Gateway to Heaven - James and Lily Potter (Jily) #Wattys2016

The First Day - Lily

Chapter 1 is on! Please tell me what you think by leaving something in the comments, I'd really like to get some feedback!

Furthermore, there's a song I think really applies to this chapter: "Nantes" by Beirut. I had it in my head whilst writing this chapter and it gives the story an interesting edge. You can listen to it if you like :) A slightly older Lily (Ciara Baxendale) in the media.

Happy reading!

It's only seven in the morning, but I've never been more excited. "Today is the day," I keep reminding myself,"today's the day!"

There's no reason for me to have woken up so early, really. I barely slept tonight - tossing and turning, I ended up tiptoeing downstairs and watching the usual morning cartoons. I hope wizards watch telly, too.

I've had everything prepared since last week, when my mum and I went to Diagon Alley - which was hands down the most exciting experience ever - and bought all my school stuff. But I've been waiting for this moment ever since I knew I was different for a reason - ever since I knew there was someplace else I belonged, where I would be considered normal.

A loud car honk interrupts my dreaming away. Dad is waiting outside for us, my trunk and cat stored neatly in the back. I run downstairs and jump into my mother's arms. "I'm going!" I cry out, happily, as she twirls me around and around the living room,"I really really am finally going!"

Mummy laughs, kissing me on the nose. "So you are, darling. I'll miss you so. C'mon, you won't want to miss the train, huh?" She tugs me by the hand. "Petunia?" she cries up the stairs. No answer. Tuney has been sulking ever since I started packing. Now she won't even look me in the face. I'll miss her, I believe. She could be a bossy big sister when she wanted to. We used to play a lot together, but now that I am eleven years old and she just turned thirteen, we grew apart, she being more interested in the Beatles and I in magic.

"Petunia, love, we're setting Lily off to her new school! Don't you want to come?" We suddenly hear the tramping of her footsteps, going out of her room and into the hallway. "I'm coming!" she calls back crankily.

From my hometown to London is a two-hour ride, which is a long, long voyage for someone who's sitting next to her sulking sister. I'm torn between pitying her and dreaming away of the times that are awaiting me. "Look Tuney, we're arriving in London!" the rural landscape has suddenly transformed itself into buildings and other organised structures. Tuney scowls. "Oh, yipee, Lily's in London, as if she's never been there before, what a show!" "Hey, that's not a very nice thing to say!" I say, a little hurt. "Yes, Petunia," Mummy says from the passenger seat up front, eyeing us through the rear-view mirror, "that wasn't very thoughtful of you. You girls won't be seeing each other for a while now, you might want to be nice to each other and enjoy your last moments together." Tuney shrugs,"Sorry Lily," she mutters, turning away from me and staring out of the window.

The goodbyes with my sister are not pleasant ones. We end up fighting and even when I meet up with my friend Sev I can't help myself from remembering the insult she threw at me. Freak. Why did she even call me that? Sev and I, we made up a theory. We think she's just jealous. We saw the letter she got from Dumbledore, rejecting her offer to go to Hogwarts with me. I feel sorry for her, I guess.

We found an empty compartment to sit together but were soon interrupted by a pair of boys - both of them wore jet-black hair and dark eyes, though one of them had a considerably messier hairdo and wore glasses. I didn't like them much, insulting Severus like that. Snivelly. I hate bullying. I know what it's like to get bullied, and it's not a pleasant experience if anything.

I see the boy again at the sorting, from afar, me being sorted at the E's - as in Evans - and he, I discover, at the P's - for Potter. But we both get into Gryffindor - I'm so incredibly excited I could've been sorted in any house and be happy all the same. But then come the S'es and Sev gets into Slytherin. He looks over at me longingly and I give him a sad smile. We'll see each other often - different houses don't shut off inter-house friendships, I conclude, as a Gryffindor prefect, Bilius Weasley, guides us to a portrait showing a very fat lady wearing a pink silk dress. "Amicus Delebare," he says, which I assume is the password. We scrawny little first years all huddle through the portrait hole and find ourselves in the common room, all cozy and lit up to welcome us. I look around in awe. "Pretty cool, huh?" a voice says behind me. A pretty blonde girl is staring around the room with apparent disinterest. "I've heard all about it from my elder brother. I guess now I finally see it it's a little dissapointing." She furrows her dark eyebrows. "What's your name? I'm Daisy," she says, shaking my hand,"I guess we'll be roomies from now on." "I'm Lily, I say, glad to have found a friend," do you think we're the only girls or...?" Daisy laughs. "Of course not! Haven't you paid attention at the sorting?" I suddenly notice the three other girls standing behind her, smiling at me. "This is Marlene," - she says, nodding towards a curly brunette behind her," Laura," - she beckons towards a smiling girl with bright blue-green eyes,"and Alice," - a round-faced girl with dark hair who gives me a huge grin. "Welcome to the club!" they say, smiling. I smile back. This isn't so scary as I thought.

The messy-haired boy from the train nudges me as he passes by, heading towards the boy's dormitory. "Welcome to the club," he repeats a little mockingly. I scowl. He looks a little surprised at that, and so holds out his hand for me to shake it. "I feel like we haven't been introduced properly," he said,"my name's James. James Potter." I stare at him."Really? You bully my friend and then try to introduce yourself? Sorry James but you've got some amends to make." I nudge him back as I stomp off the the girl's dorms. My newfound friends follow me, leaving James Potter standing alone, looking defeated.

Once in the privacy of the dorm, they all start talking at the same time. "Oh Lily, why did you treat him like that?" Daisy says. "That's not a good way to make friends." I grimace. "I know. I don't want to be friends with him." I explain to them what happened in the train. "That wasn't a very nice thing to do indeed," Laura says, intriguied,"I've known James Potter for ages, and he can be a bit arrogant but not to the point of downgrading those around him." "You know him!?" I ask in awe, impressed that Laura already knows so many wizards in our school. "Our parents are friends," she says,"we used to play together when we were small."

"And that other boy," I ask, do you know him?" "Sirius Black?" Laura exclaims, her cheeks reddening a little,"I sure do. I really don't know what he's doing over here in Gryffindor, as his entire family's Slytherin, but..." I suddenly remember what Sirius said in the train, the gloomy look on his face so out of place. He didn't want to be a Slytherin - it was as if it was a bad thing.

"And Severus?" I ask my friend curiously. "Do you know Severus Snape?" Laura laughs. "That greasy kid from Spinner's End? What do you want with him, Lily?" "He's my friend," I say, taken a little aback by her reaction. "Oh..." Laura reddens. An awkward silence settles itself in the dorm. Daisy clears her throat. "So," she says, changing the subject,"what subject are you most looking forward to study?"

We talk until feelings of extreme sleepiness overwhelm us and we are engulfed in a long night of rest.

Needless to say, my first year at Hogwarts is a good one.

Oooooh Jily's first interactions how exciting! Leave a comment and/or a vote, tell me what you think, it would mean the world to me!

ps. the cast I put up obviously are adults already. Try imagining them as kids for this chapter! :) (Ginny Goodwin as an eleven-year-old awwww I can't even)