Young

Lily’s form tutor was a man named Mr Paxton. She wasn’t overly keen on him but he was certainly tolerable. To her, he spoke too much and seemed to shake every time he had a drink.

Fortunately, the girl Lily had been sat next to, Mary Macdonald, was far more entertaining. The two of them had spent a majority of their form time before break talking with each other about how they thought the day would go and exchanging information they had on the layout of their day. In all honesty, Mary didn’t seem as keen about the structure of their day as Lily was but she joined in nonetheless.

“Gosh, does he ever shut up? I swear he’s said this already,” Lily grumbled leaning back in her seat. Mary let out a short breath of contentment before putting her hand up. Mr Paxton put a finger up to her telling her to wait. This time, Lily laughed.

“Clearly not. Oh my god!” Mary laughed alongside her new friend. Lily thought Mary was pretty. Very pretty. She might even go as far as to say she was gorgeous. Her smile was pretty too. Lily couldn’t stop looking at her. She was gorgeous.

Charity was on the opposite side of the room to Mary and Lily and was sat next to the Edmund boy that she knew. The seemed to be whispering to each other rather than listening to Mr Paxton too. Actually, looking around, nobody was listening to him. Well, nobody except one boy. He had dark shiny hair that honestly look quite greasy. Lily sat in thought. He looked quite familiar but she couldn’t place where she knew him from.

“Ooh, who you lookin’ at?” Mary asked with her face close to Lily’s ear making her jolt in surprise. She hadn’t even realised Mary had scooted her chair across.

“Gosh— oh, I don’t know. That boy there. I recognise him. I dunno where from though,” Lily whispered leaning back closer to Mary. Mary squinted at him for a few moments before shrugging her shoulders and leaning back in her chair.

“Yeah, I dunno either. Greasy lookin’ though.” Lily nodded along slowly to her words.

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Eventually, each form was taken out to the assembly and much to their delight, Lily and Charity had been right about the assembly. They explained the house system to everyone and spoke about house points which could be given and taken depending on whether an individual displayed good or bad behaviour.

To their surprise, they were also told about the common rooms for each house which could be accessed by a chip placed in each tie. The common rooms were a designated place which differed depending on which house someone was in and could only be accessed by people of that house. Lily and Mary who had sat next to each other in the assembly both turned to look at the other’s tie in unison and thankfully, both ties were red which bought a large grin to both faces before they turned back to listen to the rest of the assembly.

After the assembly had finished, Mary and Lily waited outside together to meet James, Peter, Marlene and the others. Charity and Edmund met them first and Charity would not stop talking about how excited she was to go to the common rooms. Her excitement was shared with Lily, although she tried to hide it. Mary didn’t seem as excited as the others but she did seem happy about it.

On their way out of the assembly, everyone had been given timetables so they would know where to go after lunch. Unfortunately, Mary and Lily weren’t together for their last lesson but checking through, Lily and Charity noticed that they shared every lesson.

“Isn’t that fun!” Charity chirped and Lily smiled back. Charity was lovely and always had been. There were certainly times when she got too much for Lily to handle but she never really meant any harm which only made Lily feel guilty for how irritable she was. People used to joke about her anger being caused by her hair but everyone knew the joke was just them lying through their teeth and picking on her.

“Hey!” a voice yelled and they heard heavy footsteps approach them from behind. It was James. Benjy and Emma weren’t too far behind but Lily noticed Emma tap Benjy’s shoulder impatiently and point and with that, they turned and walked away and fade into another group of people.

“What’ve you got last?” Charity asked and James stood squinting for a moment before reaching into his pocket for his timetable.

“Didn’t you check?” Mary asked as she leaned closer to Charity and whispered, “What’s his name?”

“James,” Charity answered and Mary nodded slowly. James finished skimming through his timetable and looked back up to Lily.

“Science with M-M-C.”

“We do too!” Charity smiled lightly punching Lily’s arm.

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Mary joined the group at lunch time under the willow tree and this time, Benjy and Emma weren’t there with them. Lily assumed that they made other friends in their form that they had gone to meet with. James stayed with Lily and the others though so he hadn’t been completely absorbed by other people yet. Lily silently prayed that things would be able to stay like this; their primary school friend group with the addition of Mary and Edmund. It wasn’t too small so there were enough people to go around but it wasn’t too big that it was a whole hoard of people sat under the willow tree.

“Wow, you’ve got a cool space here, haven’t you?” Mary yawned as she leant against the willow tree. “Can’t believe I didn’t spot it.”

“Peter’s the one who saw it,” Charity pointed out as she draped her blazer on the grass. Edmund and Lily did the same whereas Marlene and Mary just took them off and folded them nest to them.

The weather had certainly become hotter in the last hour. Lily was quite thankful she’d chosen to wear a short sleeved shirt rather than the long sleeved one her Mum had recommended. Charity and Mary had short sleeved shirts too but Marlene was wearing long sleeved.

“Are you not hot?” Mary asked looking directly at Marlene with a quizzical look. It seemed they were thinking the same thing. Marlene looked around before settling on looking at Mary.

“What, me?”

“Yes you. I’m looking at you! Why would I be talking to someone else?” Marlene shrugged.

“I’m not hot. It’s a good temperature.” Mary raised her eyebrows and turned muttering the words, “Bloody hell,” under her breath.

Peter pulled a pot of peach rings out of his bag and placed them in the middle of everyone.

“Sorry, I didn’t think there would be this many of us. If I— I would have bought more if I knew,” he said as he placed a pot of grapes beside it. They all stared blankly at him for a few moments before James smiled and broke the silence by unzipping his bag.

“Thanks Pete,” he muttered with a smile on his face as he himself placed another pot beside Peter’s. He took the lid off and Lily saw it was a pot of carrot sticks although there weren’t many. There couldn’t have been more than ten.

“Oh, it looks like you,” Marlene laughed pointing at Lily and Mary let out a small snort.

“Oi! You’re one to talk and— Mary!”

“Sorry, sorry Lily,” Mary said shaking a hand at Lily. “It caught me off guard. I never thought to make a joke like that ‘bout your hair.” Lily huffed and took a peach ring from the pot and slotted it onto her ring finger and instantly, James did the same with a grin.

“Oh, leave me alone Potter!” James chuckled and wiggled in his space as he lifted his finger to his mouth and bit the peach ring off humming an apology at the same time.

The rest of lunch passed by too fast for Lily’s liking but she guessed it just meant they had been having fun. Lily, Mary and Marlene spent most of their time talking to each other with Peter occasionally making a few remarks only to be swatted away by Mary as she laughed at his mock fright. James and Peter mostly ate the food from their pots whilst holding peaceful conversation whilst Edmund and Charity did their own thing.

It was lovely to sit with everyone and their new friends. At the end of year six, Charity and Alice had begun to separate from the rest of the group to watch the football and Marlene would often go with them which left Lily with James and Peter. They weren’t bad company but they were also different to how Lily and Marlene would be together with Alice and Charity. Lily took comfort in everyone being together again even if Charity and Marlene were talking with other people. Everyone was still together.

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The bell soon rang and they began to pack up their things and head to lessons. Lily, James and  Charity opted to walk together given that they shared a lesson whilst Marlene and Mary walked to their lesson together. Edmund and Peter walked side by side but hardly spoke.

So far, today had been good. Lily could only pray that it wouldn’t end badly.

Lily, James and Charity’s classroom was right and the end of the corridor. Outside, it crowed with other students who seemed friendly enough. Lily recognised the Emma girl that James had brought with him earlier standing outside with Hestia and another girl. Both Emma and Hestia smiled and waved but their friend glanced over at Lily with a raised eyebrow before turning back to conversation.

A silhouette of a lady passed by the dark window of the door making people turn to look and just as they did, the door opened and an older looking lady with a dark green dress appeared with a half friendly smile on her face.

“Come on in,” she said with her smile fading slightly as everyone slowly filed in to the classroom. “Please stand at the back and wait to be seated.” Lily, James and Charity were the last people into the room.

“Good afternoon,” James smiled to who Lily presumed was their teacher as he made his way in. Briefly, her eyes widened as though she was taken aback by James’ words which only made him smile even more. After a few moments, she replied with, “Good afternoon to you too sir.”

“I didn’t think of that,” Charity whispered across to James as they stood at the back. Before James could respond, the lady began to speak.

“When I say your name, you will come and sit in the seat I point to, yes?” Everyone nodded and the lady began to read names off the list she held and point to a seat smiling at each person who moved.

“Lily Evans.” Lily stood up straighter holding her bag tight and made her way towards her allocated seat.

“Amelia Bones,” was the next name and the lady pointed to the next seat along. Placing her bag under the table, Lily turned around to see who moved next. She was a relatively tall girl with dark red hair and as soon as she made eye contact with Lily, her face lit up. She pulled out her chair and sat down leaning closer to Lily and whispered, “I love your hair.” Lily could hear the smile in her voice clear as day and it felt so genuine that Lily couldn’t help but smile herself. This was going to be great and she hardly knew anything about Amelia Bones.

Their teacher introduced herself as Ms Mcgonagall and informed the class that she was also the head of Gryffindor House. There was a brief introduction to the science department where the curriculum and structure of lessons was explained however Mcgonagall explained that she would rather not waste time.

Ms Mcgonagall spent the entire lesson explaining and quizzing people in the equipment and materials in the room along with elements in the periodic table that would be needed for their time in school. At every opportunity, Amelia would turn to Lily and begin conversation in an attempt for them to get to know each other. They tried to hide it from Mcgonagall but Lily could tell from her glances and smiles that she knew what they were doing but she didn’t seem to mind.