The next morning, Lily woke up early. It was only five o’ clock and the sun had not fully risen yet, only about halfway, sending pinkish and gold rays over the Hogwarts grounds. Lily showered and dressed, then gathered her bag, stuffed with brand-new books, supplies, and her long, thin wand, and went into the common room.
It wasn’t empty, as Lily had expected. There was a boy sitting by himself on one of the couches, reading. He was too tall and mature-looking to be a first-year. He had longish, slightly shaggy brown curls and gray eyes. Lily sat down on an armchair and pulled out one of her books, leafing through it to pass the time.
About ten minutes later, the boy spoke. He had a friendly, lilting, slightly cocky voice. “You were one of the late first-years, weren’t you?” he asked, sounding amused. “What happened out there?”
“Well, uh…we…fell behind all the other boats, then it started getting really windy, and we couldn’t paddle. Then the wind was pushing us towards these black, spiky, really scary-looking trees, but then the giant squid pushed us to shore,” said Lily.
“The giant squid? Wicked,” exclaimed the boy. He stuck out his hand. “Chris Periwinkle. I’m a fourth-year.”
Lily shook his hand. It was firm and warm. “Lily Evans.”
“Hey, what was up with that James guy last night?” Chris asked, grinning.
“James who?”
“James Potter. A first-year, like you.”
“Um…” Lily wasn’t very good with names. “James Potter” sounded familiar, but she couldn’t quite connect it to a face. “Describe him.”
“Messy black hair, hazel eyes, glasses, and an ego bigger than this castle,” was Chris’s reply.
“Oh, right. Yeah, I know who you’re talking about. What about him?”
Chris snorted. “Kind of a jerk, don’t you think? Acting like he already rules this place, and he’s only a first-year. No offense,” he added quickly.
“None taken,” replied Lily. “I don’t know. He didn’t bother me.”
Chris shrugged. “I’m kind of temperamental. And, er, judgmental. So I notice stuff about people. Maybe I’m wrong. But usually, I’m a pretty good judge of character.”
Lily shrugged. “Okay. Whatever.”
Just then, Lily and Chris heard footsteps. Lily turned around. It was Alex, looking bright and happy. “Hi, Lily!” she squealed.
“Hi!” Lily replied brightly.
Alex sat down next to Lily and introduced herself to Chris. “I’m Alex Parker,” she said. Alex, obviously, wasn’t the least bit shy.
“Chris Periwinkle.” He grinned.
“What year?” Alex demanded.
“Fourth.” He squinted at her. “Hey, are you Allie’s little sister?”
Alex nodded. “All the kids in my family are A’s. Abby, Addison, Allie, Alex, and Adam.”
“Wow,” said Chris, “I’m an only child.”
“My sister and I were both named for flowers,” said Lily. “My sister’s name is Petunia.”
Before long more people started filing into the common room. Alex and Lily soon left for breakfast, eager to start the day. They left the common room with a group of other first-years: Sirius, James, a pale, dark-haired boy named Remus, and a short, fat boy named Peter. Lily could easily see what Chris meant about James’s ego, as he bragged about his Quidditch skills all the way down to breakfast. (On the way down, Alex had to clue Lily in as to what Quidditch was.)
"It's a shame first-years can't play," James sighed, as they rounded a corner and entered a hallway lined with rusty suits of armor. "I'm an awesome Chaser."
“I bet you are!” squeaked Peter, gazing at James in awe.
James grinned. “Yes. I am.” He gave Sirius a cocky look that Lily instantly disliked. “So, Sirius, you gonna introduce us to your giant squid pals?”
“I’m Alex,” Alex offered, jumping into the boys’ conversation.
“I’m Lily,” said Lily, more shyly. James turned around and grinned at Lily. She smiled back. James held her eye contact for quite awhile before breaking away. she grinned at Alex, whose eyes were sparkling mischievously already.
The six of them found seats together at the Gryffindor table, Peter practically begging to be seated next to James. Lily found herself sitting between Alex and James.
James turned away from Peter to face Lily. “So, Lily…do you like Quidditch?”
“I’ve never seen it,” she replied. “I’m Muggle-born, you see.”
“Ah. Right.”
“Sirius? Making friends with Mudbloods?” asked a contemptuous voice. Lily, James, Sirius, and Alex looked up.
Three Slytherins were standing above them. They looked to be about fourteen or fifteen, the oldest maybe sixteen. One of them was the heavyset Bellatrix. There was another girl, with a pinched face and a scrunched-up nose, with wispy blond hair. And the last was a male, clearly the oldest and most authoritative of the bunch. He was tall and elegant with long, white-blond hair pulled into a ponytail and cold, merciless gray eyes.
“Go away,” Sirius mumbled. Clearly these people had power over him.
The white-blond boy stared at Lily icily. “Lucius Malfoy,” he said, sticking out his hand.
“Lily Evans,” said Lily, trying to sound fearless. She grabbed his hand and when he tried to crush her fingers, she didn’t wince but stared boldly back at him. He dropped her hand a few seconds later, obviously miffed. Lily felt rather proud of herself. Alex grinned at her.
“We were all, well, shocked when Sirius was put into Gryffindor,” Lucius continued. “But maybe it’s for the better. There are no Mudbloods for you to hang out with in Slytherin. So maybe you’d be unhappy.” He smirked.
Sirius stood up. He only reached up to Lucius’s chest. “That isn’t what would make me unhappy,” he said bravely. “Being stuck with you and a bunch of other jerks, that would be the real drag.”
Lucius whipped out his wand, but Bellatrix struck his arm down. “Not now, Lucius,” she hissed. “Are you insane?”
Reluctantly, Lucius stowed his wand in his robes. Casting Sirius one last nasty look, they trooped back to the Slytherin table.
“Man!” said James, when they’d gone. “Who are they? You know them?”
“The girls are my cousins, Bellatrix and Narcissa,” mumbled Sirius. “Lucius is Narcissa’s slimy boyfriend.” It was clear Sirius wanted to change the subject, so Lily tactfully asked, “What’s our first class today?”
“Defense Against the Dark Arts,” Sirius replied, giving her a grateful smile.
“That will be so cool,” remarked Alex, buttering a slice of toast. “I’m looking forward to Transfiguration, though. Everyone says it’s hard-”
“You bet it’s hard!” somebody interrupted. It was Chris, sitting down across from Lily and her friends. “The toughest class there is. Near impossible sometimes. Potions is pretty hard, too.”
“We’ve got Potions second,” said Peter, sounding scared. He was a rather mousy boy and struck Lily as pretty cowardly. She wasn’t one to judge people before she got to know them, but she already didn’t really like him. “With the Slytherins!”
“Oh, don’t let the Slytherins scare you,” advised Chris wisely, tipping bacon onto his plate. “They’re all talk, with the occasional hex. But really. You can’t let them get to you.”
“So, you play Quidditch?” asked James, always eager to talk about the most popular wizarding sport.
“I play Seeker for Gryffindor,” replied Chris. “Are you into it?”
“Totally,” said James enthusiastically. “I play Chaser. I love the Kenmare Kestrels. They’re amazing. They’re a shoe-in to win next year, they got completely robbed at the Cup this summer.”
“No way,” argued Chris. “The Cannons beat them fair and square. Well, I’d better be going. You guys had better take off, too, if you don’t want to be late.” He jumped up, grabbed his bag, and left.
“Yeah, Chris is right, Lily,” said Alex. “We probably should go.” Lily nodded and she and her friend got up to leave. James and Sirius came, too.
“Any idea where this class is?” James asked loftily as the foursome walked up a wide, marble staircase.
“None at all,” answered Sirius cheerfully.
Lily and Alex exchanged glances and rolled their eyes. “It’s somewhere on the second floor, I think,” Alex said. “That’s where we’re headed if we stay on this staircase. So we should be…whoa!”
Out of the blue, the staircase had started moving. Lily, Alex, James, and Sirius looked around in amazement as the stairs rotated around. “My sister told me about this,” Alex commented, as it came to a stop, “but I never believed her.”
“Well, what are we supposed to do?” asked Sirius. “Our class is that way. If we get off here, we’ll be totally lost.”
“We have to get off here, though,” said Lily, skipping up the steps. “Come on. Let’s go.”
The staircase now led straight into a heavy door with a rusty doorknob. Cautiously, Lily opened it. It creaked open, revealing nothing but darkness. Lily was hesitant, but James pushed her roughly in. “Let’s go!” he said, striding confidently into the room.
Suddenly three candles flickered on in the center of the room. Lily instinctively grabbed Alex’s arm. “Who’s there?” James called, a little shakily.
More candles lit themselves, and suddenly the foursome could see a pale, transparent face. “I,” the face said gravely, “am Sir Nicholas Mimsy-”
Alex laughed out loud, shattering the tension. “Nearly Headless Nick!” she exclaimed. “Of course!”
The ghost looked insulted. “I prefer to be called by my proper name-”
“How can you be nearly headless?” asked Lily interestedly.
The ghost sighed exasperatedly, as if this was a routine he underwent everyday. “Like this,” he said, and seized his ear, and pulled his head off-but it didn’t fall off. It hung onto his neck by about an inch of skin.
Lily restrained herself from squealing, but it was hard. “Oh,” she managed to say, she hoped politely. “I…see.”
“Yes. Well.” Nick now seemed very uncomfortable.
“Well Nick, we’re lost,” said Alex. She grinned at Lily, who was still reeling that there were ghosts here at all.
“Lost?” Nick squinted at their robes. “Where are you trying to go?”
“Defense Against the Dark Arts,” Sirius replied. “And we were on our way but the staircase changed, and we ended up here.”
“I see. Well, you can simply leave through this door behind me, take a left, then right, then right, and you’ll be able to see the classroom.
“Left, right, right,” murmured Lily. “Okay, guys, let’s go.”
The foursome left and followed Nick’s directions. Sure enough, they ended outside a half-full classroom. Thankful they weren’t late, they hurried in.
The class went by relatively quickly. Lily had been looking forward to using her wand, but they didn’t get around to it. When the bell rang, Lily and Alex filed out of the room with everybody else and then split away from the big crowd of first-years.
“That was kind of boring,” Lily commented, as the two friends descended down a thickly carpeted staircase.
“Yeah, but it’ll get better when we actually do some magic. What class do we have now?”
Lily consulted her schedule. “Potions, with the Slytherins. Where’s that?”
“Down in the dungeons,” Alex replied. “Yuck. Let’s go.”
The two girls went down another flight of steps (this time, it didn’t move) and found themselves on the castle’s ground level. The hallways were swarming with kids, most of them older than Lily and Alex. Alex dove boldly into the mob of students. Lily grabbed the strap of her bag and got pulled into the mess.
Alex and Lily made their way through the crowd and finally, towards the ancient wall, it thinned out. Lily let go of Alex’s bag and they proceeded down to the dungeons.
The only open dungeon’s door was propped open and Lily could hear different potions bubbling inside. Lily peered inside. A fat, jolly-looking man was sitting behind a desk, stroking his mustache. He looked up abruptly as Lily and Alex stood awkwardly in the doorway.
He got to his feet and bounced over to the two girls. “Welcome!” he cried jovially, “to Potions class! My name is Professor Slughorn. Who might you be?”
“My name’s Alex Parker,” said Alex, bold as always.
“Yet another Parker?” asked Slughorn. “My! How many of you are there? Let’s see, I already have Abby, Addison, and Allie. Are there more?”
“Just Adam,” said Alex cheerfully. “He’s a Squib, so he might not come, though.”
“Ah. I see. And who is your charming friend?” he asked benignly.
Alex opened her mouth, but Lily cut her off. “I’m Lily Evans.”
“Very pleased to meet you both,” beamed Slughorn. “Have a seat, won’t you? I’m sure your classmates will be along soon.”
The next person to arrive was short and skinny with stringy, greasy black hair and a pallid face with a sullen expression. The green and silver emblem on his obsidian robes indicated that he was a Slytherin.
“Well hello Severus!” Slughorn boomed upon the boy’s arrival. “Alex, Lily, meet Severus Snape. He’s in my house, Slytherin, as you can see. He’s got a brilliant mind for Potions!”
“Oh, really?” asked Lily politely. “Is that a Potions book you’re reading?”
Severus threw her a nasty look and shifted his book so the girls couldn’t see it. But Lily caught a glimpse of the title: Rise of the Dark Arts. Not exactly Potions.
The room grew silent for a little while, but then more people arrived: James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter. James took a seat across from Lily, and Peter scrambled to get a chair next to him. Remus and Sirius took two other seats in the vicinity.
“Well! Well! More boys!” declared Slughorn. Lily was starting to get a bit annoyed with him and his loud, booming voice. “Who might you young Gryffindors be?”
“I’m James Potter,” said James loftily, in a way that communicated he thought very highly of himself. Lily wrinkled her nose in distaste. Maybe Chris had been right about James. She reserved judgment until she got to know him a little better.
“Sirius Black,” Sirius introduced himself. Slughorn chuckled. “Ah, yes, the youngest Black,” he said. “I’ve got your cousins and your brother (Regulus, what a fine fellow!), but couldn’t get you.”
Sirius shifted uncomfortably, his face turning red, and Slughorn tactfully changed the subject. He smiled in a grandfatherly way on Remus and asked, “And what’s your name?”
“Remus Lupin.”
Slughorn smiled. “Oh yes, I knew that. The one with the little, ah, condition.” He winked and Remus stared determinedly at the floor.
“And the last of you bunch,” said Slughorn grandly, turning to face Peter, “what’s yourname?”
“Peter Pettigrew.”
“Grand, just grand.” Lily was glad when Slughorn paraded over to the door to greet some Slytherins.
When he’d gone, James immediately pounced. “So Remus,” he said, “what’s this ‘condition’ Slughorn mentioned?”
“Nothing,” Remus muttered. “It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”
James opened his mouth again, but Sirius nudged him ever so slightly, obviously wanting him to drop it. Wisely, James backed off, but Lily could
tell that he wasn’t ready to forget about it completely.
Gradually the rest of the class filed in, and class begun. Slughorn stood at the front of the room, his hands clasped tightly around his rotund belly, and said, “Welcome, all of you, to your first Potions class!” here he paused, as if waiting for them to burst into cheers or applause. Nobody did anything. He continued.
“Today I will just have you whipping up a very simple potion, just to see which of you have more of an aptitude for this. Instructions are on the board, ingredients in the cupboard. You have one hour. You may begin!”
Lily found potion-making surprisingly easy and rather enjoyable. When she had finished her potion towards the end of class, it was exactly the shimmery silver that Slughorn had said it should be. Slughorn, wandering around the classroom, stopped by Lily’s cauldron and exclaimed to the class, “Miss Evans, this is perfect!”
The whole class turned to look at her, and Lily grew red. Slughorn went on, “Absolutely amazing! Well done, Miss Evans, very well done! Twenty points to Gryffindor!”
Alex smiled at her friend as Slughorn walked away. “Awesome, Lily!” she said. “Twenty points!” Alex’s potion was bubbling menacingly and was a bright, acid green. Lily grinned and started cleaning up.
The rest of the day passed by relatively quickly. When their classes ended, Lily and Alex staggered back to the common room, exhausted. Some of the older kids were already doing homework, leafing through thick, moldy old books and grumbling about it. Lily and Alex, as first-years, hadn’t received any homework, so they went up to their dormitory to discuss the day’s events.
Lily, Blossoming by halfbloodprincess22
Chapter Notes: Lily and Alex get through their first day of classes.