DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING RECOGNISABLE!

I also want to thank my reviewers and anyone else who has read this so far.

P.s. SOOOOOOO SORRY it's taken me so long to update! I had exam week and the summer holidays only started on the 20th and the only times I've had to write are when I've been babysitting (which I'm doing now)! Mainly because I spend so much time reading fanfiction! As you can probably see if you look at my favourites XD anyway it's the 21st of July now at quarter to 11 at night and I'm going to finish typing this chapter (or try to) and hopefully update it tomorrow!

ITALICS- Thoughts

Bold Italics- Darren signing

Bold- Lily signing

Just so you know

P.S. I'm sorry I change the way I write from 3rd person to another, I just forget how I'm writing and change frequently! Please forgive me, I can be a bit of a forgetful person!

Chapter 6: First Year

Lily woke up on the first day of school, when somebody jumped on her bed screaming.

"Good Morning Lillian!" Great, Lily thought, School! She rolled over and sat up causing Alice to fall onto the hardwood floor with a THUMP!

"Well thanks for that Lil's!" Alice commented sarcastically as she picked herself off the floor and moved over to her bed to collect her things for the school day.

Lily climbed out of bed and walked into the bathroom to have a shower and get changed. When she had finished she walked out to find Alice waiting for her, "Marlene's saving us seats down at breakfast and Molly's waiting in the common room to show us the way down, c'mon!" Alice started to head out of the room when she realised Lily wasn't following her, she turned around to see Lily grabbing her bag off her bed and hurrying to catch up.

When they got to the common room they saw that Molly had gained a group of first year boys, all of the first year Gryffindor boys to be exact.

"Popular aren't you Moll's!" stated Alice as the two girls walked over to the group.

"Very funny Ally! But I'll be the one laughing when you get the howler at breakfast from mum and dad!" Molly laughed at her sister's horrified expression.

What's a Howler? Asked Lily, not having heard the term before.

"You'll see" said a voice from behind her, she whirled around to see Remus smiling down at her, for an eleven year old he was very tall.

Lily decided it would be best to do what he said and wait until she saw what it was, she walked down the many staircases to the Great Hall listening to the conversations around her, upset she couldn't contribute and keep walking at the same time.

When they reached the Great Hall the girls spotted Marlene and went to sit with her, the boys followed them, and Molly walked off to sit with her boyfriend Arthur Weasley.

"Morning Alice, Morning Lily, Morning...boys?" Marlene looked at the girls questioningly as the boys sat next to them.

They sat with us because they needed to see what awesomeness looked like and we are the most awesome people in the world so they stalked us Lily signed, at this Alice burst out laughing and Remus made a sound of indignation.

"Hey! That's not true!"

Sorry, I meant that it was because I am the light of their lives and they need me to survive Lily was thoroughly enjoying this but the thought that only two of the people around her understood her took the fun away from it and she just continued to eat in silence, not acknowledging anyone even the boys when Remus explained what she had signed.

As soon as she could Lily picked up her timetable from the table, grabbed her bag and walked to her first lesson of the day, Potions. The only reason she knew where she was going was because she was following the Professor, Professor Slughorn, as he walked to the classroom in the dungeons, eating sugared pineapple pieces on the way.

When Lily reached the classroom, which was in the dungeons, she found a seat at the front and got out everything she would need for the class: Parchment, Quill, Ink, Cauldron, Ingredients. Once this was done she went to the back of the classroom where all the cupboards were and found the correct potions book she would need and took it back to her space.

As Lily started to read the Introduction chapter of the book the bell rang and students began spilling into the room for class. Lily put down the book in time to see Alice, Marlene and a sallow faced Slytherin boy, sit at her table and take out their supplies.

Minutes later, when the room had quietened down, Professor Slughorn stood in front of the class and began to talk to the first year Gryffindors and Slytherins.

"Oh ho, well, welcome to Hogwarts! I am Professor Horace Slughorn, Potions Master and Head of Slytherin house! Now, let's begin with a register so we can learn who everyone is shall we? Right-o then!" The professor then proceeded with the register, Once he was finished he continued the lesson.

"Now, I'm here to teach you how to brew potions and to learn the basic theory behind them. Today you will be brewing a very simple potion called 'Bubble Syrum' which I thought would be a rather jolly potion to start off with. Now the theory and procedure for making the potion is on the board, I would like you to copy both down before you begin. Today you will be working individually so I can see what level you're all working at. Got that? Good, begin." With that he sat behind his desk and watched us for the remainder of the lesson.

Lily quickly scrawled down the notes, struggling a little with the quill, and then proceeded to set up her equipment and ingredients.

As she was lighting a fire to boil the water in her cauldron, she looked across at the sallow faced boy beside her, she realised he looked a little sad so she stuck out her hand for him to shake, he just stared at her before turning back to his potion.

Well! She thought that was rude! But instead of pursuing with the boy she began to concoct her 'Bubble Syrum' Once Lily had followed all the instructions she looked into her pot to find her potion had turned the blue colour it was supposed to have gone. But looking around her table she realised only the boy had also been successful. Marlene's potion, whilst being blue, was too pale and full of lumps no matter how much she continued to stir it. Alice's potion was even worse, a dark purple in colour and it was becoming gas so quickly the only thing Alice could do was put a lid on her cauldron so it wouldn't be breathed in by the other students.

After another half hour Professor Slughorn began to look at the students' work. The only Slytherin who had gotten it right was the sallow faced boy, Severus Snape. The rest of the Slytherins potions were striking shades of green and yellow and were as thick as cold porridge. Only two Gryffindors were successful, Lily and Remus shared a smile as their potions were praised, the other Gryffindors fared similar results to the Slytherins and Marlene's results, though no one's were as bad as Alice's and peter's, who's potion looked like someone had mixed corn flour and water together then added fluorescent orange colouring to it.

The rest of the day continued much the same for the students, learning new things and finding subjects that they were strong in, and others that they were weak in.

Lily was strong in both Potions, DADA and Charms, weak in Transfiguration and Herbology and was one of the only ones who could stay awake in History of Magic.

Alice was brilliant at Herbology, and DADA but struggled with the other classes, especially Potions.

Marlene was a whiz in History of magic and DADA, average in charms and transfiguration but again was very bad in Potions and struggled in Herbology where the plants seemed to like biting and scratching her.

The boys all had weaknesses and strong points in the lessons to but they were more concerned about the flying lessons they were scheduled to have the next day.

After breakfast the next day the students headed out for flying lessons on the quidditch pitch (Lily had spent the entire evening previously having the game explained to her).

When they got to the pitch they saw two lines of brooms, they were all told to stand by a broom and say 'Up', this worried Lily, How am I supposed to tell the broom what to do?. Lily stood to the left of a broom that was between Remus and Marlene's brooms and attempted to get the broom to fly into her hand 4-5 times before she grasped hold of it, glad that no one noticed her silent struggle with the broomstick.

Once everyone had hold of their brooms they were told to mount their brooms and kick off, everyone did this successfully...except Lily. Lily fell off her broom because she wasn't holding on correctly and plummeted to the ground where she landed with a soft CRUNCH!

When Lily lifted her face from the ground, everyone who had gathered around her got to see the generous amount of blood pouring down her chin and the broken nose she was sporting thanks to face planting the quidditch field.

The flying instructor then instructed Alice and a boy called Frank Longbottom to escort her to the hospital wing.

Later that evening when Lily was getting into bed, her nose had been fixed in second by the school nurse Madame Pomfrey, she vowed to improve her broom skills and become good enough to join the quidditch team when she reached third year.

Every weekend Lily snuck out to the Quidditch Pitch with one of the school brooms and practiced flying, by October she could pull off numerous twists and dives. None of her friends knew of this though, as she managed to keep it secret and to sneak out while the others were doing their homework, they didn't notice as it wasn't like she made any noise to begin with. What she didn't know is that two people knew all about her sneaking out, and one of those people was worried about the consequences her night time excursions would do for her safety, but said nothing.

Soon enough December came, and with it,

"It's my BIRTHDAY!" Sirius screamed as he entered the Great hall on the 13th.

"Quiet please Mr. Black, and Happy Birthday!" said Professor McGonagall as she passed him on her way out. Sirius continued to walk over and join his friends.

"Happy Birthday Siri!" everyone said, using the nickname he hated so much.

Lily just gave him a hug, which he appreciated all the same.

After Sirius opened his gifts they headed to the common room, seeing as his birthday fell on a Saturday they decided to spend the whole day playing games by the fire.

So what should we do first? Lily asked. Marlene, who had spent all of her free time learning sign language, answered "I don't know, why don't we let Siri dearest chose? What should we do now Siri?"

Sirius thought for a moment before speaking "Eat!"

The others looked at him questioningly, "What? I'm a growing boy and a growing boy got to eat!" Everyone burst out laughing at his response. That's how the first year students spent their day, eating, talking and joking around.

The next week the school broke up for the Christmas Holidays, those going home had left the day before and only a few students were left in Gryffindor tower.

Lily, Alice, Marlene and Molly all stayed, so did James, Remus, Sirius, Peter and Arthur Weasley. Molly and Arthur only stayed so they could have some private time. James's parents were going on a second honeymoon, Sirius didn't get along with his family and Peter followed those two everywhere so he stayed too. Alice and Marlene stayed to keep Lily company and because the Prewitt's were going skiing in Italy and Alice couldn't ski to save her life. Lily and Remus stayed because Remus's parents had promised to come and visit them and had decided to bring Darren with them so Lily could see him without going home to Petunia.

Lily and Remus were looking forward to Christmas Eve, when Mr and Mrs Lupin were coming to Hogwarts with Darren, they were staying until the evening of boxing day.

"What's got you two so happy looking?" James asked as he sat across from the two at breakfast the day before Christmas Eve.

"My parents are coming to visit tomorrow for Christmas!" Remus said happily as he buttered a piece of toast.

"Ok, that doesn't explain why you're nearly jumping up and down Lily" James turned his gaze to Lily, the rest of their friends just listened and watched carefully as they ate their breakfast.

Remus's parents are bringing my brother with them tomorrow! I've missed him so much! Lily really was jumping up and down now.

"Oh that's nice for you" James said, pretending he had a clue what she said as Remus snuck a napkin to him under the table that had the explanation on it.

Lily woke up early on Christmas Eve, at about 5am to be exact. She rolled over and got out of bed still wrapped in her bed covers, it was cold in the tower and she was very warm as it was. She padded carefully past Alice, Molly and Marlene (Molly was staying in the girls' room so she wouldn't be alone) and snuck out of the dormitory towards the common room. Once in the common room Lily sat on the rug by the fire that was still burning brightly, she stared into the flames and thought of flying on the quidditch pitch and how she wished she could show the others what she could do.

At about 8 o'clock James walked down the stairs to find a lump of fabric by the fire, he moved cautiously towards it, not afraid of what he would find, well that's what he would tell people anyway.

As James neared the pile he realised it wasn't just a pile of fabric, but a breathing pile of fabric, and as he pulled back a corner he realised it was Lily underneath it, she had fallen asleep by the fire and was now dreaming of something nice, if the look on her face was anything to go by.

Lily awoke from her nap when she felt cold air brush against her cheeks, and as her eyes opened she realised she was looking into another pair of eyes. A BROWN pair of eyes. She scrambled back quickly so as to get away from the strangers gaze, and when she looked up again she realised it was not a stranger, but James.

What are you doing awake? She signed, recovering from her shock of waking to his face inches from her own.

"Sorry?" James looked confused, Lily began scrambling for a piece of parchment and a quill that someone had left on the table the night before.

What are you doing awake? This time James knew what she asked as she wrote it down for him.

"Sirius was snoring again, I couldn't sleep with him making that much noise! Surely you could hear it?"

I thought it was thunder she scrawled cheekily, they both laughed at this and relaxed, the tension was broken.

"So you know why I'm here, but I don't know why you're here!" he said after getting control of his laughing fit. He phrased it as a question so she answered, though a bit reluctantly.

I couldn't sleep, I was too worried about my brothers visit she wrote hesitantly, afraid of sharing so much with James.

"Why? Don't you want him to come?"

Of course I do! I'm just worried that no one will like him, or people will act weird around him because he can't hear or something Lily turned her eyes on James showing him the now unveiled panic within them.

"I'm sure no one will do that! But if they do he'll know he has his big sister to help him and all of her friends too!" James smiled at her, hoping to relieve some of her obvious panic.

Lily smiled back at him, the morning rays bouncing off of his glasses. Morning rays? She thought, that means that in... she grabbed James' wrist and looked at the watch that he always wore, it was now 8:30 in the morning, in an hour and a half I'll get to see Darren again!

Lily signed a quick thank you to James before leaping off the couch, stumbling over the ends of her duvet, and sprinting up the stairs two at a time too her dorm room, effectively waking up the entire tower when she slammed the door open with so much force it almost broke free of its hinges and flattened her. Luckily it did not.

After laughing at the complaints of her dorm mates (plus molly) Lily made it to the bathroom, where she had the quickest shower of her lifetime (15 minutes! What? She has lots of hair that needs washing, she doesn't want to look like Snape!) and changed as quickly as she could without causing herself or anything else any harm.

When she left the bathroom, smiling excitedly in anticipation of the arrival of both her brother and the Lupin's, she was met with 3 separate glares, Marlene's wasn't too bad as you could see the smile in your eyes, Molly's reminded her of a mother scolding a child, but Alice's was by far the worst. Her eyes were like burning coals, squinted and angry, her nostrils flared with every breath she took and her lips were parted, showing of her gritted teeth. Lily cowered slightly under her friend's gaze,

Sorry she signed, her hands stumbling against each other as she tried to form the word, her gaze dropped to the floor, she held her head down, waiting for the harsh words she was bound to hear, but all that happened was the slight brush of a rigid body slipping past hers and the soft CLICK! Of the bathroom door closing.

Lily looked up to see Molly and Marlene shaking with laughter on the ground in front of her, holding on to each other in hopes of finding some form of the other, but finding none. Their screeches of laughter echoed through the dormitory, and apparently also the common room as they heard shouts from the boys asking them why they were attempting to assassinate Mrs. Norris in their dormitory, this just caused more laughter between the two girls and Lily ended up joining in.

The three girls made it downstairs and onto the couch, where they continued to laugh under the watchful eyes of the five remaining boys.

The boys were beginning to get worried about the mental health of the three, when Alice appeared from the dormitory, hair wet and face so serious it surprised the boys, seeing as her friends were in a heap before them.

"w-what's got you're w-wand in a tw-wist Al?" spoke up Marlene from her position on the sofa.

"Oh, y'know getting woken up early in the holidays, having a COLD shower thanks to your dear friend and then coming down to inform them that it's quarter past ten and that their family member has arrived" She finished her brief monologue in a posh accent before smiling at Remus and Lily's retreating backs out the portrait hole.

Everyone stared at the now closed entryway before getting up and racing after them, eager to meet their guests.

I think this will suffice for one chapter, I'm just going to leave you on a cliffie XD but don't worry, I will update this chapter to my story then start writing again :D

Next Chapter:

Christmas