Disclaimer: None of the characters (except for in later chapters) in this fanficition belong to moi. They all belong to the wonderful J. K. Rowling. So please don't sue me. Oh yes, but several characters coming up in future chapters are mine... I'll let you know, though! Thank you for your time and patience. And now on to the story! *Giggles insanely*

Don't Make Me Strangle You

By Kegogi

Chapter One: Life's Little Bumps

Lily Evans sighed as she took one last glance around her bare, empty bedroom. How she'd miss the cool afternoons when she watched the bussling people make their way home. How she'd miss the sound of church bells ringing in the distance every Sunday. How she'd miss the strange, greasy looking stains splattered here and there along the floor (she and her sister had concocted several "kitty yums" with which they had tried to feed the cat). But most of all, Lily would miss her friend, her only friend, Alison. Just thinking of leaving her made every breath painful and the memories agonizingly bittersweet.

Sinking down to the bare oak floor, she put her face into her small hands and began to sob quietly. She didn't want to leave London, her best friend, her life, but her father had gotten a job offer in a small village near Sudbury— a miserable fifty miles away!

"But it's not going to be all that bad," her mother tried to reason with her, "you'll make new friends... And we're living in a nice, quiet village! Won't you like that? A nice little community would be very good for you, you know."

"No, I want London and Ali!"

Lily hated to be told what was good for her. No one knew what was good for her. Only she did. Only Lily.

But she now saw how useless it had been to argue with her parents. She just had to face the horrible truths of life sooner rather than later.

"LILY!"

Lily's head snapped up abruptly, and she took a look around the room again.

"Lil, you little— we're going to leave without you, you know!" Petunia's high-pitched squealing reverberated down the empty hallway.

'Fine by me' Lily thoght angrily. Standing up slowly, she went out to se what her sister was babbling about.

"There you are," snapped her 13-year old sister, "I was wonderiing where you've gotten to."

Lily shrugged her shoulders and sighed as she followed her sibling out the front door and into her family's car. It was a lurid green color with cracking brown leather seats and smelled of cigarette smoke. She wrinkled up her nose in disgust and coughed dryly, earning her a piercing stare from her sister.

"I hate this car," Lily mumbled darkly. In fact she hated just about everything right now. She hated it all, except for her cat, Brownie.

"Hey there," she cooed as she scratched behind his ears. She listened to her kitten's purring and closed her eyes. For the first time in a long time, she actually felt content. It was just that something about animals intrigued her. Made her feel safe.

Loved.

"Richard!" a yell shattered Lily's feeling of tranqility and she was thrusted, once again, into misery.

"Richard, I thought you said the movers had that van fixed, didn't you?"

"It is fixed, Marianne. It just can't hold much more of the furniture. We have to leave that trunk behind—"

"We are not leaving that here. That was a gift from my grandmother!"

"Yes, well I hate to tell you this, but your gran was a looney old bat for handing somthing that... that... huge to a seven year old,"

"My grannie was NOT a looney old bat, Richard, and you know it—"

"Really. Well she never tried to hit you over the head with a cane, did she?"

"But you stepped on her gerbil! You know how she loved her gerbil..."

"Only friend she ever had... I remember now—"

Lily heard the car door open and Petunia stepped inside snickering quietly, "Dad's right. Grand-nan was a looney old bat... Please move the cat."

Silently, Lily obliged and moved her pet onto her lap. She closed her eyes again. She didn't want to have to put up with this... Definitely not this...

All this poor little girl wanted to do was lay in her warm bed, in her familiar room. She definitely didn't want to spend the next four hours in a small, confined space with her family.

Not her family.

Richard and Marianne both got into the car grumpily. Lily heard the roar of the engine as it started, then she succumbed back to her thoughts.

The red head sighed. Yet, even though the love was there, she felt her family still didn't understand her. Her father often worked long hours and didn't spend much time with his family.

Her mother tried to pay attention to her daughters, but the worry of always having to pay the next bill kept her from doing much of anything. And as for Petunia? Petunia could be the most helpful person in the world... sometimes. She did Lily's hair, told her stories, but as being the big sister... Sometimes she wasn't as helpful as she could be.

'Yes, life is unfair, dear,' she said to herself.

Lily gazed longingly out the window. London was flashing by in nothing but a blur. A blur that would be gone soon.

Very soon.

They didn't even let her say 'goodbye' to her friends. Oh how angry Alison would be when she found out they moved already. Lily could just imagine her face red as a tomato, her brown pigtails bobbing behind her as she shook her head in anger.

Lily would give anything to be with her again... Even if she was steaming out the ears.

Giving up all hope of ever seeing her again, she closed her eyes and wept bitterly. Time flies when you're miserable, she thought to herself.

¤~*~¤~*~¤~*~¤

The family drove in complete silence, apart from a few sniffles from Lily. She sat and stroked her cat as she stared out the window, thinking about leaving London, and Alison, and her house, and... Sadly she sighed for the ump-teenth time that day. They had left London about two hours ago, and still, another long leg of the journey was ahead of them.

Again Lily sighed.

"Oh will you stop it?" Her mother turned all the way around in her seat to scowl at her daughter, but softened as she saw the look upon her face. "Look, dear, I know this is hard on you, but everybody has to go through with this sort of thing in their lives. But one thing you have to have is a positive attitude! Just think about all of the things you'll be able to do once we get there! And you'll make new friends! Just think of that!"

But Lily didn't want to think of that... She didn't want new friends... She just didn't want to talk about it. Instead, she changed the subject. "I'm hungry," she stated plainly. That statement wasn't entirely true, however.

Marianne sighed. Sometimes she just couldn't talk to her daughter... "Alright... Petunia, are you hungry?"

Petunia gazed up over the edge of the novel she had been reading and shrugged. "I guess,"

Marianne tapped her husband on the shoulder, "Richard, do you want to take a break, the girls are getting hungry."

"No!" Richard gasped not taking his eyes off the road, "Marianne, we need to make time!"

"Oh for Christ's sake, Richard, the girls are being starved and you can't even stop for thirty minutes just to let them snack on something?" Marianne snapped.

"No,"

"DAD!" both girls whined in unison. Two pairs of small hands slapped Richard lightly on the shoulder, and he rolled his eyes.

"Look, the movers charge by the hour, and I don't want to have to pay any more money than I have to!" he answered.

"So Richard, is that all you can think about? Money? Over your daughters' well-being?" Marianne challenged. "Stop the car at the next restaurant."

"But—"

"Richard, I said STOP THE CAR!"

¤~*~¤~*~¤~*~¤

Fifteen minutes later, the little green car that belonged to the Evans family pulled into a small, greasy-looking pub. Mrs. Evans frowned as she looked it over. "Maybe we should try somewhere else?"

"Nonsense Marianne," Richard said, "The girls were starving, weren't they? It would be so unfair if we had to drive another hour before stopping yet again to a seedy looking restaurant."

Marianne scowled as she pushed open the pub's door. Lily and Petunia followed with their father bringing up the rear. In one corner there was an unshaven man smoking a cigar while drinking shots. In the other, a drunk was slumped over the bar sleeping, a thin trail of saliva oozing from his open mouth. Marianne's frown deepened, but before she could get a hold of her children to drag them out of there, a rather busty blonde woman hustled over in their direction.

"Hello everybody! Hello handsome," she winked over in Richard's direction. Richard smiled nervously in return, and Marianne growled something under her breath. "How're all of yeh?"

"Wonderful," Marianne replied curtly.

The blonde looked surprised at Marianne's temper but went on, "My name is Trish, 'n I'll be yer waitress for t'day, " she babbled on about the day's specials as she led them to a table that was unoccupied and plopped four menus onto its surface.. Lily wasn't paying much attention to it all, and apparently, Mrs. Evans wasn't either. As soon as she sat down at the table, she whipped out a frilly handkerchief and proceeded to scrub the wooden table to death. "Ma'am, is there somethin' wrong?" Trish asked.

"Oh nothing," Marianne lied. She flashed the waitress a false smile, and put the handkerchief away.

"In that case," the blonde said, "what'll the little ladies like ta drink?"

Lily shrugged, "Water I guess,"

"I'll have the same," came Petunia's muffled reply; her head was still buried in the book.

Both Richard and Marianne ordered their drinks.

"That'll be all, Handsome?" she asked Richard.

Richard's face turned red, but Marianne answered for him.

"Alrigh' ever' 'un. I'll be back with yer drinks soon," Trish said.

Lily had not dared to look up the whole time. She didn't want that woman to see that she had been crying. Only when she heard the click, click of Trish's high-heels against the wood floors fade did she look up. Her mother was sitting at one edge of the round table with a rather sour expression on her face. She was still examining the table for something. Marianne had always been a neat-freak, and Lily was surprised that she hadn't had a heart-attack upon her first glance at this place. Lily glanced at her father next. His ears were still pink, from when Trish called him handsome, and he was sitting stiff as a board. Lily didn't even bother to look at Petunia; she knew her face would still be in that dumb novel... It was something about Merlin and Arthur, or something along those lines. Didn't she know that wizards and magic just were not real?

Trish came hurrying back with a tray of glasses of water and set them down at the appropriate places. Marianne wrinkled her nose when she saw the state of the cups; the glass was almost yellow with scum and the water looked cloudy. "Well, what'll it be?" Trish asked.

Lily and Petunia ordered the same thing, a plate of chicken and some crisps, and Richard ordered a turkey sandwich. Marianne insisted that she didn't need anything, possibly out of her fear of the state of the plates. Lily sat around, watching the various people come and go. There were the drunks, the gamblers, the young couples out, maybe, to get away from the prying eyes of their parents. Nothing looked too exciting... Maybe Petunia was right to get lost in a book of legends and excitement. That book certainly was more exciting than what was going on here...

After what seemed like an age, Trish came back balancing a tray of food in one hand. She quickly set it all down, almost knocking over Petunia's water before running off to another table.

Lily slowly picked at her food with her fork. Truth be told, she wasn't hungry at all. She also felt that if she ate anything, she'd just spew it all back up again. She wished she'd been more like her mother and not order anything. The chicken was swimming in its own grease, and the crisps were all limp... Even worse, the plate was chipped. Surely if she took a bite of anything, she'd get a piece of glass stuck in her braces.

"Honey, why aren't you eating?" Mrs. Evans asked.

Lily just shrugged her shoulders and continued to mutilate the chicken breast with her fork. Just then, Trish came bustling back to ask how the meal was going, but stopped abruptly when she saw Lily. "Is anything wrong hun?" she asked.

Lily didn't know how to answer. Lily didn't want to answer. Her mother, though, came to her rescue. "She's just a bit upset about everything right now. You see, we're right in the process of a move."

Trish nodded knowingly, "Yeah, I've been through that sorta thing,"

Lily's head snapped up, "Really?"

"Oh yeah, dearie, I was thirteen when I had to move from here to Aberdeen. Oh Dear Lord, I din't want to leave all of me friends... But I went anyway... It was so hard..."

"And how did you deal with it?" Marianne interjected, "I bet you put stuck to it with a positive attitude, and within a few months, you forgot about this place, right?"

"No actually I didn't," Trish said, "I ran away from home abou' six months later. It was a bit hard for 'bout ten years, but I turned out okay. I got a job at this here lil' pub for the past eight years—" she held her arms out in a 'and here we are' expression.

Marianne frowned at this, but Trish went on, "Believe me, kid. Don't you ever make the mistakes I did. I know I just made tha' sound like it ain't no big deal, but if yer not careful, you could just ruin yer whole life. Be very, very careful."

Lily looked at Trish with wide eyes and squeaked. She didn't know if she liked that story... Maybe Trish had to be very lucky to get where she was now...

¤~*~¤~*~¤~*~¤

Back in the car, the Evanses started to drive again. This time, Richard swore that he would stop for no one... Even if he had to run over a child to do it (both girls and his wife slapped his shoulder for that one). And again, Lily resumed to look out the window, thinking about everything, of all things... Of her life, her friends, her family... and how everything could just be so unfair.