Chapter Text
Tapping on the window woke me up. I opened my eyes, blinking for a moment, and then I pulled away my blanket and stood up. I came to the window and behind it I saw an owl with a letter in its beak. I opened the window, took the letter and wanted to pet the animal, but it suddenly turned around and flew away. I shook my head, surprised, how much work these little animals have. I closed the window and even without looking at the letter I knew, it was from Hogwarts. Unintentionally I smiled, seeing such a detailed address. I opened the envelope, read the content of it and I felt really happy, which I haven’t felt in a while. I dressed up quickly and ran down the stairs. I walked into the kitchen, where my mum was preparing the breakfast and dad was reading a newspaper at the table. A normal human family. Except my parents were working in British Ministry of Magic in a Department of International Magical Cooperation and I was about to go to Hogwarts.
I threw a letter on the table with the stamp up. I sat down, looking like I didn’t care, but when I saw my parents’ smiles, I couldn’t hide my happiness anymore.
“So, when are we going shopping?”
*
“Do you like your wand?”, my mum asked.
“Yeah”, I answered, still looking at my wand and holding its box in the other hand. It wasn’t unusual – unicorn hair’s core, ten and a half inches, cedar. But it was mine. Because I was a witch. Still couldn’t believe it. I squeezed my wand one last time and I put it into the box.
My mum and I bought everything that was on the list from Hogwarts. Suddenly, my mum walked into some store and I went right behind her. It was an animal shop. She surprised me. I completely forgot about it.
“Which one do you want? A rat, a frog...”
“An owl!”, I screamed, brightened up, looking at a brown bird watching me with its dark yellow eyes.
Mum paid for the animal and took the cage, in which it was. A second later she started to talk with an employee – it turned out it was her friend from times when she was younger. I left them alone and went outside. I crossed my arms over my chest and looked around. I sighed. The crowd with parents and their children didn’t decrease – it was getting bigger with every minute. People were passing each other, from time to time nodding their heads, whenever they saw someone familiar. Teenagers were stopping to hug each other, when they recognized their friends among the people passing by. They were hugging, talking, laughing. I was hoping that in one year time I will meet my friends from Hogwarts too.
I was standing next to the entrance to the animal shop, the closest people were walking like three feet away from me, so I didn’t take any risk, that somebody would jostle me. I was wrong. A boy, a little shorter than me, but most likely in my age, walked so close to me that he hit me with his shoulder. I lurched and he passed by, without even looking at me, but with some muttering, from which I could understand, that it was my fault, because I was standing in the middle of the road.
“Jerk”, I said quietly, looking at the boy.
“He’s Draco Malfoy”. I jumped, hearing someone’s voice. I turned my head. On my right was standing tall, redheaded teenager and next to me another one, looking exactly the same. They were twins.
“But ‘jerk’ fits him too”, said, probably, the other twin. Both of them were smiling. “I’m George and this handsome man next to me is Fred”.
“H-hey”, I replied. Seriously, that was my first impression? Being hit by some Malfoy and now stuttering? “I’m Lily. Lily Witer”.
“First year, huh?”, asked me Fred, smiling. It wasn’t a nasty smile, more like calming one. I smiled too and nodded.
“And which year you are on?”, I enquired, feeling a surge of confidence. I felt safe in their company. I liked them immediately.
“Third one”, George answered me and wanted to add something, but suddenly the shop’s door opened. My mum walked out with an owl’s cage.
“I’m back, sunshine, I’m sorry. I was talking with Anielette, my old neighbour...”, she noticed the twins. “Oh, good morning, were you talking to Lily?”.
The twins greeted my mum and replied: “Yes, you won’t believe, ma’am, how rude she was towards her friend from the same year...”.
“Exactly, you know, ma’am, if we hadn’t stopped her, she would have beaten him up...”.
“We barely stopped her....”.
My mum was looking with her eyes wide open, listening to ‘what I did’. I opened my mouth in surprise. I barely met them and now they funded me the talking from my mum!
“Mum, let’s go, dad is certainly waiting for us...”, I grabbed my mum’s arm and started dragging her to the way out. Mum finally came back to reality, nodded towards twins and started walking with a strict look on her face. Damn it. I turned around and looked over my shoulder at the twins and crinkled my eyes. They were only smiling, like they just said a great joke, and from their eyes I could read that we’ll meet again.
A strange thing was that I was looking forward to this silent promise.
*
I woke up an hour before my alarm clock. I was feeling collywobbles in my stomach. It was today. Today everything was about to change. Today I was going to Hogwarts. I was lying on my book, switching from side to side and thinking, how it was gonna be. I was creating various scenarios about my trip on the train, about the dinner in Great Hall. But the thing I was the most afraid of was in which house I was going to be. Gryffindor? Hufflepuff? Ravenclaw? Slytherin? Will I fit in? Will they accept me there? Or, what if the Sorting Hat won’t know, where to sort me and I’ll be left with no house? Or, what if...
The alarm clock ringed. I flinched surprised and extended my hand to turn it off. I stretched and sat down. I took a deep breath. Whatever will be, will be.
I walked down for breakfast. I barely pressed some toasts and some tea into me, that how much I stressed I was. Later, I got back into my room and looked through my clothes. I had been thinking what to wear, but I still wasn’t sure. For sure I wasn’t going to go in neither sweats nor in a hoodie. The trip wasn’t anything special and on the Sorting Ceremony we will be in our robes, but I still wanted to be dressed in more elegant way. Although, a dress was too elegant. I decided to wear black jeans and blue shirt with long sleeves to bring out my eyes. These clothes weren’t the most beautiful ones, but they weren’t ugly either. After that, my mum helped to do my hair – two French pigtails. I brushed my teeth, looked at myself in the mirror, breathing a few times. I was smiling to make myself more confident. I had some time left, so I checked if I had packed everything. I was leaving for a school year, so it would be awful if I forgot something important.
I walked down, pulling my suitcase. The cage with an owl was already waiting. Dad was getting ready to work, so I said my goodbye – we hugged, he gave me a kiss on my forehead and said, that if I will have any problems, I am supposed to write to him. I promised that I’ll do it.
On the platform nine and three-quarters I said goodbye to my mum almost the same way. I looked at her the last time, I smiled – I was hoping it wasn’t a nervous smile – and got into the train. I was looking for a free compartment or for a one with single teenagers with whom I could make friends. Eventually, I found a free one. I sat down and looked through the window. Will I ever calm down? We haven’t even departed yet, but I was scared already that I’ll be here all alone. I wanted to leave the compartment and look for some other freshmen or at least those twins who I met that day on Diagon Alley. I was just about to stand, when suddenly compartment’s door opened and I saw some boy, I guess also a freshman, with raven hair and round glasses.
“Hey, can I sit?”, he asked, pointing at the seat opposite me. I nodded and smiled. He answered with smile and sat. “Harry Potter”, he introduced himself.
It was him? How couldn’t I notice that, when he opened the door? But I wasn’t going to stroke or anything. I think he had enough of listening how amazing he is.
“Lily Witer”, I replied. “Freshman?”. Seriously, I had to start with the same thing as those twins?
“Yeah, I guess you’re too”.
I nodded. At first, the conversation was shy, but with some time we got more confident. We started telling jokes. We were laughing almost all the time. In the middle of the conversation the compartment’s door opened again and we saw a short redheaded boy, who immediately reminded me about twins.
“Ron Weasley, can I sit?”, he introduced, pointing at the seat next to me.
“Sure”, me and Harry replied at the same time, looked at each other and burst into laughter.
Trying to hold my laugh, I looked at Ron, who sat next to me: “Do you have brothers Fred and George?”.
“Yes...”, he looked at me suspiciously. “How do you know?”.
I told them how we first met. At Malfoy’s name Ron clenched his fists. I decided not to ask, why he reacted that way. If he wanted, he’d tell us himself.
While we were talking and laughing, Trolley witch came in. I bought some chocolate frogs and every flavour beans. I had a lot of muggle sweets which were pretty good. When we were near Hogwarts, I went out to change into my robe. When I got back, Harry and Ron said that some Hermione Granger had been here. From what they said I could assume that she wasn’t friendly.
After some time, the train stopped. We reached Hogwarts!
*
“It’s true then what they were saying on the train”, Draco Malfoy spoke. Professor McGonagall introduced us in Hogwarts and told us to wait. “Harry Potter has come to Hogwarts. This is Crabbe and this is Goyle”, he introduced two boys standing next to him. Looking at them I had a feeling that their mums took the phrase ‘the way to a man's heart is through his stomach’ too literally. “I’m Malfoy. Draco Malfoy”.
Ron snorted. Malfoy turned his head in redheaded’s direction. “Think my name’s funny, do you? No need to ask yours. Red hair and hand-me-down robe... you must be a Weasley.
It hurt Ron for sure. I frowned. I didn’t know this blond boy, but the way he treated me, and later my friend, made me clench my fists.
“You’ll soon find out that some wizarding families are better than others, Potter”, Malfoy said to Harry. “You don’t want to make friend with the wrong sort. I can help you there”. He extended his hands.
“You dare to call yourself the better one?” Words escaped my mouth. All freshmen looked at me, some of them surprised, some of them with compassion and some of them somehow proud, that I dared to oppose.
Before Malfoy answered anything, I added: “Insulting somebody is making you a better one? Comparing to Ron, you’re awful. It’s not a good quality”.
Draco gritted his teeth. He was still holding his hand towards Harry. He was just about to bite back, when Harry, looking at his hand, replied: “Well, I guess you heard my lawyer. I think I’m gonna pass”.
At that very time McConagall emerged and she ended the conversation. My heart was beating fast. Wow, congratulations, Lily, first day and you already showed, how nice you are.
*
“Witer Lily!”, Professor shouted. I shook my head and forced myself to approach the Sorting Hat with my head held high. Five people were left. Harry was a Gryffindor, Ron and that Hermione either. Malfoy was a Slytherin.
I sat down and felt, how McGonagall put a Sorting Hat on my head. What, if it really won’t sort me anywhere? What, if it will occur, that I don’t belong to this school? What, if...
“Gryffindor!” I felt a great relief. Gryffindor’s table burst into a deafening blast and applause. I got off the stool and quickly approached the table. I found a spot next to Harry and...
“Hey, kiddo”, said George, smiling at me. I shook my head.
“How does it come, that from all these places, I sat next to you?”.
“We have our charm”, Fred, sitting next to George, winked. I laughed.
*
After the dinner, we went to our dormitories. I unpacked and sent an owl to my parents. The letter was short – I wrote that I found a few friends, that I’m a Gryffindor and I liked Hogwarts.
I washed myself and changed into a white T-shirt and shorts. I yawned. All girls were sleeping. All, except...
“Hermione? That’s your name, right?”, I asked a girl sitting over a huge book. The history of our school? From what I saw, Hermione was already in the middle of it.
The girl looked at me. She had dark circles and was yawning. She nodded, answering my question. “And you’re Lily, right?”.
I nodded too. I wanted to meet some girl – not that I had something against Harry and Ron, but in the girls’ dorm I couldn’t count on their company.
“I just wanted to say”, I started “that I think you’ll use some sleep. I wanted to say that you already have a huge knowledge about history, probably bigger than anyone else, and the lessons didn’t even start! And tomorrow is the first day and I think it would be a shame to oversleep it”, I finished. Great. Now I sounded like a know-it-all.
To my surprise, Hermione didn’t look like she was annoyed or angry. She nodded few times and after that she closed the book and hid it. She rubbed her eyes, yawned and looked at me.
“You’re right. I just...”, She was looking for the right word. “I’m a Muggle-born. I don’t have big knowledge about the magical world. I’m scared that...”. She shook her head.
“Hey”, I said, crouching next to her bed. She was staring at her blanket. “Being a Muggle-born is no shame. I know you’re probably feeling lost and like you don’t belong here. But look – I'm pure-blood and I probably don’t know half of what you know”. I smiled. “Of course, the knowledge is important. But you know what else I’d like to gain expect good grades?”. I looked in her eyes. “I’d like to find a best friend. It would be a shame to spend this year all alone”.
Even though I saw the sadness in Hermione’s eyes, girl smiled. She squeezed my hand and nodded. “I think you’re right”.