Chapter Ten
The Beginning
Lily Evans was sitting in the grass. With her back against the hedge she was laughing and talking with James and Allison.
Suddenly Lily gasped. Allison was changing. Her vivid blue eyes turned to brown and her short brown hair lengthened and darkened becoming a raven color. Her bangs became messier and her entire appearance seemed so much younger.
But what shocked Lily the most was that Allison now had the same eyes and hair and looked so much like . . .
"James?" Lily woke only to find two brown eyes staring back into her own.
"James" let out a screech and Lily discovered that it was an owl not James. Lily shoved the owl off of her and sat up rubbing her eyes wearily. What was an owl doing on her bed at this hour of the morning?
"Askim? Come here you crazy owl." A sleepy voice said coming from one of the other beds.
Arabella's head appeared poking out of one of the other four poster beds. The owl stared around stupidly until it saw Arabella waving her arm around and yawning. It flew over to her with a letter attached to its leg. Arabella untied it and the owl fluttered about before finally settling on Lily's bed.
"Ruddy owl, I'd like to see it deliver a letter to the right person just this once. I have Sirus' mail again." Arabella sighed and proceeded to roll her eyes.
"What's its name?" Lily asked reaching out to stroke the owl.
"Askhim."
"Excuse me?" Lily didn't understand what she had said.
"Ask him." Arabella said shuffling through the pile of letters in her lap.
Lily glanced at the owl. Did Arabella just tell her to ask the owl its name?
"A letter for Mr. Black. Another letter for Sirius. Does this owl ever deliver anything?" Arabella groaned shaking her head.
"Okay owl. What's your name?" Lily asked kindly.
The owl said nothing but stared back at her stupidly as if mocking her. It seemed to think that she was more insane than she thought. It wasn't making matters any better.
"Lily." Arabella said giggling.
"That's the owl's name. Ask him." She said.
Lily smiled finally realizing what she was saying.
"Whose stroke of brilliance was that?" Lily asked.
"Sirius'."Arabella said rolling her eyes.
"I should have known." Lily said grinning.
"Out of all this mail I got one letter from Mom." Arabella said tying about five letters back onto the owl's leg.
"And that." Lily said indicating the pile that still remained on her bed.
"Is all Sirius' mail." Arabella said watching the owl fly out of sight.
Lily and Arabella turned to each other and laughed. It was an interesting start to the day.
*
James ran around the Boys dormitory trying to gather his books together. As usual he was the last one awake. He almost missed Tiffany at times like these. At least she was a dependable alarm clock. He dashed down the stairs and ran through the empty common room heading for the portrait.
"Wait up!"
James stopped mid step to find Lily Evans hurrying toward him.
"I need your help." She said.
"So the damsel in distress is asking me for help." James said grinning wryly.
"Don't get your hopes up." She said.
"So what do you need help with? Do you need me to rescue you, defeat a dragon, save you from the bully or do you need me to"
"Well first of all I need you to shut up." Lily cut in.
"Second of all I need to know where the Great Hall is." Lily explained.
"Just follow me and I'll show you." He said.
He opened the portrait and three people tumbled in. Lily and James jumped out of the way as they got to their feet. It was Arabella, and a boy and a girl that Lily didn't recognize.
"I take it you couldn't find the Great Hall." Lily said to Arabella.
"No. But I found these two, they couldn't find it either." Arabella said gesturing to the two others who had gotten to their feet.
The boy had light brown hair and the girl was a petite blond. Almost immediately Lily thought of Violet when she saw this girl. Maybe it was because of her long blond hair or the way that James and the other boy were staring at her. Lily didn't know but she reminded her of Violet. The girl looked up at them with wide gray eyes and smiled shyly.
"I'm Gloria." She said to Lily and James.
"Hello, I'm Lily." Lily said smiling.
James was still staring at her. Lily felt a surge of jealousy rush through her and scowled. She elbowed James snapping him out of his trance.
"What?" He asked her.
"Are you going to introduce yourself?" Lily asked him.
"Oh yeah I'm James Potter. But you can call me James." James was giving her a funny smile.
Lily and Arabella rolled their eyes.
"I'm Remus." Said the boy beside Arabella.
"Okay now that we all know each other let's get to the Great Hall before we lose our breakfast." Arabella said.
"James you can lead us." Lily said smiling sweetly.
"Uh yeah I'll lead us there." James said smiling.
He winked at Gloria who wasn't even looking at him. Lily groaned and pushed him through the portrait. The others followed her lead.
Five minutes later . . .
"Hey didn't we pass that portrait a few minutes ago." Gloria said pointing to a portrait of a clumsy knight falling off of his horse.
"No." James said.
"James how many portraits are there of knights falling off of their horses." Arabella said.
James pretended he didn't hear her.
"Apparently several." Lily said laughing.
Ten minutes later . . .
"Okay this time I'm sure that's the same portrait!" Arabella grumbled.
"No. James still isn't sure. Maybe we should pass it about four more times." Lily said sarcastically.
"Yeah maybe then he'll recognize it on the tenth time." Remus mumbled.
"You never know, ten may just be the magic number." Gloria said joining in.
"Okay I get the picture. You guys think we're going around in circles." James said scowling.
"I wonder how we got that idea." Arabella wondered aloud.
"Maybe that's because we are!" Lily said frustrated.
"Since Lily was kind enough to point that out to us." James said grinning.
"I suggest she leads." He said shoving her forward.
"Excuse me but if you remember correctly I was the one who asked for help in the first place!" Lily protested.
"That's exactly why you should lead." James explained.
"So much for my knight in shining armor." Lily muttered.
"Hey guys!" Someone yelled.
Lily turned to see Allison and Sirius running toward them. They stopped before her to catch their breath.
"Don't tell me you guys don't know where the Great Hall is either." Lily said.
"Where have you guys been? We've been at the Gryffindor table for the last half hour waiting for you." Allison said.
"We got lost and we couldn't find the Great Hall." Arabella said shooting a glare in James direction.
"It's a long story. Just bring us to the Great Hall before breakfast is over." Lily said quickly.
Allison and Sirius exchanged confused glances but obediently started toward the Great Hall.
Several minutes later they sat down at the Gryffindor Table. It ended up that James had led them in the wrong direction. Molly and Arthur were curious and asked why they were so late for breakfast. Lily was more then happy to explain the situation to them and Allison and Sirius.
"After passing the portrait for the sixth time I think he finally realized that we were going in circles." Lily explained.
"And then Sirius and Allison came and saved the day!" Sirius said.
He and Allison high-fived. James shot them a sulky look. Lily looked like she wanted to say something to James but just then there was a screech.
Suddenly the room was filled with nearly a hundred owls. All fluttering about they landed on the various tables dropping packages and letters into student's hands, onto their heads and even in Askhim's case into Allison's goblet. Lily was amazed and wondered how she would ever get used to it. Allison on the other hand was far from amused.
"What is this?" She asked pulling a soggy letter from her goblet.
"Hey it's a letter for my Dad." Sirius said grabbing it from her hands.
"Oh that reminds me. I have your mail." Arabella took the five letters from her pocket and handed it to him.
"Thanks. Look this one's from last month. Hey James I got that letter you sent me two months ago." Sirius was going through the pile of apparently old mail.
"Does that owl actually know how to deliver mail to the right person?" Arabella asked him.
"Hey it got it to me eventually." Sirius said honestly.
"But the letters came to me. It's supposed to go to you. And your Dads letters are supposed to go to him." Arabella explained.
"That's exactly why I keep him around." Sirius was now opening his Dad's letter.
"Hey that's your Dads mail!" Allison said warningly.
"So?" Sirius grinned and unfolded the letter.
"Dear Mr. Black,
Your son has once again invaded my garden. The gnomes are out of control. It took me and Archie three hours to get rid of those things. This is the absolute last time I am putting up with that wretched son of yours. I suggest you punish him and instruct him to stay out of my garden." Sirius read.
He wasn't able to finish because he was laughing too much.
"If he continues to get letters like this one, I see why he keeps that idiot of an owl around." Lily said.
"With Sirius, there's always a reason for everything." Arabella said.
"Seeing how you guys are great with directions and have excellent leaders." Molly said sarcastically.
Lily and Arabella smirked and looked at James.
"I'll show you where your first class is." Molly offered.
Lily and the others were more than happy to accept her offer. Even James after some convincing from Gloria went along with the idea. Of course Arthur insisted that it was part of his "Head Boy" duties to accompany them. Molly said that he was just doing it to show off. Lily though, thought privately that Arthur just wanted another opportunity to walk with Molly. Allison was grinning and Lily was sure that she was thinking along the same lines.
A few minutes later they arrived at the History of Magic classroom. Lily had taken notice of the portraits, staircases, and suits of armor on the way there so she'd no how to get there tomorrow. But when one of the staircases started moving Lily realized that the situation was hopeless. How was she ever going to find her way around this huge castle when everything was constantly changing?
They thanked Molly and Arthur and hurriedly took their seats. Lily sat down in between James and Allison and began taking her books from her bag as an elderly man walked in.
"Welcome to History of Magic. I am Professor Binns." The elderly man said in a dull voice.
"We will waste no time and get immediately to note taking. So please take out a piece of paper and your quill. Take notes as I speak because I will not be repeating anything and you will all be tested on this." He said in the same boring tone.
Lily could tell this was not going to be her favorite class. It was confirmed when the old man took out a huge book that had to be over 1,000 pages labeled "History of Magic Year One." And began reading from it word from word in a monotone voice.
"Now this is what I call fun." Allison said unenthusiastically.
The non-stop fun continued as five people fell asleep, including Sirius, Allison and Arabella. By the end of the class Lily's own eyelids were drooping and James wasn't having much luck keeping his eyes open either. After what seemed like an eternity the class was allowed to go. Lily was one of the few people that leapt up from her seat, the others were all nodding off.
"Let's go Allison." Lily said poking her.
Allison mumbled something that sounded like "having too much fun" and buried herself into the book as if it were a pillow. Lily sighed and tried poking her again.
After a bit of trouble Lily, James, Remus and Gloria eventually got the others up. They started after a group of second year boys before realizing their class was in the other direction. Gloria asked them for directions but unfortunately she had a similar effect on them like she had had on James.
"Yeah my names hold on I'll think of it. I know it begins with a, um, it begins with a" One of the boys stuttered.
"We need directions to the Potions dungeon." Lily repeated slowly to one of the boys who was still in a trance.
"Forget it." Arabella said grabbing Lily and Gloria.
"Hey wait my names Jim!"
"Next time Gloria, let us do the talking." Allison said quickly.
James asked a curly haired third year where the potions dungeon was. The girl was happy to point out where it was for them and soon they were on their way.
"Hey looks like we actually made it to class on time." Sirius exclaimed as they came into the chilly dungeon.
"Another miracle." Arabella said blandly as she sat down beside Gloria.
Lily immediately noticed that the other students were far from friendly looking. They were of course the Slytherins. She recognized Severus Snape from the boat incident sitting in the back of the room with a group of guys that were all not very pleasant looking. While she was frowning, Sirius was grinning as if Christmas had come early.
"This is going to be a great year." Sirius said snickering.
"I hope you're right." Allison said quietly.
She looked far from happy.
"Hello Class." A woman was standing at the front of the class.
She was slightly overweight with flushed cheeks and blond curls that had been pulled away from her face. Her eyes were merry and a small smile adorned her face. A bubbling cauldron stood on a pedestal in front of her. It was smoking and causing her face to turn a bright shade pink.
"I am Professor Bottle and I will be teaching you the art of Potions." She said in a bright voice.
"I will be taking roll call as soon as I find that dratted book of mine that always"
A huge bubble formed in the cauldron and suddenly popped. A bang followed and the cauldron began hissing. A book covered in slime was now floating on the surface of the substance in the cauldron. The Professor giggled and pulled the rank book free.
"I guess I misplaced it." She said giggling and then proceeded to take role call.
The Professor wasn't very organized. She hadn't prepared the lesson and spent most of the class searching for things that "mysteriously" turned up in the cauldron. Each time this happened she'd be shocked and laugh once more. Lily was surprised that she didn't catch on that she had a tendency to place things in the cauldron.
"I just don't know where it has got too. It was just here a minute ago. Will you look at that, it was in my cauldron. I must have misplaced it. How did it get there?" She was staring puzzled at a large book that had surfaced.
"This isn't it." She sighed.
She tossed the book carelessly onto Gloria's desk. Gloria and Arabella leaned forward to peer at the title. Gloria leapt back suddenly as if her desk was on fire. Arabella on the other hand bent over for a closer look. Gloria stopped her though shoving it off of the desk and back into the bubbling cauldron. It fell in with a splash and suddenly the substance turned a bright blue. Arabella scowled at Gloria who now seemed very busy taking notes.
"Ah it doesn't look like we'll be able to get to the lesson. It's such a shame. Where has the time gone?" The Professor wondered aloud.
"In the cauldron with everything else." Lily murmured.
"You may get to know each other for the remainder of the class." Professor Bottle announced and then she left heading into an office in the back.
"Well I can see we're going to learn a lot in this class." Allison said loudly once she had exited.
Immediately chatter filled the room. The Slytherins were talking amongst themselves in quiet voices pointing at something on the Gryffindor's side of the room. Lily was only half listening to her friend's conversation and while brooding over the odd lesson she unintentionally overheard something the Slytherins was saying.
"She's a traitor. There's nothing more to say about it." One girl said a little too loudly.
"Yes her sister's the same way hanging around with riff raffs from other houses." Lily heard another girl say.
"Perhaps they'll come to their senses and take advantage of their positions. I doubt it though." A boy said.
"It's a shame that such a powerful family has gone to waste." Snape said quietly.
"Ah such beauty wasted." The boy who had spoken earlier said grinning.
One of the girls hit him off the head with a book.
"Ouch what was that for? I was just telling the truth." He spat at her.
The girl rolled her eyes and the others snickered.
"We have Charms next. Lily, are you listening?" Allison was saying.
"Sorry Allison. What were you saying?" Lily asked hurriedly gathering her books together.
"Weren't you listening?"
"Apparently she wasn't." Arabella said picking up her books.
"Where have you been Lily? Gloria and James just announced their engagement." Allison said causing Lily's attention to instantly snap back to her.
"Yeah James and Gloria are getting married and we're expecting Sirius and Allison's engagement any day now." Arabella said sarcastically.
Allison scowled and hit her.
"What?" Lily asked having difficulty keeping her voice down.
"Now she's listening." Remus said smiling amusedly.
"Works like a charm. Just mention her boyfriend's name and she's all ears." Arabella said exchanging a grin with Remus and Allison.
"Let's get to class shall we?" Lily said hastily changing the subject.
"What you don't want to talk about him now?" Allison teased.
"We have Charms next don't we? Well what are we waiting for?" Lily didn't wait for their reply but instead brushed past the smirking trio and started out the door.
"Gloria's got competition." Remus remarked.
Arabella and Allison laughed and the three of them followed Lily to Charms.
*
"Charms is the basis of all other branches of magic. It is one of your more important subjects. One of the reasons why I teach this subject is because it involves wand work and is generally more useful considering that your most important thing is your wand and not the girl next to you Mr. Potter." The Charms Professor was seated on her desk at the front of the room staring down at James Potter.
"Huh?" James looked up confused, he had of course been staring at Gloria.
"I would prefer it if you paid more attention to me. Ms. Rosier is not the one teaching the class."
The classroom rang with laughter. The Professor, a young women with dark brown hair, smiled in spite of herself.
"But that does not mean that this class will be all fun and games. It will require the learning and mastering of many difficult charms and this will require effort on your part Mr. Potter." She went on seriously.
James blushed under her stare and seemed to shrink in his seat. Lily covered her mouth stifling a giggle, Gloria had stacked up her books in front of her face and Allison and Arabella looked like they might burst from trying to hold in the laughter. Sirius and Remus were grinning, no doubt they were thinking of teasing James later.
"Now that I have Mr. Potter's attention. I would like to break you all into pairs. We will start working on a simple charm that hopefully all of you will be able to master by our next lesson. You will be working on the levitation Charm "Wingardium Leviosa"." The Professor jumped off the desk and moved over to the Ravenclaws splitting them into pairs as she went.
"So I hear Gloria's been teaching James a thing or two." Sirius whispered to Remus.
"Maybe we should sign up for lessons." Remus said grinning mischievously.
"Stop it you two. Here she comes."
"I'll have Mr. Black and Ms. Figg. Mr. Lupin you will be working with Ms. Dragonwood. Oh dear we have an odd number." The Professor said glancing at the remaining three Lily, James and Gloria.
"We can't have any distractions so I'm afraid you two will be separated." She gestured to Gloria and James. "Ms. Evans you will work with Mr. Potter and Ms. Rosier you will be working with those two over there." The Professor said pointing Remus and Allison out to her and Gloria gladly went to join them.
"Now follow my movements. Say the words Wingardium Leviosa while swishing and then flick. Like this." She demonstrated the Levitation Charm for them levitating a book off of Allison's desk.
Lily had never seen any magic performed other then the map spell Mr. Figg had performed in Diagon alley and the spell that James had performed on the train. This would be her first time performing her own spell. She watched carefully as the Charms professor demonstrated the spell several times slowly so that they could catch each step.
"See? That's not too hard. I'm sure you'll all have it in no time. Now start trying the spell on those feathers."
"Easy for her too say." Lily grumbled picking up her own wand with a trembling hand.
"Oh come on how hard can it be." James said confidently taking up his own wand.
"You've done magic before. I've never done anything like this." Lily said nervously.
"Lily I know you've done magic before." James said in a quiet tone.
"But I haven't." Lily protested.
"Yes you have." James insisted.
"I haven't."
"You have. But if you won't listen to me on that one then just watch the clever, intelligent, almighty master of Charms James Potter and learn." James said flashing a confident smile.
"Show off." Lily muttered rolling her eyes.
James chose to ignore this comment and instead rolled up his sleeves. Then he raised his wand in an elegant manner. He studied the feather for a long moment as if pondering then he said the words. Lily waited but nothing happened. The feather seemed to have moved just slightly but not even a centimeter off of the table.
"I was just warming up." James insisted.
James did three more "warm-ups" before Lily finally got fed up and took matters into her own hands. She wanted to take a stab at it.
"That was only a test. Now this is the real thing." James said for the second time.
"Right." Lily said sarcastically rolling up her sleeves, mimicking him.
"Now watch the clever, intelligent, almighty master of Charms Lily Evans and learn." Lily said imitating him.
James scowled as Lily began to imitate his movements. She raised her wand in the same elegant manner and studied the feather for several moments, pretending to ponder.
"Wingardium Leviosa." Lily said flicking her wand at the feather.
She hadn't really expected anything to happen but now Lily felt the wand in her hand become warm. The feather shuddered and then suddenly began to move upward. Lily watched in fascination as the feather drifted lazily toward the ceiling and she slowly followed it with her wand. She had levitated the feather into the air! She had just performed her first spell!
"Well it looks like someone has mastered the spell already." The Professor said smiling at the floating feather. Her eyes slowly came back to Lily who still wouldn't take her eyes off of the feather. The smile spread across the woman's face.
"Ten points to Gryffindor for Ms. Evans excellent charm work." She announced.
The other Gryffindors turned and grinned at Lily. James was the only one who wasn’t smiling. He was disappointed that he hadn’t mastered the Charm first. After all Lily was a muggle born and had done less magic then he did.
“You can let the feather drop now.” The women told her.
Lily blushed and broke eye contact with the feather. She placed her wand back on the table and watched as the feather came slowly down to rest between her and James. James wasn’t smiling though.
“I mastered the Levitation Charm.” Lily said happily.
“Good for you.” James said unenthusiastically.
He tried again determined to be second but it was rather useless. The feather only rolled over on the desk. James discarded the wand and sat back in his chair.
“Don’t give up now.” Lily said trying to be encouraging.
“It’s no use.”
“Please. This is the Master of Charms I thought we were talking about. You know the clever, intelligent, almighty master of Charms James Potter.” Lily said jokingly.
“But now there’s the clever, intelligent, almighty master of Charms Lily Evans.” James said pathetically.
“True, but I learned from the one to first claim that title.” Lily said quietly.
James looked at Lily and their eyes met. A smile formed on her lips. It must have been contagious because the found himself smiling back.
“Hey look Professor our feathers on fire!” Sirius said loudly.
“SIRIUS!” Arabella shouted.
Lily and James both started laughing.
“Come on give me a break. It’s only one charm. It was pure luck.” Lily said laughing.
“Then let me see if luck’s on my side also. Because I know it’s definitely not on Arabella’s side.” James said laughing also.
James quieted down though Lily was still silently laughing. James still made everything seem like a big act and made it more complicated then it actually was. It was ridiculous to see him acting in that elegant, solemn manner.
“Wingardium Leviosa.” James said flicking his wand at it.
The feather lifted off the desk and then instantly dropped. James frowned and Lily had difficulty stifling a grin.
“Wingardium Leviosa.” James said swishing and flicking as if it were a lost cause.
To their surprise the feather levitated high into the air heading for the ceiling. James concentrated on it positively delighted that his feather was second. The Professor smiled at the two students and clapped her hands.
“Another ten points to Gryffindor for Mr. Potter’s Levitation Charm. You may all go now.”
James broke eye contact with it and the feather came drifting back to the desk. Lily picked it up and twirled it in her fingertips.
“See it wasn’t that hard.” Lily said grinning.
“Easy for you too say.” James remarked.
“Luck was on my side.” Lily said shrugging and grabbing her books.
“So do I reclaim the title?” James asked her grinning.
“We’ll see about that.” Lily said winking as they headed for the door.
The two friends grinned seeing a competition coming into play.
“First one to the Great Hall wins.” Lily said grinning mischievously.
Together they took off, racing down the empty corridor.
*
“How was your first day of classes?” Arthur asked Lily.
“Oh it was just peachy.” Lily said smiling.
“What happened?” Molly asked.
“Professor Binn’s class was incredibly interesting.” Lily said sarcastically causing Allison to snort and Molly to grin.
“I’m glad someone else appreciates the subject.” Arthur said beaming at Lily. Allison was giggling.
“And then Potions, we learned so much I thought my brain might burst.” Allison started laughing loudly.
“Oh and James always pays attention to the Professors. Did you know that Gloria Rosier teaches Charms? Neither did I. But James paid extra special attention to her.” Allison fell off the chair laughing with a thud.
“Sounds like an interesting day.” Molly said raising an eyebrow.
“It was.” Lily said nodding.
“Don’t worry about Potions. It’s a difficult class but you’ll get the hang of it. You just have to put a lot of effort into the class.” Arthur assured her.
Lily started laughing but then she saw that both Molly and Arthur were serious.
“Oh. Thanks for the reassurance. I’ll make sure to work harder in that class and next time I’ll say “here” louder when she calls my name.” She could hear Allison hyperventilating behind her.
Molly glanced over at Allison who was trying unsuccessful to muffle her laughter.
“What’s wrong with her?” Molly asked.
“Potions, it was too much for her.” Lily explained shaking her head sadly.
“Poor girl, only some can handle that class.” Arthur said sympathetically.
Allison crumpled to the ground in a fit of hysterical laughter.
*
“Oh dear I don’t think I’ll be able to breathe again.” Allison said between gasps.
“I still don’t see what’s so funny.” James said perplexed by Allison’s odd behavior.
“It’s nothing.” Lily said grinning.
Allison started laughing again causing James to look at her as if she had six heads.
“I’m” She could barely speak. “Going to” More laughter followed. “Bed” Then before either of them could object Allison went laughing up the steps to the Dormitory.
“What’s wrong with her?” James asked Lily.
“The gravy had sugar in it.” Lily explained.
“I see.”
A short pause followed.
“No more gravy for Allison.”
“Yeah it might be best if she stayed away from sugar altogether.” Lily said nodding in agreement.
There was a crash from upstairs causing them both to jump.
“I think I better go make sure our friend Allison hasn’t found anymore sugar, or a wand for that matter.” She said getting up hastily from her chair.
“Watch out she could be dangerous.” James joked.
“Thanks for the reminder.” Lily said climbing the stairs.
“Goodnight Lily.” James called after her.
“Goodnight James.” Lily said quietly.
Hurriedly Lily made her way toward the dormitories hoping that Allison hadn’t broken anything. As she reached for the doorknob something suddenly came over her. Shaking, she slowly opened the door wondering what she would find.
A piercing scream met her ears. And then there was silence.
Chapter Eleven