It was September 1st, 2019, and James and Lily were sitting in the very back compartment of the Hogwarts Express. It was Lily's first year at Hogwarts, and she was thrilled to be starting.

"I'm so overjoyed that this day is finally here, " said Lily eagerly, "After all these years of dreaming of and wanting to go to Hogwarts, it's finally time."

"I'm so happy you're starting Lily, " said James brightly, "We'll only have three years of being at Hogwarts together so let's make the most of it!"

It was late the afternoon and James and Lily now decided to play a game with a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.

"Hey, Lily, " smiled James, "Let's have a challenge. Let's guess the flavors of the Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans before we eat them and have a contest to see who gets a flavor right first."

"That sounds fun, " said Lily brightly.

"It will be, " agreed James, "Let me offer you a ten galleon bet on the game. Whichever one of us guesses a flavor correctly first wins the contest and the bet and the loser owes the winner ten galleons."

"I accept, " said Lily a nanosecond later.

"I'll go first, " said James, pulling out a pink bean, "I'll guess this is bubble gum."

James popped the pink bean into his mouth and said, "Nope. It's cotton candy."

"I never have cared for cotton candy flavoring, " said Lily matter of factly, "Something about the execution of cotton candy flavoring doesn't do it for me, be it in beans, lollipops, or whatever."

"That's so true about the execution of cotton candy flavoring always being a bit off, " agreed James, who added, "Your turn, Lily."

Lily pulled out a brown bean and guessed, "Maybe this will be beef jerky."

But after eating the brown bean, Lily said, "Wrong, that was cola flavor. "

"Somehow, cola works as a flavor better than cotton candy, " said James cheerfully, "In addition to working well as a flavor in things like beans and lollipops, I think one of the most underrated candies on the market is the Haribo Happy Colas."

"Oh, Haribo Happy Colas, " said Lily dreamily, her mouth watering, "Those are so good. Haribo always makes great products though. "

"Children and grownups love it so, the happy world of Haribo, " smiled James.

James dug his hand back into the box and ejected a golden looking bean this time around.

"Maybe it'll be butterscotch flavor, like Werther's Original, " thought James.

But after trying the bean out, James exclaimed, "Ah, a Budweiser flavored one! Yum!"

"Yum indeed, " agreed Lily, "Budweiser truly is the King of Beers."

Lily stuck her hand into the box and when it came back out again it had a green bean in it.

"Perhaps this one will be grass, " suggested Lily, "Oddly enough, I've always like the grass ones."

But when Lily consumed the bean, she piped up, "Yum! Lime! Man, how I wish green candies were still lime instead of frigging green apple."

"I know you were really bummed when Skittles made that change, " remembered James.

"Yes, " confirmed Lily, "Skittles and also Spree. Part of it is the increasing popularity of sour candy since green apple is a naturally sour flavor."

"That, " said James briskly, "And the fact the green apple is considered more of a flavor of the twenty first century than lime."

"Too true, " sighed Lily.

James sank his hand back into the box and retrieved an orange one.

"I'm thinking this will just be orange. The most standard flavors are still here, " guessed James.

"OH, ORANGE IT IS!" yelled James triumphantly as soon as he tasted the bean, "Cough up, Lily!"

Lily dug into her hot pink school bag and pulled out ten galleons, which she handed to James.

"Congratulations on the win, James, " said Lily classily.

After that they finished off the beans getting everything from the usual stuff like strawberry and lemon, the disgusting like vomit and dandelion, and the weird and unusual like snow and grasshopper.

Later that night, Lily, having been sorted into Gryffindor, was in her new room and was ready to unpack.

But when she opened her trunk, she gave a stunned gasp as she saw infinitely many small pieces of confetti that her trunk seemed to be full of to no end. These tiny pieces of confetti were all bright vivid colors like white, hot pink, glittering silver, lime green, sky blue, yellow, orange, and Gryffindor scarlet and gold. The individual pieces were tiny. But with zillions of them in the trunk, it was impossible for Lily to see any of her things.

"James decided to prank me on my first day at Hogwarts, " realized Lily.

As Lily began the process of cleaning the confetti out of her trunk, she couldn't help feeling a little irritated and annoyed with James. Having to spend several hours cleaning out her trunk was about the last way she wanted to spend her first night at Hogwarts.

But as she couldn't do anything else until she could access her things, she had no choice to clean the confetti out of trunk right away.

It took Lily three hours to remove all of the confetti from her trunk and she felt quite tired and weary at this point. Her annoyance and irritation with James had also increased.

But as she looked into her trunk after getting all of the confetti out, Lily saw a small box with hot pink wrapping paper over it that had not been there when she'd packed the night before. There was also a folded piece of parchment on top of the box that had also not been there the night before.

Lily unfurled the parchment which read:

PRANKED! Lily, I just couldn't resist pranking you on your first day at Hogwarts. Sometimes I can't help being a bit savage. After you finished packing your trunk last night, I snuck into your room while you were asleep and dumped a bunch of confetti into it as a prank. But, in all seriousness, I am delighted to have you at Hogwarts with me now and have gotten you a starting Hogwarts gift, which is in the box. Enjoy! Love from James.

After just being pranked by James, Lily suspected the gift might be a gag or zonk item.

But when Lily ripped the wrapping paper off the small box, her face suddenly curved into a wide smile and her eyes glowed.

In the box was a wristwatch. The watch was Lily's absolute favorite shade of hot pink, was comfortable and adjustable, and had easy to read large black digital numbers.

Lily's annoyance and irritation with James over the confetti prank went zooming out of the room faster than the wind of a category five hurricane.

This watch was easily the best watch Lily had ever had. The color was her absolute favorite and it was the most comfortable watch Lily had ever put on. She also noticed as she put on the watch that it was extraordinarily strong and would be durable. And she suspected she would now be using her watch more than before.

A new watch on this night was the perfect gift at the perfect time. If Lily was going to get a welcome to Hogwarts gift, she couldn't think of a more fitting thing to receive than a watch. But James had clearly put in the effort to get Lily a watch that was very specifically to her liking, especially the perfect hot pink coloring.

At this thought, Lily just smiled as she set about to prepare her room for the year.