Authors note: This first chapter, and the others somewhat, is based on a real-life experience – thus making it, most likely, original.

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters belong to J.K. Rowling does. Salem School for Witches and Wizards is just something I made up. It's doesn't really exist in the Harry Potter world. (Not that we know of anyway.) Any names you don't recognize are mine – obviously.

Fear

By: Ms. Perfect

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door-

Only this, and nothing more."

- Edgar Allan Poe: "The Raven"

*****

Lily Evans looked around the airport in Massachusetts in vain. Wanting to scream, she just squeezed between the many tall people. I love being tiny. She thought as she wove between the people. The five-foot-two, red head, sixteen-year-old knew she was tiny enough to be mistaken for an eleven-year-old. Hell, she was mistaken for an eleven-year-old.

Lily saw her mothers' head and smiled. She may not get along with her mother very well, but she still missed her sometimes. Though she didn't miss her older sister, Petunia, she knew she would have to see her until she went to school. Even if she knew that she would only see her mother for a period of two days before she was taken to Salem School for Witches and Wizards.

She was being slightly forced to live with her mother for a year. The only thing she knew about it was that apparently Dumbledorr had contacted her father about something and then poof! before she knew it she was being shipped off to America like some criminal in the 1600s.

"Hey, Mum," Lily said.

Amelia Evans smiled, "hello, honey."

Lily put down her backpack and looked around her new room. She was the only transfer to Salem. How would she fit in here? She didn't know anyone... hell – she was in a whole new country for crying out loud!

She had yet to meet any of her dormmates and was looking forward to at least trying to make friends. Lily wasn't exactly what you would call the "best" at making and keeping her friends. She had a tendency to push them away unknowingly. And her older sister, Petunia, didn't help.

You would think that she would be happy for me... Lily thought. Not claim that I was a freak and try to tell Pappy that I shouldn't even be around. I'm glad that she went to live with Mum.

But Lily and Petunia's father didn't think Lily was a freak. In fact, he was extremely proud of the fact that he would have a witch in the family. Her mother, however, detested it ... contrary to belief.

Lily heard the door opening and so she turned to pretend that she hadn't been waiting for her dormmates to come, but had really been putting all her books in the bookcase.

"Who are you?" one of the girls demanded.

"Chris!" another voice hissed and a smack was heard.

Lily turned around to see two girls. One was tall and very skinny; she had an annoyed look on her face. The other, however, was not too much taller than Lily, but slightly heavier; though it looked like all muscle. Her flyaway curly hair was blonde-brown; she looked nice.

"Sorry 'bout my friend here." The curly haired girl said. "She doesn't have any manners."

The other girl glared and crossed her arms.

"Oh..." Lily said in a quiet voice. "I'm Lily Evans. I just transferred here from England."

"What year are you?" the shrewd looking one asked.

The other girl snorted as if she was trying to hold in laughter. "Duh, she's in sixth year. Otherwise – she wouldn't be in here! I'm Chelsea Shepherd. No sheep jokes, please. This is my friend Christina Smith."

"Hi," Lily said with a smile. "Are you the only girls in here?"

"Yeah. She scared everyone away," Chelsea said with a playful laugh.

Lily smiled again. At least she wouldn't have to deal with a bunch of girls.

"What's with the accent?" Christina asked.

Lily stared at her. "Accent? Oh! – Accent. I'm from England. I thought we just covered that."

Chelsea roared with laughed until Christina smacked her in the arm.

"Don't hit me, Chris." Chelsea said as she glared. "Oh crap! We're going to be late for out first class!"

"You have classes on your first day back?" Lily said as she pulled her hair into ponytail, grabbed her schoolbag, and they ran out the door.

"Yeah. We've got Potions first – urgh..." Chris said.

"You can say that again." Lily agreed.

"Why do you guys say that? I like Potions!" Chelsea said.

Lily gave her a weird look. "If you had Professor Tinstar, you'd hate it too. He gives detention for breathing loudly!"

The threesome ran into the Potions lab and as they screeched to a halt, they plopped down at the first tables they saw. Everyone, including the Professor, was staring at them.

"How nice of you to fit us into your daily life." She said sternly, but there was a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "As I was saying ... please get out your books and turn to page 554. We will be working a complicated potion so partner up with someone who you work well with."

Lily watched as everyone paired up. That was okay though, she worked much better alone. She got out her book and flipped to the correct page, already having done the same potion back home.

"You there, Red." The Professor called.

Lily could only assume it was she the Professor was talking about. "Yes?"

"What's your name? Where's your partner?"

"Lily Evans, ma'am." Her English accent thick, but understandable. "I don't have a partner. Nor do I need one."

The Professor loomed over her, but not menacingly like Tinstar. "Why not?"

"I've – I've already done this potion..." Lily replied.

"Where are you from?"

"Hogwarts ... ma'am."

The class erupted into a flurry of whispers. And to Lily's surprise, the Professor was smiling.

"I should have guess. That old Tinstar still there? – Frightening old fellow, that one."

Lily nodded. "He's my Potions teacher."

"You'll get along just fine here, Ms. Evans. Just fine indeed." She said before yelling at the class for silence.

It was now the middle of May and Lily had made many lasting friendships – including one with the nice Potions teacher (who was still calling her "Red"). But none as great as Chelsea's. They had declared themselves blood sisters. They would have sealed the 'blood sisters' oath, but Chelsea had this weird thing about blood so they had just spit-shook on it.

"Why is he staring at me still? It's creepy!" Lily whispered her Chelsea at lunch.

"Lil, I told you this already. He likes you!" Chelsea replied.

Lily glanced over at him, then back to Chelsea. "I don't care! He's creeping me out by staring at me all the time."

Chelsea took a bite of her Cheerios, "okay, I get it. Where's Nick?"

Nick was another one of Chelsea and Lily's good friends. "I don't know. He's probably on his broomstick." Lily said suggestively, wiggling her eyebrows.

Chelsea snorted with laughter so hard that her Cheerios flew out of her nose.

Lily shrieked and jumped from her seat at the table, but laughed at the same time while Chelsea was holding her nose screaming: "Ow! Ow! Ow!"

Everyone who was still in the Hall was either laughing or staring at Chelsea.

"Lily – Ann – Evans!" Chelsea yelled. "I'm going to kill you!"

Lily ran from the Hall with Chelsea right on her tail.

"I didn't mean for that to happen!" Lily screamed as she slid around a corner –

– And right into the reason for Lily's impending death: Nick.

Then something happened that had never happened before. Everything and everyone froze – with the exception of Lily. Then unfroze.

"Whoa, where's the fire?" Nick asked as he took the brunt of their fall.

"What the hell?" she said to herself.

Lily jumped up and looked behind her. Chelsea was laughing hysterically.

"Never mind," Nick muttered.

Chelsea and Lily laughed at him and both stuck there hands down to help him up. He grabbed one of each. The two girls smiled evilly and pulled him up hard and watched as the momentum flung him forward.

"You two should not be allowed to hang out together." Nick said as he regained his balance.

They slapped palms. That was their fourth time that day already they had been told that – making that 654 times since Lily had met Chelsea.

"Hey, Nick. Where's Chels?" Lily asked her friend. It was two weeks until school would be out and Lily would be going back home to England, her father, and Hogwarts. She still hated that she had to move to the States for a year to live with her mother. She would much rather be with her father.

Nick shrugged, "I don't know. Maybe she woke up late. She could be at the Hall."

"Yeah. That's true. I didn't check to see if she was up this mornin'." Lily said. When they walked inside, Lily saw another on of her friends; they liked to say they were twins because they looked so much alike. But she also saw him standing by her. Samantha was a friend of his girlfriend.

Austin Elsworth was another boy in her year. At first, they had been great friends. He had even had a crush on her. Then, after she told him that she didn't like him the way he liked her, he started drifting away.

Lily took a deep breath and went over to talk to Sam; purposely putting her back towards Austin. As he had been nothing short of evil as of late.

"Hey, Sam. Have you seen Chelsea today?" Lily asked.

Samantha shook her head. "No, I haven't seen her yet. I usually don't until after you guys get out of Potions – and knowing you two, covered with some weird potion you "whipped up"!"

Sam and Lily laughed about their inside joke as Nick looked on with a confused expression. But Lily's laugh was cut short as she felt an arm wrap around her neck and lift her up.

She clawed at the arm, but it wouldn't give. She tried to put her feet back on the ground, but she was too short. Lily opened her mouth, gasping for the oxygen she was being deprived of.

What's happening? Let go of me! Her mind screamed. As more pressure was put on her fragile neck, Lily's eyes started to roll up in her head and she saw the darkness of unconsciousness closing in on her. Please let go! Her mind asked again. Trying for another breath of air, she felt the arm loosen around her neck and she dropped to the floor.

Holding her throat and gasping for air, she looked up from the floor at her assailant. It was Austin. She got up and faced him, wanting to punch him right in his smiling face; but she didn't. And then she turned to go to her first class, still taking in deep breaths of air.

"Lily – what happened to your neck?" Christina asked.

Lily looked at the girl who had been so mean to her when they had first met. "N—nothing."

"Why is it all red?" she asked as they walked down to the Potions lab.

"I – I was rubbing it this morning. It was sore. Guess I rubbed it too hard." Lily lied again. She couldn't tell her the truth. She couldn't tell her friend that someone she thought was at least slightly her friend had just assaulted her in the corridor of her own school. Why didn't he just use magic? It would have been easier – wouldn't it?

Chris opened her mouth to ask another question, but stopped herself.

"Have you seen Chelsea?" Lily asked.

"Yeah, she went to get some Pepperup Potion from the nurse. She wasn't feeling all that great." Kat replied.

Neither am I... Lily thought. "Okay. She better get here soon or she'll be late." She said aloud.

"Nope, I'm not late." Chelsea's voice came from behind.

Lily turned around and raised an eyebrow. The Pepperup Potion was making steam come out of her ears. It was certainly interesting looking.

"Oh shut up." Chelsea said. "Lil, what happened to your neck?"

Lily diverted her eyes past Chelsea's head, but yet she still looked like she was staring Chelsea straight in the eyes. "Nothing. I was just rubbing it this morning. It was sore."

"Red, Chelsea – stop talking." The Professor called as she entered the room. The two girls sat down and opened their books.

For the rest of the day, Lily was silent; she spoke only when she needed to. Nor did she look at anyone directly. By the end of the day, many people had asked her what was wrong.

"You must've rubbed your neck pretty hard," Chelsea said when they were at dinner.

Lily put her hand to her neck. "What d'you mean?"

"It's bruised." Chelsea replied.

Nick was staring at Lily accusingly.

"Oh... I – I, uh. Yeah... must have." Lily stuttered.

"Rubbed your neck?" Nick said.

Lily gave him a look that clearly said: "shut the hell up – now."

And Chelsea didn't miss that look. "Okay, what the hell do you know that I don't, Nick?"

Lily kicked Nick under the table as he opened his mouth.

"Austin put her in a choke hold in the corridor this morning." Nick said, rubbing his leg.

"He what!" Chelsea erupted. Many people looked at Chelsea.

"It's in the past." Lily mumbled. "Let's let it stay there."

"No. No." Chelsea said fiercely. "You're coming with me."

Lily opened her mouth to protest, but Chelsea had already lifted her from her seat and was dragging her down the corridors towards the Headmistresses office.

Chelsea stormed right into the room without knocking and waited to be acknowledged.

"Yes, Chelsea?" the Headmistress asked. She sounded exasperated.

Chelsea moved Lily's hair out of the way so the bruises were visible. "Professor, it's definitely gotten worse." They had been to the Headmistresses office earlier that year to report that Austin was harassing them.

The Headmistress snatched her glasses off her face. "What happened, Lily?"

Lily looked down at the floor. "What's done is done. I'm going to be gone in two weeks. If you would allow it, Professor, I would like it if you didn't mention this to my parents – or anyone for that matter."

"Who did this to you?" she asked.

"It doesn't matter. I don't want retribution for what he did. I just – want to go home." Lily replied.

"Austin Elsworth." Chelsea piped up.

"I shall take care of this. In the meantime – I will not tell your parents; though I think it would be best if I did." Headmistress said.

"Thank you." Lily said in a quiet voice.

Chelsea looked defeated. She wanted to kill Austin for what he did to her. Lily had come to this school with very little self-confidence. Chelsea had helped her build it up; and now it was all shattered again.

And Lily didn't want retribution because she knew that he would come back at her again and try to hurt her more than he already had. Her trust for men was all but gone.

"God, I wish you could come with me." Lily said. They were at the train station again; Lily hadn't seen this place since September.

"I know. I would love to go to Hogwarts." Chelsea replied.

"Lily? We really must get going." Lily's mother called.

Lily sighed, "I'll miss you."

"Miss you too. But I promise to write you!" Chelsea replied.

They gave each other and hug and then slapped their palms together like they had when they declared themselves blood sisters.

Lily's mother herded her into a car and she turned to look out the back window. "Bye..." she mouthed.

"Bye, Lil." Chelsea replied. And then her best friend was gone.

Lily watched Chelsea until they had turned a corner and she could no longer see her best friend. She put her hands up to the sides of her neck and rubbed lightly. Paranoid is what she was now. She couldn't have anyone put his or her hands on her neck. Lily especially hated when people came up behind her and put their arm over her shoulder and wrapped it around to hold the other shoulder. No matter how loosely they did it, it always brought back horrid memories and sent her into a mode that she wouldn't snap out of until she had calmed down and realized that it wasn't Austin coming back to get her again.

~~

Author's note: I don't really know what to write... But I can say that this brought back many memories. Hope you liked the first chapter – please review.