First Meetings
James
James can already tell that he and Sirius are going to be friends. James had been warned that the Blacks were the worst kind of purebloods, but his parents also always taught him to give people chances, “you should judge a person's character with your own brain, not with other peoples” his father had always said, and it only took a 2 minute conversion to realize that Sirius hated his parents and everything they believed in.
As they stand in a group waiting for the sorting, James searches the crowd for the red haired girl from the platform, he's not even sure why, but he needs to find her again, he wishes he knew her name. Next to him, Sirius is buzzing with nervous energy, and Pete looks like he is going to throw up. James, absolutely hating the tension, says “come on guys, why so nervous, whatever you get it's not a big deal!” Sirius looks like he's about to cry, “every member of my family has been in slytherin, I don't want to be like them” he whispers. Pete, still looking slightly sick, said nothing. James has no idea how to continue the conversation, as much as he would like to, so they wait in silence.
Sirius is the first of their group to be called up, he walks to the stool slowly, shaking slightly, and the hat is placed on his head. The hat takes an extraordinarily long time to decide, and poor Sirius sits there, nodding and shaking his head at whatever he it is he is hearing, until finally, finally, the hat shouts “GRYFFINDOR” and Sirius shakily walks to the Gryffindor table and sits down.
James only half pays attention to the sorting, cheering along with the other as the hat calls out houses, after about 10 minutes of this he hears “EVANS, LILY” and the red haired girl from the platform walks up to the stool with her head held high. James is paying attention now, still trying to put a finger on what it is about her that he likes about her so much, she seems so sure of herself, and he just can't takes his eyes off of her, she walks up to the stool and sits down, it takes the hat a good 30 seconds to decide with her, not nearly as long as with Sirius, but still longer than with most people, James is more curious about her than ever. Eventually Lily gets sorted into gryffindor and James cheers loudly as she walks to the gryffindor table, sitting down directly across from sirius.
James tunes out the rest of the sorting, still thinking about the red haired girl, at least he knows her name now. Lily, it's a lovely name really, it suits her, he can’t wait to try and talk to her, to learn more about her, he still can’t quite figure out why he likes her, but he wants, he NEEDS, to get to know her.
Eventually Peter gets called up and sorted into Gryffindor, he sits down next to Sirius, looking relieved. James is called up right after Peter, and sorted into gryffindor the moment the hat touched his head, as he had known he would. He sits next to Pete, on Sirius’ other side is a boy whose name James wasn't paying enough attention to remember, he is quietly eating his food, he looks shy, and he is covered in scars. James is too focused on Lily to wonder too much about that just now.
Lily is sitting across from the boys, in between a girl with dark skin and curly hair, and a girl with short bright blond hair (whos names james can also not seem to remember at the moment), the 3 of them are chattering happily, he tunes into their conversation, the blond girl seemingly explaining the wizarding world to the other two. James cuts in after a minute (Merlin knows he can’t stay quiet for anything) “Lily right?” he asks, holding out his hand for her to shake. She smiles and shakes his hand “that's right, and this is Mary Macdonald and Marlene Mckinnon” she says, gesturing to the two girls next to her. James smiles at her “nice to meet you, James Potter at your service”
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Lily
Lily is completely in awe of Hogwarts, she is too busy looking around to notice that Severus had hardly acknowledged her since they had gotten on the train. He is still standing next to her, along with the other 3 boys, he never did introduce them to her, and he has kept a running conversation with them since the train this morning. He hasn't spoken more than a couple words to her, and she still can't understand what him and the other 3 are talking about, eventually she stopped trying to decipher it.
She hears someone (presumably a professor) say that the sorting was about to take place. Severus had told her about the sorting, he was adamant that the only option for him was slytherin, but he doesn't really seem nervous. Lily isn't really nervous either, despite Severus’ insistence that slytherin was the only acceptable house, Lily acknowledged that as nothing more than family prejudice, and she didn't really care what house she is sorted into.
She watches the sorting, curiously looking around the great hall. When her name is called she walks up to the chair, and the hat is placed on her head, immediately she hears a voice in her head. “Well hello Miss. Evans, let's see shall we, I can already tell you'll be great, wherever I put you, you have great power, you wouldn't make a half bad slytherin” the hat murmurs “good heart too, and not a half bad brain” the hat continues. Lily flushes “thank you” she thinks as the hat continues “but above all, i believe that you will use that power of yours to fight for what you believe in, so best be, GRYFFINDOR”, the hat shouts the last word to the hall and Lily sits down across from a black haired boy, Lily remembers his name to be sirius. As she sits down she looks back at Severus, who is still waiting to be sorted, he is staring at her, looking, there's no other word for it, completely livid. She shutters, and turns away from him. As the sorting continues a girl sits down next to her, she introduces herself as Mary Macdonald, and she is shortly followed by a girl named Marlene Mckinnon, who sits on her other side. They effortlessly include her in their conversation and she learns that Mary is muggleborn, like her, and marlene starts excitedly explaining the features of hogwarts to both of them, she already likes both of them. There is a boy sitting across from them, he has round glasses and incredibly messy black hair, he radiates excited energy, even after such a long day, and she can't help but smile as he shakes her hand and introduces himself as James Potter.
Lying in her new bed that night, Lily cant stop thinking about James, she doesn't even know why. She had only spoken to him once, and, all things considered it had been an incredibly normal interaction, but still, there's something about him, she doesn't know if she likes it or not, but there's something about him that intrigues her.