Chapter 5

That evening, Lily and her family and friends were sat around the fire in the common room, doing their first load of homework.
"I can't believe you got 60 points on your first day!" Chloe said to the three first years with utter bewilderment.
"It is Slughorn and there were three of them." James reminded his twin but, noticing the look he was getting from his older sister, kept quiet after that. For a while, there was no sound from that corner except for the crackling of fire, scratching of quills and, once, the smashing of an ink pot. As it got later, the common room slowly emptied and at 9 o'clock, the small group were the only people in the room.
"I'm going to bed." Lily said suddenly, rolling up her piece of parchment and stowing her quill and ink in her bag. She hugged her brothers and sisters and waited for her two room mates to collect their stuff. Then, the three girls walked through the door, up the spiral staircase and into the first year’s dormitory. Lily looked, automatically at the bed in the corner. The curtains were drawn and there seemed to be no movement from within it, but Lily was sure Holly wasn't asleep.

Lily woke up with a start the next day. She got dressed as quietly as she could and tip toed out of the dormitory. She went down to what she thought was the empty common room. When she entered, however, Lily saw an outline of a person, highlighted by the dyeing flames from the fire, slumped in an armchair. Lily went over to the figure and noticed that it was Chloe, sleeping. She tapped her on the shoulder and Chloe woke up instantly.
"Oh, Lily! What are you doing up?" Chloe asked her sister.
"It's 6 o'clock, Chloe." Lily told her, looking concerned.
"Really?"
"Yeah. Chloe, can I ask you something?" Lily knew the time had come.
"Sure. What is it?"
"Well, do you know anything about the Piper family?" Lily blurted out.
"The Piper family? Well, dad works with that Piper guy, doesn't he? We had him and his wife round for dinner a few weeks ago, remember. Really nice people. Really lovely. Why?" Chloe asked.
"Well, there's this girl in my dormitory called Holly Piper and she seems so lonely. The complete opposite to what you said." Lily told her sister, confused at the difference.
"Really? What's the matter with her?"
"She's just really enclosed, you know?" Chloe nodded.
"There's not much you can do." Chloe told Lily, after a while.
"No, I suppose there isn't."
After another silence, Chloe suggested going down to breakfast so the two girls climbed out of the portrait hole and headed downstairs.

The Great Hall was a lot emptier than the morning before because it was so early. Chloe and Lily sat down at the deserted Gryffindor table and started piling the untouched food on to their plates. They sat in silence; wrapped up in their own thoughts. Lily was still thinking about the mysterious Holly and why she was so unlike her parents. The most logical reason was that she was nervous, but she would have asked for help, like Clara, wouldn't she? Lily couldn't figure it out. She felt a small pinch on her arm and was forced to stop thinking about Holly. She looked to her side and saw Vicky, staring at her.
"Lily, are you there?" She asked, concerned.
"Yeah, I was just thinking."
"Well, could you eat first, please?"
"Yeah, sure." Lily lifted her spoon to her mouth and swallowed her soggy cornflakes. She had just finished the bowl when all the owls came swooping down to their owners. Albus looked up at the ceiling, looking for the Potter family owl.
"You did write back to mum, didn't you, Vicky?" He asked his sister.
"Yes but I used Millie so there’s no point looking for Loop." Vicky saw Albus's disappointed face and tried to think of something else to see. "I've told McGonagall to tell everyone that the Quidditch trials are going to be on Saturday. Are any of you going to try out?"
"I thought I would." James said quietly. Everyone stared at him.
"Well, Aunt Angelina gave me some lessons in the summer and said I could be a good beater." James finished, looking down at his empty plate.
"That would be real good. Good luck bro'." Vicky said her brother, enthusiastic. He smiled at her and then looked down at his watch. "Its a quarter to nine. I'd best be off, got divination first. Come on Chloe." And with that, the twins left the hall. Vicky turned to Lily.
"What have you got today?" She asked. Lily felt for her timetable in her robe pocket and extracted it. She unfolded it and looked down to Wednesday. "History of Magic, double Defence against the Dark Arts, Astronomy theory and I've got a flying lesson." Lily read out.
"A flying lesson, when?" Vicky asked.
"Last lesson."
"I've got a free period then, I could come and watch you!"
“Yeah, that would be great!" Lily lied and hugged her sister. The truth was she couldn't even get on a broom, never mind fly it. Vicky was going to see how rubbish she was and Lily didn't want that.

At 9 o'clock, the Gryffindor and Slytherin first years were sat down in the classroom. They were all staring at the front of the room, thinking something special would happen and, as if by magic, a ghost floated straight through the wall and sat down in the teachers’ chair. He introduced himself as Professor Binns and started reading from a piece of parchment, in a dronening voice. Lily, Georgia and Clara but their heads onto the desk, in unison, and started taking notes, very slowly. Time seemed to be going at half the normal speed and half way through the lesson, Lily gave a loud yawn that grabbed the attention of everyone in the room. The only person who seemed vaguely interested was Holly. She had her head on her one of her hands, taking scribbled notes with the other, and was staring at the ghost teacher, as if reading his mind.

At the end of the lesson, everyone woke up from their daydreams to hear their homework task. To write a 15 inch essay on the Great War! Lily thought this would be pretty easy as both her mum and dad had nearly died in the war and her oldest sister had been born literally an hour before it had started. She had grown up listening to the story and Lily knew it off by heart.

When the bell went, everyone got there things together and rushed outside. As it was raining, people were keeping warm and dry in the Entrance Hall. The three friends squeezed through a small gap in the crowd and tried to find a space to stand. They were glad to get away to Defence against the Dark Arts and rushed off as soon as the bell rang.

Once they were all sat down, Professor Finnegan introduced himself and set everybody the task of writing down as many curses and spells as they could and sorting them out into good or bad columns. This was fun and very easy. Lily and Clara, who were working together, finished in record time.
"Well done, girls!" Professor Finnegan said, reading down the two columns. "Lily, I've been meaning to talk to you. Your mums told me to keep an eye on you and make sure your OK."
"Typical! I'm fine and I think I should write to mum tonight, put her mind at rest." Lily told the teacher.
"Yeah, well, keep out of trouble and you'll be fine."
"OK, thanks!" Lily said and Professor Finnegan walked away to check someone else’s work.
"You know him?" Clara asked, shocked.
"Oh, yeah. He shared a dormitory with my dad when they were here. He's sort of a family friend." Lily told her friend.
"Cool. I bet he'll bump up your scores in test if you ask him." Clara said, jealously.
"No he wouldn't. Mums made sure of that. James actually tried that once and mum found out. She made sure he, or anyone else, wouldn't do it again." Lily told Clara, disappointed.
"Well, it's-" Clara was cut off by Professor Finnegan announcing the next task. It was to put the spells and curses into two different groups marked legal and illegal. This was a bit harder and took more time. By the end of the double lesson, everyone was tiered and hungry, and welcomed the large lunch that was waiting for them.

As the bell rang for last lesson, all of the first years lined up on the grass outside of the castle. Thankfully, it had stopped raining but the ground was still damp. Lily could see Vicky and Lauren, sitting on a bench, surrounded by books. When she saw Lily looking, Vicky waved and smiled. Lily returned with a small smile and half hearted wave, she was getting more nervous by the second. Madam Hooch came out of the oak doors carrying an armful of broomsticks.
"Good afternoon, everyone! Welcome to your flying lesson. Can everybody grab a broomstick and put it on the ground." The teacher put the broomsticks on the ground and everyone rushed forwards to grab the best one. Once everyone had one, Madam Hooch told them to stand to the side of their broom, put their hand over it and say up. Suddenly, the air was full with commands. It took a while but, finally, everyone had managed to get their broomsticks off the ground. They mounted then, gripping tightly to the handle, and, with Madam Hooch’s signal, kicked off from the ground. They were only a few feet off the ground but Holly slipped sideways and fell straight off. Everyone except her fellow Gryffindors laughed. Vicky and Lauren ran over to the group and sat Holly up.
"Are you all right?" Lauren asked as Vicky checked for any cuts. When Holly had nodded and Vicky had given her the all clear, Holly stood up and Madam Hooch collected the broomsticks up. Once she was out of ear shot, Tom from Ravencalw went up to Holly, "What are you actually doing here. It's obvious you can't do magic and you'll never belong here so do us a favour and just leave." He spat in her face and Holly ran inside, crying.
"That was horrible!" Lily cried, running after the girl in the distance. The crowd behind were stunned into silence.

Lily followed Holly into the girls’ bathroom. There was only one locked cubicle and Lily could hear quiet sobs coming out of it. She knocked on the door.
"Holly, its Lily. Tom was bang out of order but you can't hide here all day."
"Go away!" A small, timid voice said. The sound of crying suddenly stopped.
"Will you talk to me?" Lily tried.
"No, just go away. No one wants to be friends with me. "
"I do."
"You don't know what I am. If you do, you wouldn't want me near you." Holly said.
" Why, what are you?"
"Go away!" Holly almost screamed through the cubicle walls. Lily realised she wasn't going to get anymore out of the girl so she left the bathroom. Once she was in the corridor, Lily leaned on the wall and thought. Why doesn't she want to be friends and what does she have to hide, she thought. She knew only one thing. Her worries about Holly Piper had just grown massively.