Lily Potter And The Hidden Room

Part One - The Return

12 Grimmauld Place looks like an ordinary house to a passer-by. The same sandy brick walls and black iron fence as any other house on the street. However, if they were to stop and look a little closer, perhaps peer nosily into the windows of this house, they would notice that it is in fact no ordinary house. It is a house full to the seams with magic, wonderful magic that could astound many of the passers-by if they were to merely take a peek into a world outside their own.

Inside this magic house lives a quaint family called the Potters. Harry and Ginny Potter, and their three children: Lily Luna, James Sirius and Albus Severus Potter.

On the first of September, the Potters will always cause quite a ruckus in the neighbourhood. The neighbours think that it is because their children are going back to their boarding school, Mill Hill, but in actual fact the family are taking their children to London's King Cross Station. From there, they run through a magic stone barrier - Muggle proof, of course - to arrive at platform nine and three quarters where the scarlet Hogwarts Express train awaits to whisk them off to the best boarding school for aspiring witches and wizards in the world.

And that is where our story picks up.

Lily Luna Potter loads her heavy luggage onto the train, releasing her Munchkin cat, Muffet, from her cage. She watches the ginger kitten prowl around the compartment before settling comfortably on her owner's lap. This will be Lily's second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and (quite frankly) she is dreading it. Unfortunately for her, at the end of her first year she witnessed a murder so tragic she was sent home months earlier than the school year had finished. She can already feel the pitiful and curious gazes of her schoolmates burning into the back of her neck, and it is driving her to near insanity.

Her cousin, Hugo Weasely, and their friends Felicity, Lincoln and Kye are all sat in a carriage together. Nonetheless, Lily believes it would be beneficial if she spent some time alone - as to not stress herself out before she has even returned to school. She uses her changing spell to transform her Muggle clothes into school robes, and sits back down onto the squishy carriage bench.

Muffet meows, pleading for attention, and Lily tickles her behind the ears, a small smile creeping onto her face. The train chugs speedily onwards, carrying Lily Potter further and further away from the comfort of her home and towards the uncertainness lying in store for her at Hogwarts. She presses her head against the cool glass window, and peers out to the blur of green and grey rushing past outside. A single drop of rain splats onto the glass, and then another small droplet, and again another, until the entire train is in the midst of a heavy downpour. Unable to see out of the window, Lily changes her attention to the steady rattle of the lunch trolley. Her compartment door slides open, and the familiar face of Bertha - one of the train attendants - peers in.

"Anything off the trolley?" She asks politely. Lily purchases a pot of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans for 6 Knuts and 8 Sickles, and offers one to Muffet. The wise cat backs away from the menacing treat, shaking its head in disapproval. Lily chuckles, and tucks into all of the nice ones she can find: Chocolate, candy floss, cherry, vomit...

Lily realises the flavour bean she has just plopped into her mouth and begun munching on is in fact one of the nasties. She spits it out, but the flavour still lingers on her tongue. She actually thinks she is going to vomit from the toxic taste. Lily stands up and dashes out of her carriage to the toilets, feeling a bit green. Thankfully she doesn't throw up, and manages to wash the taste from her mouth with some cold water from the tap.

When she exits the toilet, much to her annoyance, Scorpius Malfoy is walking in the opposite direction. Lily debates on turning around and locking herself back in the toilet, but chooses against it and instead and walks past him, head held high. The cut from where she pressed her wand into his neck last year has healed, almost making their argument seem like a dream. But Lily knows it's not. She still has the Slytherin scar on her neck from where Scorpius secretly cursed her under his breath. Try as she might, even Mrs. Longbottom the Hogwarts healer cannot rid her of it.