Lily screwed up her eyes as she felt the tears coming. She had told herself already, she wasn't going to cry, she just wasn't. It's not something that Lily Potter did. Her mother and father were standing outside the train window, as the whistle blew, and the train started chugging away. Her Dad jumped up and down for a moment, realising that his tawny owl was no longer on his shoulder, but flying alongside Lily's window. Lily giggled happily as Harry ran alongside the train chasing the owl, until the latter two sped up, and Harry returned to the hysterically laughing Ginny. Froggy, the owl, followed the train for a few more minutes before turning back to his owners.

Lily watched the dense city turn into quieter suburbs as she slowly realised that it didn't matter she was leaving her parents for the first time – she was going to Hogwarts! The tears that had been in her eyes before slowly disappeared, and she settled back in her seat as she thought about how much she would learn at her new school. Lily turned to survey the other people in her compartment on the Hogwarts Express. Her brothers had both run off to find their friends as soon as they got to the station. Uncle Ron had helped her and Harry lift her trunk into an empty compartment, before they went back to talk to the gossiping mothers. Her cousin Rose, who was just starting her third year with Albus, had talked to Lily for a little bit, before her little brother Hugo, a second year, stole her bag and ran off, so clearly Rose had to run after to retrieve it. Lily had sighed, and walked back to her mother's side to say her final goodbye. Lily had been somewhat surprised to find two other first-years in her compartment, a small blonde girl wearing multicoloured glasses, and a tall brunette boy. Suspiciously tall, Lily thought. She wasn't sure if it was the girl's glasses reflecting, but one of her eyes looked violet.

Lily suddenly noticed that the two children had been staring at her strangely. Well, the boy had been staring at her with fascination and awe on his face, and the girl was looking at her strangely. There was a slightly inquisitive expression in her eyes, and she was watching Lily like she could explode at any moment, or start spewing dungbombs out of her ears. Lily presumed this wasn't because of her red ringlets – there were many small branches of the Weasley family tree in Hogwarts at the moment.

"Are those your parents?" the boy squeaked. Lily was slightly surprised at his tone. She did look rather like her mother, despite her ringlets, and had the eyes of her father, though they were deep brown, not green. She nodded, and her eyes narrowed suspiciously. It was a slightly stupid question.

"You mean, Harry Potter is your dad?" Again Lily nodded, her eyes like slits.

"That is so cool!" The boy was practically at an ultrasonic level. "Your dad is like, famous! He killed You-Know-Who!"

Lily's ears were starting to hurt. It was hard to believe such a tall person could go so high. "To be honest, I would prefer it if you called him Voldemort. That scum doesn't deserve to have his name revered," she said coolly, watching the brown haired boy shrewdly.

The boy seemed utterly starstruck, and completely failed to notice the chilly air Lily gave her words. "Jared Diggory," he said, sticking out his hand with a dazed look in his eyes. Lily rolled her eyes and shook it briefly.

"Lily Potter." She still had her eyes narrowed – this boy was bugging her.

"You know, sometimes, first impressions are really hard to take back. I'd stop staring if I were you." The small blonde girl spoke for the first time, directing her comment at the Diggory boy. Lily looked at her, reminding her of a friend of her parents.

"Is your mother called Luna, by any chance?" Lily asked the girl, whose eyes widened a little. Yes, Lily thought. Her right eye is definitely violet.

"Yes, Luna Thomas, though she'd never admit it. How did you- oh, wait, she's friends with your mum and dad. I'm Astra, and my brother is Cyrus, but he's not here right now. I think he ran off to find the food trolley, he's always hungry," the girl said, without much pause for breath. "Oh, Jared, stop staring, you're making me uncomfortable, and I'm not even the one you're star- what are you doing?" Astra interrupted herself again.

Lily had suddenly gasped, climbing on to her seat to try and reach a large wicker basket which bore a strong resemblance to a picnic basket, and sat on the top of her trunk in the luggage rack. She caught the front of the basket with the tips of her fingers and pulled it forwards. The basket suddenly tipped, and there was a loud hiss from inside.

"Is that a snake? I don't like snakes, they're not nice, they can kill people just by looking at you!" Jared was rather hysterical. His eyes had widened, and the blood had drained from his face. He looked petrified.

"No you dolt, he's a cat. Big difference. Snakes don't sound like that," Lily said, exasperated. She caught the top of the basket and pulled the lid off. A small tuxedo cat climbed out, and jumped down, finding Lily's seat by the window, and sat down in the centre of the warm spot. Lily turned to find both other occupants staring at her cat. "What?" she asked.

Astra was the first to come out of her reverie. "Um… your cat is a metamorphmagus?" she said tentatively. "I didn't think that cats could be metamorphmagi…" She trailed off, hypnotised by the small, curled up ball of fluff on the seat.

Now Lily thought about it, her cat could seem quite odd to people who were not used to him. He was entirely black, except for his paws, belly and muzzle. They, at this moment, were red. "Umm… I don't remember what the lady in the shop said, but he's not a metamorphmagus, they are only human," Lily explained. "All I know, is that all his fur that isn't black changes colour, I think when he feels like it." Lily picked up her cat, sat down, and then plopped him on her lap, exposing the fact that his red fur had turned blue. The cat glared at her, clearly affronted. He jumped off her lap, then went to look at Astra. He sniffed her hand, gazed impassively at her, then seemed to judge her worthy, jumped on her lap, and promptly fell asleep. "His name is Jim."

"Why were you so worried that he was a snake?" Astra asked, absentmindedly stroking Jim as he dozed on her lap.

Jared looked uncomfortable at the question. "Um, well, um, he, um, snakes, um, snakes are scary," he finally spat out. His eyes widened, as, much to his horror, Lily burst out laughing.

"Snakes are scary!" She mimicked. "Snakes aren't scary!" she cried, between bouts of laughter. She leaned forwards, putting her head in her hands, and continued to laugh uncontrollably.

Suddenly, the compartment door opened. A boy, similar in looks to Astra, but with two blue eyes instead of just one, and brown hair instead of dirty blonde, stood there, taking in the scene – Jared looking terrified, with his white face and wide brown eyes staring at Lily; his twin sister, gently petting a small, colour-changing cat, and watching Lily like she was a specimen in the zoo; Lily Potter, curled up on her seat in utter hysterics. The boy walked in, and sat in the spare seat between Astra and the window. He also assumed the fascinated expression Astra had upon her face, waiting for Lily's laughter to subside.

Slowly, they did, though mirth was still etched all over her little face, and her red curls were strewn all over it. "How can you be afraid of snakes?" Lily asked Jared, still fighting back giggles.

The tall boy continued to look uncomfortable. "Well, you never really know whether they want to kill you or not…" His voice trailed off, as he realised how pathetic his argument really was.

"Don't be ridiculous, few snakes want to kill you all the time. That's only the demented, troubled ones. They rarely think, 'oh no, a human's coming, must kill them all,'" Lily explained. "They normally actually have quite interesting things to say – snakes aren't stupid. I don't know you." She directed the last comment at the new boy, who, along with Astra, was still staring at her.

"That's not really surprising, seeing how we have never met before," the boy said, continuing to stare at her. "I'm Cyrus. Astra's twin."

"So you're first year too." It was more of a statement than a question, but Cyrus replied to her anyway.

"Of course."

"Wait, what?" Jared asked, his face assuming an incredibly confused expression. "How can you know whether or not snakes have anything interesting to say?"

Lily's eyes widened as she realised her mistake, remembering what her father had always told her.

"Never back yourself into a corner," he had said, looking at the six-year-old Lily intently. She had just had a conversation with a snake. Lily remembered thinking how green his eyes were. She had wanted to know why she didn't have such pretty eyes too. "Wizards don't tend to like hearing that people are Parselmouths, so don't let them if you don't have to."

Shoot, Lily thought. Stupid corners. "Um, well, I, um, I'm- I'm a-"

Lily sighed in relief as she was interrupted by the food trolley. She jumped up a little too enthusiastically, as she did not consider food the most important thing in the world, but this went unnoticed by the two boys, as their reaction had been much the same. Only Astra remained seated, still watching Lily, but after a moment, gently prised Jim off her lap, and went to buy some food.

Lily was normally able to buy most of what she wanted, as she was really quite well off. Her parents, both being Aurors, had quite slow jobs now Voldemort was dead, but her dad had been left the fortunes of both his parents and his godfather, neither of whom were poor. The family home had remained for quite some time number 12, Grimmauld Place, partly due to the masses of concealment charms all over the building. It tended to hide the house from the press. However, the family had moved when they had Lily, all the way down to Dover, giving the house in Grimmauld Place to Teddy, as well as Kreacher, who was going to need it when he moved out from his grandparents' house. However, Lily, finally having free rein, did not know where to start. Eventually she settled on a few pumpkin pasties, a packet of cauldron cakes, Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, and, her favourite, a large pile of chocolate frogs. They were addictive.

Lily was surprised when she turned around, and the boys had even more than her, despite the fact that Cyrus had allegedly just eaten. Astra had a significantly smaller pile, being one who did not feel the need to eat until her sides burst.

The countryside rolled by the windows as the sun slowly descended. Lily registered it was a Saturday, so she wasn't sure whether or not she had lessons the next day. She didn't really mind either way, because she was itching to get on her new broom and fly around the school, even though technically, it wasn't permitted for first years to have their own brooms. Her parents had tried only half-heartedly to remove her Firebolt from her stubborn grasp while packing. They had also 'failed to notice' that Lily had nicked the old Invisibility Cloak and the Marauder's Map from her brother James's trunk. James actually had failed to notice. Lily was looking forward to when he did. She liked getting excuses to knock out her brother. She had never actually succeeded, due to her parents, but she liked trying. Her brother was mean. She was the only sibling that had taken up such violent hobbies as boxing and archery. Her first bouts of magic had also been stunning James. The family had a feeling that she would excel in curses, hexes and jinxes. Lily was definitely the type of person on the offensive. Her beater skills in Quidditch were suspiciously good.

Lily sighed, and took out her music player from her shoulder bag. It was pretty much a muggle iPod Touch, but had been enchanted by her grandfather so that it ran on magic, rather than electricity. She had begged for one for ages after she saw that one of her muggle friends had a similar model. Lily switched it to shuffle, and it started playing a track by Breaking Benjamin. Something's getting in the way… Lily loved that song. Something's just about to break; I will try to find my place in the Diary of Jane… She started absentmindedly humming along, until Jim's ears pricked, and he jumped on to her lap, with a meow that told her James was coming.

"He's angry isn't he?" Lily asked her cat. Everyone was once again staring at her oddly, but before she had time to explain, her cat nodded once, and Lily turned off her iPod, hiding it back in her bag, preventing James from trying to break it again. That had happened before, so Harry was fairly annoyed with having to constantly repair it.

At that moment, James stormed in, his floppy dark brown hair falling down to his eyes, which were hazel. Lily didn't understand why, but he made most girls swoon. This annoyed her. It just made his already large head bigger.

"Lily! Where are they!" James was shouting as he walked through the door. Lily noticed that there were a few girls in the compartment across from her watching James with excessive interest. For once, he didn't notice. "Lily!"

Lily adopted her most innocent expression. "Have you lost something Jamesie Poo?" His ears reddened slightly at the use of the name he hated.

"You know perfectly well I haven't lost anything, you took them," James said, leaning over Lily, his voice quiet and menacing.

Lily glared defiantly right back in his face, and said sweetly, "Losing things and then blaming your sister, who, incidentally, is three years younger than you, is not very becoming, James Potter. I do not know what you are talking about, so if you actually told me, maybe I could help." James' face had been gradually getting redder as Lily spoke, her words incensing him.

"Fine! Do you know what has happened to the Cloak and Map?"

"Maybe you left them at home. I haven't seen them."

James was familiar with Lily's excuses by then. "Just because you haven't seen them doesn't mean you don't know where they are, I did not leave them at home, tell me where they are!"

"Say please."

James' face screwed up in concentration; he seemed to be facing some sort of internal struggle, until Albus suddenly appeared behind him. Albus took in the smug expression on Lily's face, and noticed that James seemed to be trying very hard to resist the urge to hit his little sister. This would have shocked most people, but Albus knew Lily. It was a mistake to pick on her. Last time James had stolen something of Lily's, he had had the bruise for weeks.

"James, let it go!" Albus was tugging on James' arm, trying to get him to leave. Unfortunately, Albus was not having much effect, having the slight frame of a Seeker against the burlier Keeper. James' glasses were slipping down his nose as he struggled half-heartedly against his little brother. Albus' green eyes seemed to gain an air of celebration as he realised that he and Lily had won this battle. James gave his little sister an absolutely evil glare, before turning on his heel and leaving. Albus stood with his hands in his pockets, watching Lily retrieve her iPod from her bag.

"You OK?" Albus asked.

Lily nodded her head. "Yeah, fine. No problems here." Albus smiled slightly. He could not think of any other eleven-year-old girls who could truthfully tell someone they were absolutely fine after being confronted by their 14-year-old brother. Lily was an odd child. He turned to go, noticing as he did that the girls across the compartment were now watching him, as James had already left. Albus' ears turned red as he recognised them as other third years, Hufflepuffs. Apparently he was good looking too. He chose to ignore this observation. People staring at him because he was basically a mini Harry Potter without glasses was annoying enough, without stupid giggling girls in the background.

Lily resumed her position of staring out of the train window. Astra was watching Lily suspiciously.

"You spoke to your cat."

"Huh?" Lily wasn't really listening.

"I said, you spoke to your cat. And you said that you have conversations with snakes," Astra was simply watching Lily. It was a little disconcerting.

"So? It's easy to speak to cats and snakes. You open your mouth and talk."

"Normally they don't talk back."

"Who said they have to?"

"The definition of conversation. One person talks, the other talks back. Therefore, you can't have a conversation in which only you speak." It turned out that Astra was a sharp girl.

This is why I'm atheist, Lily thought. God wouldn't make such awkward corners. Or at least only corners that have a secret exit. "To be honest, that's sort of private…"

"Oh. Well, you don't have to tell me. I was just curious."

An awkward silence descended over the two girls. It went unnoticed by the boys, however, who were in the middle of a heated debate concerning Quidditch.

"No, the Chudley Cannons are jokes, they are not the best team!" said Jared hotly.

"I admire the Chudley Cannons for their spirit, not their results," pointed out Cyrus. "It's really quite ridiculous how people are so dependent on their team's place in the leader board. How many other teams can you think of who keep coming back, even though they keep losing?"

"The Tottenham Tornadoes are the best!" said Jared, completely ignoring Cyrus' last comment. "They are at the top all the time, and-"

"Oh, no, not another one!" interrupted Lily. "Seriously, the Tornadoes have only been top twice in the last 10 years, and you must've been a complete doofus to believe otherwise. Don't you even look at the leader board? The Harpies are the best!"

The conversation continued in that vein for quite a while, before a tall girl with bright blonde hair and a Ravenclaw uniform opened the door. The Head Girl badge on her chest shone in the lamplight as she told them that it would be a good idea to get changed into their robes. Astra and Lily promptly forced the boys outside of the compartment and closed the blinds, allowing some privacy as they changed. Lily shoved her jeans and black t-shirt into her trunk, putting on her robes instead, but remained in her banana yellow converse. Astra also remained in her earlier shoes, which were slightly odd – fluorescent yellow wellies over blue and white striped tights.

"We're going in the lake, I don't want to get my feet wet," she explained, with the air of someone trying to tell a two-year-old that two plus two equals four, not 22.

The girls re-organised their belongings, before taking their turn in the hall, waiting for the boys to change.

Finally, the train started slowing. Lily looked out of the window and gasped – Hogwarts really was beautiful. The turrets and towers were silhouetted dramatically against a purple sky, which slowly graduated to orange as it got nearer to the point where the sun had set. The Head Girl returned on her rounds, and instructed the first years to leave their belongings in the compartment, as they would be collected and taken up to the castle before the train returned to London.

At that moment, the Hogwarts Express screeched to a halt, Jim was bundled back into his picnic basket, and the four children stepped off the train, their journey to the school almost complete.

A/N: Sorry if there's any confusion about Jared being a Diggory - his father is Cedric Diggory's cousin. And this is my first story, so please review :)