A/N: No, I do not own Harry Potter. That all goes to JKR who is absolutely amazing. I mean honestly, what other story has made me wake up at 3AM in the morning with some crazy idea for a fanfic? Or maybe I'm just an oddball. :D

By the way, any bold in the story means that it's from the actual books written by J.K. Rowling.

Some friendships lasted a lifetime, others a few years or less. Still others lasted forever until eternity.

I never thought that when I became friends with Lily Evans, I would have that last kind of friendship. At most, it was going to be for a lifetime. And then, with the Marauders (well, three of them anyway), I thought my friendship with them was only going to last until we graduated from Hogwarts.

How was I supposed to know that there really was an afterlife? It's not like the dead come back just to tell us exactly how everything goes once you die. If they did, then maybe dying wouldn't seem so bad. Or maybe it would seem even worse. I don't know.

What I do know is that it's good to have friends who are always there for you.

….

"Lily, come over here!" I yelled happily. I had only moved into my new house a few days ago and had only met Lily Evans yesterday but it didn't matter. We were friends! She was my first friend and that made her even more special. Maybe we would even become best friends forever!

It was all perfect, absolutely perfect, because she was five years old and I was the same age. And she was quite pretty but when I told Lily that, she said that she looked okay but the freckles were bothersome. To me, it didn't matter. She was born with dark red hair and bright green eyes. It was so much more interesting than my dark brown hair and boring dark brown eyes (though Lily had told me that it was a chocolate kind of brown so they couldn't be boring). I wanted to make myself look interesting too but Mummy and Daddy warned me before we moved that I couldn't do that no matter what. Lily wasn't supposed to know that I was magical. That was a secret. I didn't like to keep secrets but Mummy said this was an important secret that I had to keep no matter how much I didn't like it.

But Lily didn't care that I looked all boring. She was my friend.

"What is it, Allison?" Lily asked, slightly out of breath. We had run up the hill near my new house because we had seen a pretty bluebird fly toward the only tree on the hill. "Where did the bird go?"

"I'm not sure but look! Up in the branches, do you see? There's a wind chime with a moon and stars!" Just as I said that, a light wind whistled by and moved the wind chime.

"It sounds so beautiful," Lily whispered, awed and smiling brightly.

"Let's make a wish," I proposed, "even if they aren't shooting stars, that we'll –"

"– always be friends forever and ever!" my new best friend finished.

….

Lily

Tuney and I were on the swings, swinging back and forth, back and forth. We were waiting for Ally to show up. It was going to be the first time I've seen her in a week. I really couldn't wait to show her something special that I had just found out a few days ago. It was almost like magic!

I kept on swinging higher and higher, loving the way my hair was blown back by the wind. Tuney would never go this high because Mummy said it was dangerous. But I never got hurt when I did it and it was just so fun!

"Lily, don't do it!" shrieked Tuney. I didn't listen; right when I got to the top, I let go of the swing. I felt like I was flying and I laughed loudly at how free I felt. I really hoped that Ally would get here soon so she could swing with me instead of Petunia. I landed back on the ground lightly after staying in the air for a while. It had almost seemed like I was a feather that floated slowly through the air.

"Mummy told you not to!" Tuney said as she stopped swinging. When I turned to face her, she had her hands on her hips and a frown on her face. "Mummy said you weren't allowed, Lily!"

I was still giggling a little as I replied, "But I'm fine. Tuney, look at this. Watch what I can do." Petunia looked around the park as I picked up a flower from the ground near a bush. Maybe she was looking to see if Ally was here yet. Tuney walked toward me and I could tell that she wanted to see what I could do but she didn't want to get in trouble with Mummy. When she was close enough, I concentrated a bit and made the flower's petals open and close.

Petunia wasn't amused. "Stop it!"

"It's not hurting you," I insisted. Oh, Tuney was no fun anymore! I threw the flower back down. I noticed that Petunia had watched the flower fall. Hmmm…

"It's not right. How do you do it?" she wondered. So, she was curious.

"It's obvious, isn't it?" a boy's voice asked. I jumped a bit but Tuney screamed and ran toward the swings. Where had he come from? He had long black hair and his skin was pale but in almost a sickly way. His clothes didn't match at all and they didn't fit him.

No, it wasn't obvious so I asked him. "What's obvious?"

The mysterious boy looked at Petunia and then back at me before lowering his voice and saying, "I know what you are."

"What do you mean?"

"You're…you're a witch."

"That's not a very nice thing to say to somebody!" That was a very mean thing to say to someone you didn't know and I wished that Tuney or Ally were here to help me. I turned and started to walk toward Petunia.

"No!" I could hear the boy following me so I walked faster and grabbed onto one of the swing poles like Tuney was doing as soon as I reached the swing set. "You are," he continued. "You are a witch. I've been watching you for a while." He's been what? "But there's nothing wrong with that. My mum's one, and I'm a wizard."

He must be joking.

Petunia laughed meanly and said to the boy, "Wizard! I know who you are. You're that Snape boy!" She turned to me. "They live down Spinner's End by the river," she told me before turning back to Snape to say, "Why have you been spying on us?"

"Haven't been spying. Wouldn't spy on you, anyway, you're a Muggle," he said meanly. What was a Muggle?

"Lily," Tuney called, "come on, we're leaving!" We turned away from Snape and walked away without looking back.

Allison

I was going to meet Lily and Tuney at the playground today. I hadn't seen them for a week now and I couldn't wait. I was almost to the playground now but up ahead on the path I saw two girls whom I recognized.

Before I could say a thing, the redheaded one called out, "Ally! You're back!" and ran to hug me tightly.

"Why are you two going this way? The park's the other way," I said.

"The Snape boy from Spinner's End was there, bullying us," Petunia said, wrinkling her nose.

"What? He's bad news! Mummy told me about him and his family. You don't want to get involved. But why was he bullying you? You've never done anything wrong to him."

"I don't know what he wanted," Lily said, "but he called me a witch and called Tuney a – a Muggle, I think it was."

Why in the world would Snape think Lily was a witch? She was a Muggle (I had nothing against it, she was my best friend after all) just like Tuney and Mr. and Mrs. Evans.

"Don't listen to him, Lily. He's just bitter that he doesn't have any friends like you," I reassured.

We started to walk home so we could play at either my house or the Evans' house. Stupid Snape. When we both go to Hogwarts in two years' time, I was going to find him and make him pay for upsetting my best friend.