
"Here we go, now, don't be frightened. I'll put you just where you belong. Let's take a look at you. Hmm… How very interesting. Very talented aren't you? A strong knowledge of the dark arts I see." The hat said to me.
"I want nothing to do with the dark arts!" I whispered.
"As you wish then my dear, definitely not Slytherin. There's kindness of Hufflepuff, but overpowered by your thirst for knowledge. A trait of Ravenclaw you know? That could suit you just fine- wait what's this I've found? Oh, that must have been a hard challenge for you my dear, but such bravery and loyalty! Then you are definitely-"
"GRYFFINDOR!" It shouted out loud.
I stood up and looked to the table that was cheering the loudest. Overhead was a banner with the Gryffindor name so I walked over to it. I chose a seat at the end away from everyone that was already seated. As the sorting continued, I looked up to the ceiling. It was bewitched to look like the sky outside. It was beautiful. I've never seen anything like it.
When the sorting was finished, Headmaster Dumbledore stood again.
"Welcome to Hogwarts old and new. Before we begin our feast I would like to say that the forest is forbidden to all students. Some older students would do well to remember that. Our caretaker, Mr. Filtch, would like me to remind you all that magic is prohibited in the corridors. Now let us all dig in!" He clapped his hands and food instantly appeared on the tables.
I jumped in shock before I finally started to fill my plate. I was sitting by myself and I ate very little. I was lonely and homesick as I thought of Charlie.
"Lils you're depressing me." I heard a voice in my head say.
I smiled to myself. He felt it. When ever one of us feels an emotion strongly, the other will too.
"What's the matter?" He asked me.
"I was thinking about you Charlie." I thought in my head.
"Well of course." Charlie's voice in my head said smugly. I rolled my eyes.
"I hate being the new student!" I thought to him.
"Oh. Well cheer up. You'll make friends in no time once people get to know you. Just don't forget about your best friend in the whole world and loving brother!" His voice in my head said.
"How could I ever forget about Harry?" I teased him.
"Lils! How could you? That really hurt. You know I'm your favorite." His voice said.
"Yeah, I know. Say 'hi' to Harry for me?" I asked him.
"I'll make sure to. ... Goodbye Lils." His voice said.
"Goodbye Charlie." I thought to him.
Then I felt the connection close. I sighed. I was alone again.
Suddenly three boys sat down. One sat next to me and two sat in front of me. The one next to me spoke first.
"Hello, I'm Sirius Black." He said.
People around us were watching and I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. These boys all looked about my age or so; this one next to me had shoulder length black hair. It was straight and silky looking. His eyes were gray and he had an overall pretty boy turned bad look to him.
"Lily Evans." I replied.
"No, you're gorgeous." He said.
He was unabashedly flirting while people looked on. He didn't seem bothered by the stares, but I felt a blush creeping to my cheeks.
"Forgive him. He can't control himself sometimes. I'm Remus Lupin." The boy in front of me spoke.
He had blondish brown short hair and yellowish brown eyes. He seemed polite and friendly, so I nodded to him. When I looked at the boy sitting next to him I almost opened my mouth in shock. He looked like Charlie. The only difference was the boy's hair was a dark brown and he wore glasses that covered blue eyes.
"This bloke across from me is my best mate, James Potter." Sirius introduced the Charlie look-a-like.
James smiled and I could only blink trying to recover from my initial shock.
"We are the Marauder's." Sirius said proudly.
"Erm, nice to meet you?" I said awkwardly.
"The pleasure is all ours." James said.
Remus nodded and smiled.
"So, because you are new to this magnificent school, we Marauder's and fellow seventh year Gryffindors decided to welcome you." Sirius said.
"For starters, you'll want to stay away from any and all Slytherins." James said.
"Why?" I asked.
"Because they're all bad news. Not worth your time anyways. Now, Hufflepuffs like pretty much anybody. A bit shallow though." Sirius said.
"You know what that word means Sirius? (Sirius scoffed at him) Anyway Lily, Ravenclaws are the some of the smartest in the school. They'll tell you before you ask but they aren't so bad." Remus said.
I nodded.
"Pretty decent at Quidditch too, but Slytherin smashed them last year." James commented.
"What are the classes like?" I asked.
"Classes?" Sirius asked.
He gave me a weird look like I was crazy for even caring. James only stared.
"Ignore them; your basic classes are Potions, Transfiguration, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, and Charms. There are electives of Astronomy, Divination, Arithmacy, Muggle Studies, Ancient Runes, and Flying. But you can switch them and drop them according to your liking." Remus said.
"Defense Against the Dark Arts? That's interesting." I said.
'Can you believe the new girl is with the Marauder's?' I heard people whispering.
'She looks nice though.'
'Oh yeah, she looks real nice. She's hott!'
I rolled my eyes and Remus saw me and grinned.
Dumbledore stood and everyone got quiet.
"I hope you all have a wonderful sleep. Classes begin tomorrow morning so you all need your rest. Off to the dormitories. Will Miss Evans and Mr. Potter please come up?" He said.
Everyone was making their way out of the Great Hall noisily as I followed James up to the Head table.
"Ah, yes. I have chosen you both as Head Boy and Head Girl. I feel that you will both be very capable. I'll send word of our first meeting, by then the Head dormitory will be prepared. Mr. Potter, if you'll be so kind as to show Miss Evans to the Gryffindor tower and explain things. I'm sure you know you're way around the castle." Dumbledore said smiling.
"Right sir." James nodded and walked off, I followed.
He showed me the fastest way to Gryffindor tower. When we walked in a lot of students looked at us, but James ignored them. He showed me how to get to the girl's dormitory and then he left to join his friends by the fire. I walked up the stairs and at the very top was a door labeled Seventh Year. I slowly opened the door to hear everyone get quiet because of my entrance.
There were four girls just staring at me, one of them got up from the bed that she was sitting on and walked over to greet me.
"You're Evans, right?" She asked.
"Yes, I'm Lily Evans." I said.
She smiled kindly at me.
"That's a pretty name. I'm Leah Stamper by the way." She said.
Leah had shoulder length straight blonde hair and light blue eyes. She was very pretty, and as I looked around the room, I noticed all of the girls were pretty.
"This is Sarah Collins." Leah introduced.
The girl she pointed out as Sarah had wavy brown hair and brown eyes.
"That's Ashley Collins. She's Sarah's twin." Leah said.
Ashley looked exactly like Sarah, except she said that their difference was that she had one brown eye and one green. I had never seen that before.
"And this is Tiffany Harpor." Leah finished.
Tiffany had blondish brown straight hair and soft grey eyes. She looked at me for a second and then went back to reading her magazine. She didn't seem very friendly and I felt like I was imposing on the four of them. None the less, I gave a polite hello.
"So I saw that you met the Marauders." Leah said sitting back on her bed, but facing me.
"The who?" I questioned.
I didn't know what she was talking about.
All the girls laughed.
"Three boys who sat with you, all extremely dashing." Sarah clarified.
Oh, now I understood. I forgot that weird little name they called themselves. In fact, I don't really think I remembered any of their real names except for James'.
"Oh." I said.
"They are pretty much the biggest womanizers of the school. Actually, it's really Sirius Black you should watch out for." Ashley said.
"They are easily the most popular guys in the school." Sarah said.
"They seemed to think so." I recalled Black's arrogant attitude.
The girls laughed again.
We all talked for a little while longer about where we were from and just general information about ourselves, then they went to sleep while I wrote a letter to Harry and Charlie.
The next morning I was a little nervous about starting classes. Leah invited me to join them all for breakfast so I accepted and followed them down to the almost empty Great Hall. Apparently, the students of Hogwarts liked to sleep as much as they could. I helped myself to eggs and toast as Ashley started conversation.
"So Lily, do you like Quidditch?" She asked.
"Yes. I actually played chaser at Drumstrang." I told her.
As soon as I had mentioned playing chaser, Tiffany dropped her fork making a loud clatter. We all looked over to her and she had a surprised look on her face.
"Will you try out for the Gryffindor team? We need a new chaser this year!" She said excitedly.
It was my turn to look surprised.
"Tiff is on the Gryffindor team. She plays chaser." Leah explained while Ashley nodded.
Tiffany looked so excited and eager for me to join the team. It was odd because last night I got the impression that she didn't really want anything to do with me. Now, she was so hyped about the prospect of me playing Quidditch that I couldn't say no even if I wanted to.
"Sure." I said smiling.
Tiffany squealed in excitement and actually stood up and hugged me from across the table. The Marauders joined us when they came in for breakfast. Professor McGonagall passed out our class schedules and after we all compared, Sirius asked if he could escort me to Potions. I looked to Leah but she only winked. Sirius and I walked ahead of the others.
"So Lily, do you like Potions?" He asked.
"It's not too bad. I'm really good at it, but it's not my favorite." I said.
"Excellent, so do you want to ditch it and find a broom closet?" He asked.
"Excuse me?" I asked in disbelief.
"I asked you if you wanted to snog in a broom closet." He said casually.
What nerve! Who does he think he is? Within a second I had smacked him and walked back to find Leah, leaving a startled looking Sirius behind.
When the Marauders walked in to Potions together, Sirius supporting my hand print on the left side of his face, Remus walked over to the table I was sitting alone at.
"Can I sit with you?" He asked nicely.
"Depends on how you feel about broom closets." I replied.
Remus sat down chuckling. He turned to see James and Sirius taking a table close to us before he turned back to talk to me.
"Listen Lily, I want to apologize for Sirius' behavior. He, erm, well that's sort of his norm. Most girls would stand in line for just for five minutes with him. Not saying that you're one of those types or anything (He added quickly). But back to the point, he won't do it again." He said.
"It's fine. Unfortunately it's happened before. I can deal with it." I said.
"Yes, everyone can see that." Remus said smiling.
He was referring to the hand print on Sirius's face and I laughed. Our Potions Professor, Mr. Wilkes, walked in and introduced himself. After that he started talking about NEWTS.
Every single class that day opened with a long speech about NEWTS and their importance to our future.
After dinner that night, Dumbledore led James and me to the Head Dormitories. He gave us quick instructions for the Prefect's meeting we would have to lead tomorrow night and left us at the Head entrance to choose our own password.
"So what do you think we should make the password?" I asked James as I inspected the statue of Godric Gryffindor that guarded the entrance.
"How about- 'James Potter is the sexiest wizard to walk the planet?'." He said.
At that, the statue moved aside.
"What? That's not the password is it?" I asked.
"Looks like it." James said.
"I'm not saying that!" I said.
James laughed and went inside. I rolled my eyes and followed him in.
The common room looked a lot like the Gryffindor common room, though it was a bit smaller. The décor was all maroon and gold. There were plush couches and what looked like a small library in one corner. The fireplace was huge, and on the opposite wall were two desks. There was a staircase at the back of the room that led up to a balcony that overlooked the common room.
James and I walked up the stairs and on either side of the balcony was a door. I turned right while James went left. The room I entered was decorated much like the common room with the Gryffindor colors. It had Quidditch posters adorning the walls.
"Lily, I think this one's yours!" James yelled from the other room. I walked across the balcony into the other room where James was. The room was a sea mist green color with a big vase of Lilies on the dresser. There was a big bed with soft silk blankets that were a light purple color. There was also a huge window that overlooked the lake.
"This is nice." James commented watching me look around the room from his seat on the bed.
I opened a door that revealed a large bathroom. It had a tub set in the floor that was the size of a small pool. There were two showers on either side of it, and two sinks that were next to each other on the opposite wall. On either side of the sinks were two small rooms with toilets. Across from the door to the bathroom that led to my room, there was another door in the bathroom that led to James' room. He walked in to examine his room while I played with the taps to our miniature pool.
"Lily! Come here!" James shouted.
I walked into his room and found him sitting on the window sill. He jumped out of the window and stood on the roof top of a part of the castle. I followed him outside.
"Wow. Look at the view. This is so unfair." I said gazing at the stars all around us.
Why did he get the window that led out to the roof? James walked to the edge of the roof where there was a glow emitting from the wall below. James lay down on his stomach and peered over the edge to investigate the source of light.
"Come look at this Lily." He said.
I walked over and got on my stomach next to him to see what he was looking at. There was a window and inside I could see four boys playing a game of exploding snap.
"Is that-?" I started.
"The seventh year Gryffindor boy's dormitory." James finished.
He laughed slowly shaking his head before he knocked on the window. All three boys looked over and Remus and Sirius opened the window.
"Prongs? What the heck are you doing?" Sirius asked.
"Climb up here Padfoot." James said.
We stood back as Sirius and Remus climbed onto the roof. We had to be about seven stories up, if any of them fell it would kill them, but none of them seemed to be afraid.
"Where's Wormtail?" James asked.
"You know he's got a thing with heights." Remus said.
"So what exactly are we doing up here?" Sirius asked.
"You see that window there?" James asked pointing to his bedroom window.
"That is the Head boy's dormitory." James said.
Remus and Sirius looked at each other before they walked over and climbed in. They proceeded to inspect every room of the Head's dormitories.
"Either Dumbledore is a genius or a madman. He knew we would break that rule of 'only Head boy and girl in the Head dormitories'." Sirius said.
"Hey, you can see the owlery from this window." Remus said pointing out one of the windows in the common room.
"Really? Where is it? I need to send a letter!" I asked remembering the letters I wrote to Harry and Charlie the previous night.
"We can take you if you'd like?" James said.
"Thanks!" I said.
We all walked out of the Head commons to the owlery where I called down my barn owl, Euripides. I've had him since my first year at Beauxbatons. After I sent my letters we all left. Sirius and Remus departed us on the way to the Head's dormitories to go back to the Gryffindor tower. James and I continued to walk up one more story to our dormitories and discussed tomorrow's classes and what they would be like.
As I lay in my bed that night, I thought of how quick everything seemed to be happening here. It seemed that I was a part of a group now. I had friends and I was included. This was all new to me. Hogwarts was nothing like Drumstrang, and I couldn't help but smile at the fact as I went to sleep.