Chapter Text
“Lily, hurry up and come downstairs already!”
“One second”, Lily called back, looking again into the mirror.
There she was, standing in front of the full-length mirror, ready to start another year in Hogwarts. Once more she tried to comb through her red half-up done hair and made sure the bow that she put was as straight as it could possibly be. She was not yet wearing her Gryffindor uniform, but a smile t-shirt and light-washed jeans, opting to be comfortable on the journey and changing later in the train.
She smiled at her reflection once again before grabbing her bag and leaving her room behind. Without containing her excitement, she skipped down the stairs of their family house to find the rest of the Potter’s already assembled in the hallway.
Her parents both stood in the hallway, her mother trying to tame Albus’ hair while talking to him animatedly, her brother just looking done. Her dad in the meantime, grabbed the last suitcase and went out of the door to their drive way. Her oldest brother, James, however just stood there grinning at the whole display, holding the cage of their tiny family owl Gippy. However, this picture changed as quickly as Lily made it down the last step.
Her mother turned around, her red hair that Lily got from her, flowing as she spined around to look at her daughter. “There you are, finally.”
Without taking a breath the continued “Did you pack everything? Made sure you got all your books, the necessary ingredients for the first few classes of potions? You know you can only go to Hogsmead in a few weeks…”
“Mom, please,” Lily sighed and interrupted her before it could turn into a whole ten-minute monologue of her mother. “Of course, I double-checked. And even if I forgot something you can easily send it to me.”
To make it even more believable she put on her best ‘it’s true’ smile. Naturally she tried to pack everything and not leave at home, but she already knew she forgot something. It was the one thing all the Potter siblings had in common. At the end of the first week, they usually met up before breakfast and wrote down a list of all the things that they forgot and asked their parents to send to them. It was funny, really. Every year, since James started going to Hogwarts 6 years ago, this was how it went.
“Mom, you know us. We really should leave now,” her brother Albus came to her rescue, taking their mother’s arm to stir her towards the door.
“That’s exactly why I keep asking you!” Ginny exclaimed and ran her hand through her hair before clapping once. “Anyways, I am already expecting your letter later this week.”
With that, she clapped a few more times, before hushing the three siblings to the car.
Their dad had already packed all the suitcases into the trunk, with the help of an extension spell, and took this seat in the drivers’ seat. While they were all wizards and could easily use more convenient transportation, it was somewhat comforting to be squished between her two older brothers, going to Hogwarts. As long as Lily could remember it has been this way and she wouldn’t change it for a (more comfortable) thing. After all it was James’ last year at Hogwarts and therefore the last year all three of them would go together. The whole thought made her a little sad.
But Lily tried not to dwell too long on that thought. She was on her way to her fifth year in Hogwarts. A brand new, exciting year. A year full of confusion, love, conflict and secrets – she just didn’t know about all that yet.
***
When Harry parked the car in a tiny space in front of King’s Cross it was only a matter of seconds before all three siblings leaped out of the car into the fresh, London air.
Lily took a deep breath and stretched her arms before going with Albus to get three suitcase carrier. With a joint effort, they managed to put all their suitcases on them, Gippy lastly on top of James’ cart and Lily placing her small bag on hers.
With that, the family made their way inside the buzzing station.
It was always a thrill the beginning of the school year, driving her cart with the suitcases through the busy station. Everyone there had places to be, people to meet, things to do, just like herself. The only difference to most of the people at King’s Cross was, that they didn’t even know where she would be going, what she would do and who she would meet. Exciting, thrilling, a little nerve-wrecking.
Especially considering that Lily was, after all, the daughter of the one and only Harry Potter. Harry Potter, who saved the wizarding world at only 17. Harry Potter, who fought off Voldemort more than once and who to this day, dedicated his life to make the wizarding world a safer place as one of the Aurors. Not to forget her mother, who was also a legend herself. Not only for helping to fight Voldemort and his death eaters but also after school decided to become a professional quidditch player for many, many years before now retiring from it and coaching one of the best teams in the world.
It was definitely not easy being Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley’s daughter.
But hell, she wouldn’t change it for anything. Especially now that she was walking besides her mother, just like the first time she came to say goodbye to James. That time she was probably way more excited than her brother. She had heard all sorts of stories from her parents’ and their friends’ time at Hogwarts and was so jealous of James for being able to go there so much sooner than her. And while she was starting her fifth year in Hogwarts now, she was no less excited.
With her mom and her leading the way, the Potter family soon reached platform 9, now waiting for the three men to catch up to them. Exactly between platform 9 and 10 they had to be, to reach platform 9 ¾ to take the train to Hogwarts. One of the only methods to get to the castle, to this day.
As if they had all the time in the world, her brothers and father now also reached the column to go to their platform.
“Finally,” Lily exclaimed, grinning. “The old men arrived.”
“Just lead the way, Lil.” Albus chuckled, while James just rolled his eyes in a playful way. Lily laughed and turned around before she started pushed her cart in the direction of the stones. With one swift motion, she was not on the muggle platform anymore, but on platform 9 ¾ where the Hogwarts Express was already waiting in all its glory.
After her, the rest of her family too, appeared on the platform, looking around just like her to see if they could see their family or friends.
Before Lily even had the chance to see if she could find a familiar face, her mother was already stirring them in a certain direction. “There they are,” she exclaimed, leading the way to four familiar faces. One part of the Weasley family. Lily’s uncle Ron’s part to be exact. Her uncle, his wife Hermione and their two children, Rose and Hugo. Of course, being her mother’s brother, Lily had known them since she was born. Rose was the same age as Albus, now starting her sixth year while Hugo was a few month younger than herself, still though also starting fifth year now. Rose was just like Lily in Gryffindor, while Hugo belonged to Hufflepuff.
“How are you?” her mother asked the family once she reached them, getting pulled into a crushing hug by her brother Ron first.
“Lil’ sis,” he chuckled before letting her go. “I see that you’re the same as usual.”
“Oh shut it, you. You’re not that much older than me and we are not children anymore”, her mother replied jokingly before turning to greet the rest.
Since Lily stood right behind her mother, she took a step forward to meet her uncle first. Exactly like the rest of the Weasley siblings, he had red hair, now a little faded, wore a dark brown suit and looked… well just like he usually looked. Lily liked all her uncles just fine, but some of them more than others and uncle Ron was just a bit boring for her taste.
Still she greeted him by shaking his hand before getting pulled into a hug by her aunt Hermione. Now, Aunt Hermione, Lily loved. She was always so cheerful, would tell her all the stories she, her father and her Uncle Ron experienced in Hogwarts or simply give her new recommendations for books that she should look into. Also not to mention, Aunt Hermione was pretty, beautiful even. She had been
Lily’s idol growing up and still was.
To this day, she couldn’t quite understand how someone like her Aunt had ended up marrying a guy like her uncle. Nothing against Uncle Ron, but he was so boring and plain and sure had his own qualities but compared to Aunt Hermione he was a bit… well. But surprisingly, according to some very long phone calls between her mother and her aunt, it looked like nowadays things weren’t as peachy as usual in the Weasley house.
“Oh Lily, look at you!” with that her Aunt ended the hug and grinned at her. “You’re growing up so well. Did you get taller and prettier again?”
“Prettier than my brothers but unfortunately still shorter than Albus”, Lily snickered and looked at her brother, who in return, tried to look at her intimidatingly.
Failing miserably. Albus was anything but intimidating. While he was tall, he did have as many muscles as James. A little pale and his black her just cut neatly. He was the more put together child out of all three of the Potter children. James, next to him, had the same black hair from their father, but his was long and a well-organized mess. His build was bigger and taller than Albus’ and from playing Quidditch almost everyday his muscles got well defined.
Lily knew why her brothers were the crush of many young witches in Hogwarts. Not that she did so bad herself either, without trying to sound conceding. The whole Weasley-Potter clan was a force to be reckoned with.
When Lily finished getting a little dotted on by her Aunt, she lastly said hello to her two cousins, who were already talking to James and Albus. Huge grinned at Lily as a greeting while Rose simply smiled and uttered a small “Hello” before continuing her conversation with Albus.
Lily wasn’t too stunned at that reaction. While she loved all her cousins (and yes, there were a lot), she wasn’t equally close to all of them. Her best friends, and also cousins, were Roxanne and Dominique, maybe even Louis. And well, for Albus his closest cousin was probably Rose.
Rose, him and – unfortunately – Scorpius Malfoy had been close friends since starting their first year. Mainly because after Albus got sorted into Gryffindor, the Malfoy had been the one to look after him. At that time, James hadn’t been the best biggest brother, and being the first of the Weasley-Potter clan to be sorted into Slytherin, Albus had felt a little alienated.
While Lily wasn’t really a big fan of Malfoy now, she wsas still thankful that at that time he looked after her brother.
As Rose seemed too occupied in her conversation with Albus, Lily just joined James and Hugo talking about the last Quidditch match they saw, to pass the time.
She would’ve loved to see Roxanne or Dominique but usually they just met up in the train later on, as the platform was too full of people and they usually showed up a little late.
However, when the time arrived, she didn’t even have to be the one to want to leave first. As usual, Rose, being her overly punctual self, promptly ended the conversation with a bit stunned looking Albus, turned to her parents and exclaimed “if we don’t want to end up in the carriage cart, we should leave now.”
She never loved Rose more.
“Great idea,” Lily chirped. “We really should get going.”
With that, she first crushed her mother into an embrace, telling her how much she loved her before turning to her father.
Her dad, while being the golden boy, of course had a sweet spot for his only daughter. Like the first year when Lily went to Hogwarts, he pulled her into his arms and lifted her off the ground enough to spin her around one time, before setting her back down. Everytime he did it, it made Lily feel special. It was something he only did with her, not her brothers. And she loved every second of it.
“Love you, my dear,” he said softly still holding her. “don’t cause too much trouble, stay away from boys and try to keep our boys at bay if they fight. I know I can count on you.”
Lily laughed. She loved her dad. “You got it, dad. I love you too.”
With that, he let her go, Lily waved a short goodbye to her aunt and uncle before skipping towards the train.
Oh hell, was she excited. She couldn’t wait to see her friends again and have another, amazing year at Hogwarts.