How It All Began

How It All Began: Chapter One

Maturity

Summary: Lily hates James, and James loves Lily, we all know that, but when Voldemort threatens the world of magic, they both need someone that can understand them and give them love. L/J Seventh Year.

Other Characters: Kala (Seamus Finnigans mum) and Alice (Boyfriend: Frank, you get the picture?)

Rating: PG-13. Mostly, this won't come up until later, but it will be for violence, language and sexuality.

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The room was dark, and the air was slightly musty. It was empty of living creatures, except for a small rat snuffling about in the corner of a wooden chair where some blankets were resting. The air suddenly rippled, and a man appeared with a pop. The rat squeaked in shock and buried itself into the blankets.

A man laughed, a high, sinister laugh, and turned his cold red eyes towards the blanket.

"Come out, my pet," he crooned. "I won't hurt you."

The rat slowly poked it head out, its nose wetly snuffling at the air around him. It turned its watery eyes up to the tall, pale man in black robes. The man laughed again, and the rat seemed to cringe.

"What do you have for me, today?" asked the man, in a creepy voice that would have made anyone in the room shiver, had they been there.

The rat scurried over to another corner of the room, and squeaked loudly. The man walked over, looked at the object quickly, and turned towards the rat.

"Is this all?" he asked. The rat squeaked in reply. Suddenly, the man's attitude seemed to change. "Coward," he spat out, red eyes flashing. "You can't even show your face in a meeting with your master. If you are to be one of us, you must act like it. Think on this. If you do not want to be one of us, then you will not live much longer." The rat's body trembled, and it scurried back towards the blankets. It seemed about to bury itself once again, then seemed to remember its master's words, and turned back towards the man. There was a blinding flash of blue light, and a man -- well, a boy really -- appeared. He had watery blue eyes, and twitched, sort of like the rat he once was.

"M-my master. L-look closer at those d-documents." His voice was nasal, and the man found it difficult to not flinch. He strode over towards the corner where the documents were and picked them up. He scanned them, and then grinned evilly. He looked over towards the rat-turned-man.

"Yes. These will do quite well. Perhaps I have underestimated you. You say here that this boy is your friend? Yes, I know him and his family quite well. I had a -- dealing with them this past month. And this girl...what of her?"

"She is a mudblood, my lord. And I think the boy has a weakness with her."

"Yeees.....you did very well."

There were two pops, and the room was empty once again, except for a slight rising of the dust.

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Lily sighed as she waved goodbye to her mum on platform 9 3/4. This would be the last time she would ever get onto the train to Hogwarts. She was surprised to feel tears coming to her eyes. What am I doing, crying about the end of school before it has even begun? she thought. At that, she swallowed up her tears, sniffed, and waved again as the train rolled out of the station, and kept on waving until the platform was out of sight. She turned around, looking for her friends. Behind her came a shout.

"LILY!!!" she felt a small whirlwind knock into her, taking her breath away, and then another small whirlwind. She fell to the ground laughing, or trying to, as she had no breath left to actually do it.

"Kala! Alice! How are you? How were your summers? I'm sorry I couldn't come to stay!" she said all this in a rush, then playfully shoved them off of her as she sat up. Alice was the first to answer.

"I had an absolutely smashing summer. We went to Italy and saw the historic magic towns. I learned so much history there."

"Enough for Bins' essay he set over the summer?" Lily asked teasingly. Alice rolled her eyes while Kala giggled.

"No one could write enough for that. TEN FEET? I mean, is he crazy?" Alice complained.

Kala shook her head in response, then said, "Come on you guys, we have to find a compartment."

Lily sighed at that, and her friends looked at her, question in their glances. "I'm Head Girl," she said by way of explanation. Once again, she was seized in a tight bear hug as her friends danced around squealing.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Kala asked. Lily smiled, then said her goodbyes, making the two other girls promise to save a spot in the compartment for her, and went to search out the Heads compartment where she would talk to the prefects, and meet the Head Boy. She had been wondering for a month who it was, ever since she got her letter, since Dumbledore didn't mention it. She hoped it was either Remus, a fellow Gryffindor prefect of two years, or one of the Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff prefects. The Slytherin prefect, Severus Snape, creeped her out.

She turned around, but as soon as she did so, she regretted it. A tall, handsome boy with messy black hair and hazel eyes covered with glasses was walking towards her, grinning. Lily sighed, resigning herself to the torture that was sure to come. It was James Potter. The egotistical, know-it-all git, who had had a crush on her since before fifth year.

"All right there, Evans?" He asked grinning. She glared at him.

"Not with you around, I'm not," she replied, sticking her nose up. He pretended to look taken aback.

"Oh, I'm hit!" He staggered around moaning and pretending he was dying until another boy stuck his head out of the compartment next to him.

"Oy! James! Shut up out there! Stop trying to impress the girls!" Sirius Black stepped out of the compartment. He saw Lily, and pretended to do a double take.

"The Ice Queen!" He said, pretending to be shocked.

"Black" she replied curtly. He was equally as handsome, but slightly taller than James. He didn't have glasses, and his hair was slightly longer. Turning back to James, Lily said, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm on my way to the Heads' compartment to talk to some responsible people about this year. She brushed by him sharply. Unfortunately, her grand exit was not to be. James took hold of her robes, which she had already changed into and halted her progress. She turned around to look at him. He was gazing sharply back at her.

"What now?" she snapped. "I have somewhere to be." James was still looking at her with a confused expression.

"Wait Evans, you're Head Girl?" he .asked incredulously

"Uh-huh," she said suspiciously, "What's it to you?" He swallowed and looked over her shoulder.

"Nothing," he said softly, still not looking at her. "I suppose you'll find out soon enough." Now it was Lily's turn to look confused. She opened her mouth to reply, but found that Potter was gone. Black however, was a different story. He was still out in the corridor, grinning annoyingly.

"What is it Black? Do you also have the desire to hinder me further?" Sirius shook his head, grinning.

"Nothing, Evans. Like James said, you'll find out soon enough." With that, he went back into his compartment. Lily stood there for a few moments, totally and absolutely perplexed, then shook her head and made her way to the Heads' compartment.

She arrived at the compartment to see through the glass that some people were in there, milling around, and waiting for the Prefects' meeting to begin. She looked around, pondering on who could be Head Boy. She didn't know any of the Ravenclaws that well, and was trying to figure out which could be Head Boy, when someone opened the door.

"Coming in?" a familiar, very annoying, voice said. "The meeting started five minutes ago. Don't want the new Head Girl to have the reputation of being late, do we?" Lily looked up into the annoying and conceited grin of none other than James Potter. She tried to speak and couldn't. James saw all this and laughed.

"What?" he said, "Finally blinded by my good looks?" He smiled a smile that would have had most girls swooning. Unfortunately for him, it didn't have this effect on Lily Evans. She glared at him for what she thought was about the tenth time today, and shoved past him into the compartment.

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A/N: Well, that was basically just an introduction to the characters of Lily Evans and James Potter. Let's see where it goes from here shall we? That is, if you review ;)

Edit: 1/16/05: For those of you that have read this already; I have added a whole new scene and have done changes to the rest of the chapter. I will note this in the next chapter I post (7).

Crystaltambaia