Chapter Text
"Hush, when no one is around my dear
You'll find me on my tallest tiptoes,
Spinnin' in my highest heels love,
Shinin' just for you"
mirrorball, Taylor Swift
Lily had lost the round of paper scissors rock, so she was sitting alone on the two-seater with Mary and Marlene to her left. She tugged on her hair, twirling it around her finger nervously. They had class with the Ravenclaws, from what Lily had understood they were the intelligent ones. The sorting hat had almost placed her in Ravenclaw, so she assumed they must not be that bad. She still wondered what the hat had meant when he asked her, “You are quite academics focused, yes, but do you enjoy it?” No one enjoyed school, that wasn’t why it was there. It was there for education. Though the more time she spent at Hogwarts, the more she found herself questioning if maybe school could be fun.
A soft voice echoed from above her, “Can I sit here?”
Lily looked up to see a girl staring at her with dreamy eyes and a small smile, her blonde wavy hair tumbled down her back a stark contrast to her amber skin, she was the perfect mix of messy and put together although Lily doubted that was intentional. She had two pencils stuck in the braids tied and secured with butterfly clips just above her ears. Her bag looked as if it might turn into dust any second and that it was only just holding itself together with the bright stickers of rabbits and cats stuck along the stitches.
“Of course.” She replied, clearing her books off of the desk to make room for her.
“How kind,” the girl sat down next to her and smiled, “I like your hair, it reminds me of autumn.”
“Thank you.” She beamed.
“I’m Pandora by the way,” Pandora took out a scrappy sketchbook with flowers drawn all over the cover and a floral pencil case with homemade embroidery, “my brother tells me that names are very important for first impressions, but I always forget to tell people mine. I find that a name is the least interesting thing about a person.”
Lily though this over for a while, “I suppose so, but the manner in which someone informs you of their names is quite telling.” When Pandora did not answer, she continued to explain. “For example, you had to remember to tell me your name which means you are often forgetful, and I know that you have a brother and also that you find people interesting, or at least more interesting than their names.”
“And you haven’t told me yours at all which means you agree with me.” Pandora countered her unnaturally blue eyes staring into Lily’s soul.
“I suppose I do.” She noted. “I'm Lily.”
And that was that. The two girls became friends in an instant, and from that point forward remained so for as long as they could. Pandora would talk to Lily about her theories, whether they were about magic or society or both, and Lily would do her best to analyse them and give her honest opinion. There was an unspoken rule that nothing, but complete and total honesty would be tolerated between them.
They sat in compatible silence for the majority of the lesson, listening to McGonagall talk about the art of transfiguration and how “No James you will not transform your classmates into ferrets no matter how amusing”. When they did talk, it was mostly about the lesson, swapping notes, and what-not. They agreed to sit together in any other classes they could, Lily was fond of Pandora, she was the kind of girl who didn't just live in the magical world, but she was a part of it.
The lesson ended, and students with red and blue ties made their way out of the classroom, trying to find their way to the great hall for dinner. Lily introduced Pandora to her friends and Pandora did the same with hers. The girls all walked together, Pandora said that they were far less likely to get lost with eight of them. Even so, Lily made sure that Marlene’s arm was looped through her’s the whole journey. The Ravenclaws were all lovely, if not shy at first, their names were Aurora, Sybil, and Emmeline, who went by Emma. They swapped schedules and debated which teachers they considered to be the best, McGonagall won of course, but Professor Flitwick was a close second.
At last, they saw the double doors that meant they had found the great hall. After saying goodbye to the other girls, they sat down at their table and dug into the trays of roast beef, pies, and stews. After a few minutes, the other Gryffindor boys and girls joined them. Marlene scooted over to talk to Hestia and Serena and Mary did the same after hearing the words ‘Vogue magazine’. Remus, the boy from the train, sat down in their spots with a boy who had long jet-black hair, longer than the other boys Lily knew, and a smug grin for no apparent reason.
“Oh, Remus!” Lily’s voice brightened up.
“Hi.” He said, giving her an awkward smile. He piled more food onto his plate than Lily was sure he could eat; she didn’t say anything of course.
Lily was distracted by two boys sitting across from her, she recognised them as Peter and James, the two had been in all her classes, she might not have noticed if they weren’t so ridiculously loud. James was talking about their quidditch lessons tomorrow, Lily worried something awful would happen, like falling off her broom in front of everyone.
James must’ve noticed her perplexed expression because he leaned in and asked: “Are you okay?”
“Huh? Oh, right,” Lily shook off the stress and looked up into his big brown eyes, “yes, sorry you caught me off guard.”
“I’m James.” He extended his hand for her to take, and she shook it.
“I’m Lily.”
His friend stuck out his hand too, his sandy blonde hair falling over is eyes, “I’m Peter!”
“Hi Peter.” She smiled at his enthusiasm.
“Well since you’re meeting the whole gang,” The boy with big black eyes nodded in greeting, “I’m Sirius.”
“Lovely to meet you all.” She meant it to, that was a first.
“How do you know Remus?” Peter asked.
She glanced to her right to see Remus with his face in his plate, scarfing down the food like a wild animal. “I bumped into him when I was getting off the train.”
“She’s being kind,” he surfaced to correct her, “I knocked her off her feet.”
“Well, she’s close enough to the ground that it couldn’t have hurt that bad.” Sirius shrugged.
“Pardon?” Lily didn’t know what to think of what he had just said, it wasn’t rude, but it wasn’t kind either.
Sirius yelped; Remus kicked him under the table. “Sorry geez.”
“Excuse him,” James interrupted, Lily could feel the blood rushing to her cheeks and tilted her head down hoping she could hide behind her hair, “he’s just grumpy that McGonagall told him off for drawing on his hand.”
“Am not!” He leant across the table to smack his friend, but James ducked, and his hand ended up in the pumpkin soup which splattered over poor Peter.
“Oh!” Lily gasped, clamping her hands over her mouth. Remus burst out laughing and to Lily’s disbelief, so did Peter.
James dragged Sirius over to help him scrape the leftovers back into the pot, and they all decided to keep this incident to themselves, ignoring the fact that almost everyone at the Gryffindor table had seen what happened. The three boys left dinner early to try and sneak Peter out before any teachers noticed his orange tinted robes and asked problematic questions, leaving Lily and Remus on their own.
“You’re all sharing a dormitory right?” She asked politely.
“Yeah.” Remus went back to eating and they sat in unpleasant silence until Remus thought better of it and did his best to continue the conversation. “Who’re you staying with?”
“Mary and Marlene,” she gestured down the table to where her friends were talking animatedly to Hestia and Serena.
“Oh yeah,” Remus glanced at them and nodded approvingly, “I overheard them talking about stealing pastries from the kitchen.”
Lily laughed softly. “They might just go ahead with it, Marlene knows a girl in Hufflepuff, Amelia Bones, and she says we could get in pretty easily. Apparently, the house elves are kind creatures, I don’t like the thought of them in the kitchen all the time. I like the idea of going to thank them for everything they do for us.” Lily realised she was rambling and promptly fell silent, although Remus didn’t seem to mind.
“Well if you do, save a pastry for me.”
“Okay.” Lily beamed and tucked her hair behind her ear. “Mary and Marlene look like they’ll be here for a while longer and since we’ve both finished eating,” an impressive feat in your case, Lily thought, “why don’t we walk back together?”
Remus looked surprised, and Lily wondered if she’d made a mistake. “Sure, I mean why not?” He stood up and waited patiently for her to grab her bag before the two of them made their way back to the Gryffindor Tower.
“So where were you living before Hogwarts?” Lily asked, they were almost there, they only took the wrong staircase twice and even so there were friendly ghosts floating around for precisely that reason.
“Saint Benedict’s Home for Troubled Youth.” Remus muttered.
“Oh...” Lily didn’t really know what to say, she knew he was a little rough around the edges, judging by the ripped clothes and gruff manner, but she never liked to assume too much about people she didn’t know. Besides what did it really matter, with his lanky limbs and shaggy hair he could be a werewolf for all she cared, and she wouldn’t treat him any differently. “Well, what’s that like?”
“Pardon?” Remus coughed.
“Is it nice? Is it terribly cold? Do you have many friends?” She asked, determined to make him feel comfortable.
Remus blinked. “It’s alright I s’pose, not too cold. I’ve got one friend, Grant.”
“What’s he like?”
“He’s alright too. Known him all my life, we got there at the same time, when we were four.” Lily’s eyebrows shot up and she hoped he hadn’t noticed. “He’s far too trusting, he doesn’t need to be there. He’s not a troubled kid, not really.”
“Do you miss him?” She asked tentatively.
“Yeah, I do actually, it’s only been a day or two though.”
“I think that’s perfectly fine.”
“You do?” Remus said, it was his turn to raise his eyebrows.
“I do. I miss my parents and my sister. I hope they miss me too.” Lily crossed her arms for the warmth.
“They definitely do.” Remus sounded so sure that Lily decided to believe him.
“I need to write her a letter actually,” she remembered, “I said I would and there are so many things I want to tell her.”
“It’s a good thing we’ve arrived then.” Remus gave the Fat Lady the password, and they climbed through the tunnel leading into the Gryffindor common room.
The fire was blazing despite the empty room, Lily supposed that most people were either still eating or already asleep. Peter, James, and Sirius burst out of the doorway to the boys' dormitories and came hurtling towards them.
“C’mon Remus we have to hurry back to grab our super-secret midnight snack.”
“Super-secret midnight snack?” Lily echoed.
“We want to bring back food for when we get hungry, store it under the bed or somewhere like that.” James answered.
Sirius elbowed him in the ribs. “If you tell her the details of our super-secret midnight snack then it’s not secret.”
“Or super.” Peter added.
“It’s pretty self-explanatory to be honest.” Lily said.
“See now she disapproves of our-”
“If you say super-secret midnight snack one more time I swear to god Sirius-” Remus cut him off.
“Look, are you in or out?” Sirius asked, an annoyed expression on his pale face, “we need to be quick so that they don’t take away the food before we get there.”
“I’ve just come from there-” Remus argued.
“Unless you’d rather hang out with your new girlfriend?”
Remus opened his mouth to argue back, but Lily spoke over him before he could. “Oh, shove off Sirius. Don’t be irritating just because Remus has other friends than your sorry behind.” Lily genuinely didn’t know what came over her, Hogwarts was a strange place indeed.
Remus laughed, “Come on then,” pulling Sirius away before the argument escalated, “we’d better be off.”
Peter followed and only James stayed for just a minute to say, “I promise he’s not an asshole deep down,” before running after his friends.
Dear Tuney,
Magic is better than we ever could have imagined. There are moving staircases, talking paintings and even ghosts that float around telling you where your next class is, although I think we’ve been told the wrong directions more than once.
I wish you were here to see it all with me. Tell mum and dad that I miss them and that I’m doing my best to pay attention. The cooking here is way better than at home, I miss you all, but I’m very grateful to be here.
I can’t write more because I am literally falling asleep and would hate to spill ink everywhere and then have to rewrite everything.
I hope you are alright and that you don’t miss me too much.
Lots of love,
Lily.