James and Lily: A History

Chapter 1: Greetings

James Potter was a very privileged eleven-year old. An only child, he was spoiled by his father, Robert Potter, one of the Ministry's top Aurors, and his mother, Victoria Price Potter. Toys littered his floor--Exploding Snap card games, toy wands, Gobstones, Chocolate Frog cards ranging from Dumbledore to Merlin, toy broomsticks, Quidditch picture books and team posters. It was a miracle that James could find anything in his room, since the floor was barely visible.

"JAMES POTTER! How many times have I told you to clean your room? It's not Fanny's job to slave after you," yelled Victoria Potter, as she gently kicked away James' Comet 200 broomstick and handed him his freshly laundered robes.

"Careful Mum! You almost stepped on my broomstick!" replied James, carefully placing his robes into his trunk to avoid creases.

"You don't have to worry about that, sweetie. First years aren't allowed broomsticks, remember?" smiled James' mother warmly. "I don't know why your father bought you that broomstick. Are you done packing your robes yet?"

"Yup!" James answered, shutting his trunk.

"Good, now--" she paused, taking a comb from James' desk. Victoria attempted to flatten her son's messy jet-black hair, much to James' protest and disappointment, but after eleven years James had learned the hard way to just sit still and let his mother tackle his hair. After ten minutes of failure, Victoria gave up and told James to hurry down to breakfast.

"James, your father is waiting for you to finish eating, so hurry up. Oh, by the way..." she began with a flick her wand. Suddenly James' room became immaculate. "You had better start cleaning up after yourself. Hopefully you'll learn something from watching others take care of themselves at Hogwarts."

"I know, Mum," said James, annoyed by his mother's nagging. After giving his mother a kiss on the cheek, he exited his room and walked downstairs, not feeling hungry at all due to the excitement of his first day at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

"Lily, what platform is it again, honey?" asked Martha Evans, looking around Kings Cross

while being jostled by passersby. Her voice shimmered with excitement for her daughter's first day of school.

"Uhm... platform nine and three-quarters," replied Lily in a nervous, meek voice; her hand tremble as she held her ticket, and she tried in vain to calm her nerves.

"There's no such thing, Lily. Gosh, what a stupid school, can't even get the platform number right for its students to board the train," snapped Petunia, leaning against the wall, looking extremely bored and waiting impatiently to leave. While her parents had beamed with pride when Lily accepted her Hogwarts letter, Petunia chose instead to severe all communication with Lily, only talking to her briefly during mealtimes to pass the salt and butter, and during their share of the bathroom. In Petunia's opinion, Lily completely destroyed her life. Her parent's constant, 'Lily this... Lily that,' shoved her into the shadow of her little sister, and most importantly, she didn't want to be related to--it was too horrible to say it--a witch.

Just then, to Lily's relief, a short, plump woman with blonde hair walked by, escorting her daughter, "Now, be careful boarding the platform. Don't want Muggles to be suspicious and notice wizardry."

"Don't worry, Mum. Muggles won't recognize wizardry even when it's right in front of their eyes," said the daughter, who stopped to readjust her grip on the trunk.

This was her chance. These people had to be witches, as they used the word 'wizardry', and they carried an owl and a cat. "Excuse me! Excuse me! I'm so sorry to bother you, but I was wondering... how do you get onto platform nine and three-quarters? There's only 9 and then 10..."

"Muggle-born are you dear?" interrupted the blonde woman warmly. "No problem, just follow us. We'll see you safely on the train. Are your parents with you?"

"Yeah... Mom! Dad! Petunia! Over here!" cried Lily, gesturing to her dad, mother, and sister to walk over to her.

"Hi, I'm John, and this is Martha," said John holding his hand out.

"I'm Sofie, and this is my daughter Roxana. This is her first year. Your's too, dear?"

"Yes," answered Lily with relief--finally she was going to figure out that stupid platform number.

"Well, don't worry, John and Martha. We'll see your daughter off safely," Sofie promised. "Non-magic folk can't cross through the barrier to platform nine and three-quarters."

Hugging her mother and father goodbye, Lily suddenly lost the excitement that had dominated her emotions for the past month. She felt scared of leaving her parents to go to a place that she had never heard of before, or even seen. Watching her parents walk away--Petunia had given her a very blunt 'bye'--Lily wondered whether Hogwarts would be as good as the place she was leaving.

"Come on, James! Your training is leaving soon," said Robert Potter, carrying his son's trunk while his wife Victoria trailed behind them. As one of the Ministry's top Aurors, Robert Potter was always alert, and he definitely did not want his son to miss his train for his first day of school.

"Now James, don't forget to tell me all the secret passageways you find while you're there. Be careful using that... cloak for when you get 'cold,'" advised Robert, winking at his son.

"Robert! James is to go to school, study hard, and stay out of trouble. Don't you go around encouraging our son to be a delinquent!" huffed Victoria, giving her husband a piercing stare that made Robert's austere Auror-demeanor reduce to the look of a boy who had just been caught stealing cookies before dinner.

"Vicki, sweetheart. James has to have a little bit of fun. I'm not asking him to get himself expelled," said Robert with a sweet, comforting voice. Turning to James, Robert reverted back to the strict father demeanor. "Now, James. You heard your mother--get good grades and stay out of trouble."

"Right Dad," answered James with an angelic smile, along with a very quick wink. His father had given him the family heirloom--a very rare invisibility cloak--last night. Although he had to solemnly swear to his father that he would use it only for minor purposes (otherwise his father would crush any future hope of him playing Quidditch), James couldn't wait for an opportune moment to give the cloak a try.

"My little-baby boy is growing up so fast," sniffled Victoria, pulling her son into a hug. After James escaped his melodramatic mother, he took his trunk and said goodbye.

"Here's an empty compartment."

Storing their trunks away, Lily and Roxana fell into the seats. Carrying their trunks all the way to the end of the train was not a simple task.

"So you're Muggle-born huh?" Roxana asked. She had long and straight, light brown hair that fell to her shoulders. Her eyes were brown, and she had a thin physique.
"Uhm... what does Muggle mean?" Lily inquired softly, feeling quite stupid.
"Oh, Muggle means 'non-magic folk.' I'm half and half, my mom's a witch, Dad's a Muggle."

"Ah, I see. That's very interesting. What was your name? I'm sorry I didn't quite catch it the first time."

"Roxana, but you can call me Roxy. What house has your family been in?"

"House?" Lily was feeling more inane by the minute. Less than five minutes into the conversation, she'd already asked Roxy twice to reiterate her questions. Lily hoped this wouldn't bore Roxy.

"Oh, damn it. Sorry. Besides my dad, I don't really associate with Muggles. Everyone on my mom's side is a witch or a wizard," she explained apologetically. "When we arrive at Hogwarts, they sort us into one of four houses--Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, or Slytherin. Each house values something different; Gryffindor values courage; Ravenclaw values cleverness; Hufflepuff values loyalty; Slytherin values cunning, but they produce all the bad witches and wizards. Don't want to end up there. My mom was in Gryffindor."

"Wow," replied Lily. But as she started to register it all in her mind, their compartment door slid open and a girl with wavy, blonde hair and blue eyes poked her head in.

"Is there room in this compartment for another person? All the rest are full," she asked, shyly.

"Yeah, we've got room in here," said Lily, getting up to help her store away her luggage. "I'm Lily Evans, and this is Roxana... er..." Lily looked towards Roxy to fill in the blank.

"Abin, and please call me Roxy. And you?"

"Alice Dalbey. Thanks so much for helping me store away my luggage."

"No problem," answered Lily. "Are you Muggle-born?"

"Oh no, I'm a pure-blood. You?"

"Muggle-born," "Half-n-Half," said Lily and Roxy, practically at the same time.

"You're Muggle-born!" Alice exclaimed, looking towards Lily. "That's so cool! What's it like to not use magic for everything you do?" asked Alice, her round face shining with curiosity.

"Well..." said Lily, looking towards Roxy for help in explaining, "Sit down and I'll tell you. It's going to be a long train ride, anyways."

"Need help with that?" asked a boy with black hair. Unlike James' hair, which lived to be unruly, his long bangs fell elegantly into his eyes. The boy had grey eyes and an aristocratic appearance.

"Sure, thanks," storing away James' luggage, the boy with black hair held out his hand confidently. "I'm Sirius Black. And you are?"

"James Potter. What house was your family in?"

"Slytherin," said Sirius with extreme distaste. "My family places a lot of emphasis on 'pure-blood.' It's disgusting."

"Oh... well, do you want to go find an empty compartment?" asked James.

"Yeah, beats standing around here."

After walking past of compartments with happily chattering students, Sirius and James finally spotted one with only a boy with brown hair who was reading a book; he had bags under his eyes, and his robes were torn in many places. He must have caught a bad case of the summer flu right before school started.

"Hey, got any room?" asked Sirius, poking his head in.

Startled, the boy suddenly snapped out of his reverie. He looked slightly nervous as he said, "Yeah, you can sit here."

Taking seats across from the boy, Sirius was the first to break the ice after few minutes of silence. "Sirius Black, and this is James Potter. What's your name?"

"Remus Lupin."

"You look ill. Did you catch a bad summer cold before school started?"

"Uh... yeah..." answered Remus, his eyes going back to his book--he was looking extremely uncomfortable all of a sudden.

There was another awkward pause.

"Anyone up for a game of Exploding Snap?" asked James suddenly, taking out his cards.

"Sure!" said Remus, grateful that James changed the subject so quickly.

Passing through the mountains and into the forest, the sun gradually faded away, and the students changed into their uniforms. By the time the train stopped at Hogsmeade, night had fallen.

"Firs' years! Firs' years! Follow me!" said a man who was three times as tall as any of the students.

"Who's that?" asked Lily, in awe at the man's height.

"That's Hagrid. He was in my parents' year," answered Alice.

Lily stepped into a boat with Alice and Roxy, while twenty feet away James stepped into a boat with Remus and Sirius. The Chocolate Frogs and Cauldron Cakes that Lily had eaten on the train seemed to have done nothing to ease her appetite. Instead, she was feeling slightly sick from nerves--Where were they going?

Lily didn't have to wait long to get her answer. A gigantic castle with bright windows loomed into view. It was one of the most amazing and beautiful sites Lily had ever seen. Tall, crooked-looking towers stood proudly, and torches burned brightly from different endpoints of the castle. Portraits depicting wizards riding on dragons were carved into stained glass. When the boats came to a stop, they stepped out and walked through a pair of large, oak doors. A witch with rectangular spectacles and black hair tied in a tight bun stood waiting for them at the top of white ivory steps.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall you must be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony. While you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with them, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your common room. Together, you will work to earn points, but rule breaking will cost your house points. The house with the most points will win the House Cup at the end of the year, a great honor.

"Now, I suggest you smarten yourselves up while I make sure they're ready for you. I will be back in a few minutes."

Waiting in silence with Roxy and Alice, Lily somehow felt considerably worse than before. How were they going to sort us into our houses? She thought wearily. She didn't have long to contemplate this fact, as Professor McGonagall, in what seemed like seconds, had returned.

"We're ready for you now."

Lily had thought the outside of the castle was beautiful, but it was nothing compared to the inside.

Inside it was absolutely huge, large enough to comfortably fit four cathedrals. There were four long tables--each representing one of the houses no doubt. Lily gaped when she looked up. What normally would have been a ceiling apparently didn't exist in Hogwarts. Instead, the Great Hall opened up directly to the sky.

A boy somewhere in the back of the line, noticing her stare, snorted and said, "It's only charmed!"

Ignoring his obnoxious comment, Lily was now looking at the oddly, ragged hat on the stool. After they had all filed in, it started to--Lily couldn't believe it--sing.

"Gosh, would they hurry up? I'm starving," muttered Sirius, who was the only new student showing no nerves about the sorting ceremony.

"Yeah, me too," said James. Inside, James was hoping he would get sorted into Gryffindor, and he hoped Sirius would too despite the fact that his whole family came from Slytherin.

The song ended, and the sorting began. Professor McGonagall said, "Abin, Roxana!"

Roxy slowly walked to the stool and placed the hat gently on her head. A few minutes later--

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Amalia, Amy!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Bason, Becky!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Black, Bellatrix!"

This must be the cousin Sirius was talking about on the train, James thought. Bellatrix had sleek, long, thick black hair to her waist. Her angular face and cold, black eyes were stark contrasts to Sirius' jubilant, warm personality. James could not believe they were actually related by blood.

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Black, Sirius!"

Sirius ran to the stool and jammed the hat on his head.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

With an extremely surprised and delighted look on his face, Sirius quickly walked over to the Gryffindor table amidst loud cheers.

"Dalbey, Alice!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Alice's round, sapphire blue eyes widened in delight as she took off the Sorting Hat and joined the Gryffindor table.

"DeGrasse, Logan!"

A very confident, arrogant blonde boy swaggered up to the stool and placed the Sorting Hat on his head.

"SLYTHERIN!"

After a couple of minutes, Lily heard her name being called--

"Evans, Lily"

James saw a girl with thick, long red hair walk nervously up to the stool. Before placing the hat on her head, James felt his stomach did a small flip-flop as he caught the sight of her pretty green eyes.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Taking off the hat, Lily smiled with relief and walked to the Gryffindor table. James, watching Lily walk to the table, realized he was wrong--pretty was an understatement: Lily Evans was beautiful. Lily pushed back her shoulder-length red hair and sat laughing with two of the other newly sorted first years. He suddenly had an insane urge to get sorted immediately and join her at the Gryffindor table.

"Green, Danny!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Flores, Vivian!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Foutine, Kristen became a Gryffindor, while Fye, Nick was sorted into Ravenclaw. Lee, Michelle also was sorted into Ravenclaw, but Lestrange, Rodolphus became a Slytherin.

"Longbottom, Frank!"

A boy with dark brown hair calmly made his way to the stool and placed the hat over his light brown eyes.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Immediately afterwards, Remus was called, but unlike Frank's calm composure, he trembled slightly as he placed the hat over his head.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Afterwards, Kyle Murray got sorted into Ravenclaw, while Thomas McLittle and Vietchi Night joined the Hufflepuff table.

"Pettigrew, Peter!"

A small, short and slightly fat blonde boy stumbled to the stool and placed the Sorting Hat over his watery eyes.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Potter, James!"

James approached the stool and placed the Sorting Hat over his head. In a few minutes, the Sorting Hat yelled--

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Sprinting to the Gryffindor table into the empty seat next to Sirius, James suddenly felt extremely relieved and starving. He peered down the table and saw Lily Evans staring curiously at the enchanted ceiling. Everything seemed perfect to James; he was laughing and talking with Remus and Sirius and was very satisfied to be in the same house as Lily Evans. Things couldn't be better.

"Rosier, Evan!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Snape, Severus!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

"James! Look at the greasy-haired kid! He looks like he's proud to be in Slytherin!" said Sirius, poking James' shoulder to get his attention.

"Yeah," responded James in disbelief. "And his hair looks like a bunch of dead seaweed."

Sincil, Carly made her way towards the Slytherin table. Summers, Tracy became a Ravenclaw, and the sorting ended with "Vidovich, Andrea" also joining the Ravenclaw table.

Albus Dumbledore, with his flowing white beard and navy blue robes decorated with moons and stars, stood up and said only two words--"Tuck in."

Eating away his chicken leg, James couldn't help but glance at the end of the table where

Lily Evan was sitting, chatting animatedly with her friends. Stop thinking about her, nitwit, she's only a girl, James thought angrily and turned his head away.

The banquet was over. Exhausted, the students climbed up the steps, trailing behind the prefects to the dormitories' entrance. When the Gryffindors arrived at the portrait of the fat lady, the prefect gave the password--"Hinkypunk"--and they walked, two by two, into the common room.

"Ladies first," said Sirius, stepping aside and pulling James and Remus in line with him.

"Thanks," said Lily, giving James a quick glance that made him turn red.

Walking up the steps to their first year dorms, James opened the door labeled, "First years," and found five four-poster beds, one with a sleeping boy. The short, chubby boy name Peter Pettigrew they saw during the sorting had already tucked himself in and was snoring loudly.

"Let's unpack quietly so we don't wake him," suggested Remus.

While unpacking, the boy with neat, dark brown hair entered the first year boys' dormitory and found three boys all busy unpacking their clothes. Seeing him enter, it was Sirius again who introduced himself first and broke the silence.

"Hey, I'm Sirius, this is James, and that's Remus. I think the guy snoring like a foghorn's name is Peter, but I'm not sure."

"Frank Longbottom. Long day, huh?" said Frank, opening his trunk.

"No kidding," responded James.

Although Frank was the last to enter the room, he was the first to unpack and get into bed. Yawning and groaning, James, Sirius, and Remus finally finished unpacking and pulled out their pajamas to change. Sirius, who had been dying to tease James about the redhead girl, finally found his moment.

"I saw that," said Sirius, pulling back his covers and crawling into bed.

"Saw what?" asked James curiously before pulling his hangings shut.

"You blushed when that red-haired girl looked at you," answered Remus behind his hangings.

"Did not!" protested James, "I don't even know her!"

"We never said you did James," replied Sirius with a smirk as he tucked himself in.

Too tired to protest, James fell asleep, his dreams filled with Lily Evans sitting in the Quidditch stands cheering for him loudly as he scored the first goal for Gryffindor.

Chapter 1: