Not A Flower is based upon the Harry Potter series written by JK Rowling. All characters and situations other than my own are sole property of Bloomsbury Publishing, Arthur A. Levine Books, and Raincoast Books [Copyright©1995 to present]
August 1971
Spinner's End was covered with tall trees sprayed with virescent leaves and flowers of various colors and shapes, as well as a light breeze that twirled about the gray houses lined symmetrical to their neighbors. While most families remained inside, sitting in front of their telly and forgetting about the changing world around them, three young girls sat upon their porch, playing a game of cards while laughing vigorously at each of their failed attempts to win.
These girls were all exceedingly different from each other. The oldest one had dirty blond hair that wrangled down to about her shoulders, with striking blue eyes. Her personality was consumed of a loving warmth that focused on protecting her family. She focused on her school studies with intent, but always made time to fix her sisters food; yet she had quite the jealous streak on her, while consuming most of her anger, she made sure jealousy was apparent when present.
Then there were the fraternal twins, both born on January 30, 1960. One had dark red hair and striking green eyes, with a light essence of passion resonating strongly. She was quite intelligent, focusing most of her time on her studies. She had no room for trouble-making, constantly criticizing others - in the nicest way - when they tried to do something "wrong". She was blunt about her feelings when someone pushed her far enough, but generally tried to portray a perfect girl status.
The other fraternal twin, was quite the opposite from her sister. Instead of luscious red hair, she had soft golden hair with bangs covering her forehead. She also had green eyes, like her twin, but they were tainted with blue and a sparkle of mischievousness. She was smart like both of her sisters, and got the same grades as them, yet she made time for pranking and having fun. She was easily amused, incredibly kind, and had her anger under check. It was a peculiar trait in her family: she remained the only one without a sharp tongue.
"Petunia, go already. We've been waiting for several minutes now, and I'm beginning to get bored," The blond twin said, waving her cards dramatically while smiling at her older sister. Petunia gave her a glare.
"You know, Elizabeth, not everyone is as fast as you in making decisions. You must think through to get the best result," She slapped down a four onto the concrete, then looked up at her sister.
"Says the one who's lost each of these nine games," Elizabeth quickly put down an eight and leaned back, eyeing the red head to indicate it was her turn.
Before Petunia could feistily respond, the other sister butted in, "Oh bloody hell you two, why don't you just get along?"
"Where's the fun in that, Lily? It's like having fries without ketchup," Elizabeth smirked as Lily placed a card down.
"Or PB and J without the peanut butter," Petunia said with a straight face. Both of her sisters burst out laughing at this odd remark.
"Then it would just be a jelly sandwich. That was a terrible analogy, Tunia," Lily laughed hysterically while her sister glared.
"Bite me," She said, throwing her cards down, "I forfeit. You two are worse than Severus."
"Eh, whatever you want, sis," Elizabeth continued to play with Lily until Petunia called out.
"Guys, what's that?" The sisters looked up at the sky, seeing a hazel owl swiftly flying towards them. They each looked astonishingly at this bird, wondering what an owl was doing so close to the suburbs.
It landed on one of the porch posts, dropped two ivory letters and flew off. The sisters looked at each other, waiting for one to make a move.
"Cowards," Elizabeth mumbled while she walked over to the owl, said hello, and then picked up the letters.
"They're addressed to you and I, Lily. Says it's from Hogwarts School. Have you heard of it?" Elizabeth quickly threw a letter at Lily, who fumbled with it before catching it. She was too confused to bother criticizing her sister on throwing a letter at her.
"No, I haven't. Have you, Petunia?" Lily looked at her older sister, who was glaring daggers at the letters. Her jealousy was creeping in.
"No. Open it," Lily and Elizabeth delicately opened the letters, and as they did, the alluring owl flew in the opposite direction of the house.
An eerie silence covered the porch as the girls read their letters. Lily raised an eyebrow, "This must be a joke. It must be a joke from Sev. This is... ridiculous."
"What does it say?"
Elizabeth answered while Lily continued to eye the letter, "Hogwarts apparently is a school of 'witchcraft and wizardry'. Apparently we're witches. This is so strange. It had a seal and everything, I don't understand."
"What?" Petunia grabbed the letter and quickly scanned it while Elizabeth ran inside to inform her parents.
"Ma, pa! Come out, quick! Lily and I got these strange letters!" Elizabeth quickly came back outside and grabbed her letter from Petunia.
"What is going on, you three?" Mr. and Mrs. Evans came out dressed in their pajamas - apparently typical of them on Saturdays - and looked anxiously at their children.
Lily thrust her letter at them, "Read this."
As their parents read the letters, the three sisters eyed each other. Each having a stream of different thoughts running through their head.
"You're correct, this is very strange. Here, there's a number on the back for 'muggle parents with questions'. We'll call, you three come inside and have a snack, okay?" Mr. Evans was always the logistic side of the married couple; and while he ran inside to call the number, he was followed by the rest of the family.
The three girls sat in the kitchen eating some chocolate chip cookies their mother had baked earlier that day. They were completely silent, attempting to eavesdrop on the phone conversation, but becoming ultimately unsuccessful.
"Well," Mr. Evans walked in with the letters and his wife, "this isn't a joke. Professor Dumbledore - the head of the school - explained it all to me. You two are witches. Don't ask me how it's possible, but you are. This explains the fact both of you can set things on fire and cause flowers to grow..."
"We're... witches?" Lily's eyes opened wide as she looked at her sister, who just shrugged in response.
"Yes. School starts on September 1st. Here, we took notes, read." Mr. Evans handed the notes to his daughters, and sat down, grabbing a cookie for himself.
"I can't believe this," Petunia said, "why aren't I a witch?"
A sinister stillness followed her question, and it wasn't until Mrs. Evans responded several minutes later that it was answered, "He said that because we're muggles - none magic folks, that is - we can't be. It's not uncommon for some people in a family to be magic and the others to not be. I'm sorry, Petunia. I know this must be upsetting."
Petunia stayed completely quiet, but stormed out of the room. Her sisters called after her, yet it was no use.
"Well. I suppose we should get all of these things on this school supply list. However, I can tell you, I'm not looking forward to buying frog scales. What could we possibly need those for? Bloody hell," Elizabeth said, smiling. The rest of the family, however, was not quite as amused.
This is about to be a crazy journey, Elizabeth thought, as the family sat with many unanswered questions.