Disclaimer: The only things that's mine is the plot. And Mr. & Mrs. Evans' first names. =o)
A/N: So I wrote (at least the beginning of) this fic a long time ago, and I never really got around to posting it anywhere, so I hope ya'll like it! It starts out really slow at first, but I PROMISE it will get a million times more interesting! And we're off…………
~*The Unknown Warrior*~
Chapter 1: The Letter
She was in a room filled with black people walking mindlessly about her. In vain she tried to stop and ask where she was, for each just walked on, ignoring her. A flash of blue caught her eyes, something glinted in the distance. She started to make her way through the masses to see where the color was coming from, but all she could see was black. She stopped in her tracks and craned her neck to see over the black hordes, but nothing caught her eye. Suddenly something grabbed her arm, and she whirled around to see who it was………
Only to wake up from falling out of her bed. Lily Evans winced as her warm body hit the freezing floor. 'It's really about time I get a carpet in her', she thought to herself as she dragged her body up off the ground. She had had that dream many times before, and was having almost nightly now. At first she tried to figure out what was going on, but she had stopped trying quite a long time ago. Pulling on socks, shorts and a T-shirt, she pulled her long dark red hair out of a braid and fluffed it with her hands. It fell in large curls, framing her face, and she smiled as she glanced in her full-length mirror on her door. With quick hands, she dragged a brush through it and pulled it back into a ponytail. It was the very early morning, and her lavender room had a ghostly look to it in the semi-darkness, casting shadows on the walls and furniture. She turned the doorknob and slowly opened the creaking door, careful not to wake her parents or her sister. She loved this time of the day. It was quiet, and no one was around to bother her (like her sister Petunia did, and very often). She crept down the stairs, the maroon carpeting muffling her footsteps. When she finally got to the kitchen, she turned on lights, threw a piece of toast in the toaster and poured herself a glass of orange juice. She grabbed it as it popped up, ate it quickly, and downed her orange juice in a few gulps. With that, she was out the door.
Lily's sister Petunia would mock any gesture that involved getting up before at least 8 o' clock and maybe even resort to violence, so Lily turned around to make sure Petunia's light was still of in her room. Petunia was quite popular at school for her almost always perfectly done hair and makeup, and many worshiped her, even if it was only for her snotty, arrogant behavior. She would dump even the closest of friends if they sacrificed her reputation in any way and lately (for the past three years) had not really been on speaking terms with her sister. Lily didn't really mind this much; the only things Petunia had to say to her before were insults or she was forced to say by her parents. Giggling at her sister's arrogance, Lily began to run.
Running was Lily's escape. When she was running, everything was fine, no one was around her, and nothing stressed her out. Jogging, she hit a long stretch of road and started to sprint. She ran up an easily sloping grassy hill and right up to an enormous tree. She climbed the rungs of wood she has set in place herself and lifted her body onto a branch. She looked down at her hands and memories from the day before flowed back into her mind.
She was at school, and all the kids were playing kickball in the soccer (or football, depending on where you're from) field. Lily wasn't exactly the most adept kickball player, and while she could kick that ball pretty far, her aim was always off in throwing it. Someone on the other team kicked the ball right to her, and when she threw it to the pitcher, it landed about ten feet to short and completely in the wrong direction. The pitcher, a mean boy named Shane, saw the ball sitting far from him and he sneered. He turned to the rest of the team and said angrily, "We shouldn't let her play anymore, she always messes the game up. She can't even throw a ball! No wonder she doesn't have any friends, the wench."
Lily listened as the whole team burst out in laughter and her eyes narrowed in anger and frustration. She really wasn't the type who would cry over things, and she figured now really wasn't the time to start. At that moment, the forgotten ball flew up in the air and slammed Shane right where it hurt………hard. He doubled over in pain and the whole field went silent. Then, in the midst of the silence, one word fell out of someone's mouth: "freak". There was giggling, then laughing as other people yelled it louder "freak!". Whirling around as the mocking and laughing encompassed her, Lily kicked the ground angrily and ran back to school, grabbed her things to run home.
Some may wonder why she wasn't surprised the ball hit Shane, but Lily definitely wasn't. Things like this were always happening to her, and had been for as long as she could remember. That was the real reason she didn't have any friends. People were completely scared of her ever since the third grade when a whole bucket of red paint had thrown itself on Chrissy Egan after she called Lily "Frog eyes" and cracked jokes about Lily marrying the class frog.
She sat up there and watched the sun rise slowly over the horizon, painting the sky in reds and oranges. She was staring at the leafy branches when a voice came up to her from below, startling her so much that she almost fell out of the tree. Where had he come from?
"I can see why you like it up there," said a rather oddly dressed man, his blue eyes twinkling at her beneath half-moon spectacles. He had a white beard that fell to chest-level, and was wearing what appeared to be purple robes, only slightly different than a robe in appearance.
Suspicious, Lily said, "Yes, it's quiet up here and you can watch the sun come up."
The man glanced toward the sun and looked back at her, his eyes still twinkling. "I find, at my tree at home, that it provides an escape from the more extraordinary happenings in life."
Lily gaped at him. How could he have known? "ex-ex-extraordinary happenings?" she managed to stutter.
"Why yes, of course," he replied, smiling knowingly and nodding his head. "Do you ever feel as if you don't belong here, Lily?" He asked questioningly.
For some reason Lily felt completely comfortable around this man now, and didn't even notice that he knew her name.
"How did you know?" she asked, still in disbelief.
"Let's just say I had a little help," he said, pulling what appeared to be a wooden stick out of his robes. "This is what you are, Lily. This is what you can do," the strange man explained, brandishing the stick. He said some words under his breath and suddenly Lily was floating slowly to the ground from her tree.
She landed softly on her feet, and looked at him with her eyes wide. "Who are you? What are you?"
Well, formally I am Albus Dumbledore……….but more importantly I am a wizard.
"Wi-wizard?" she asked incredously. Then she burst out laughing so hard her eyes were welling up.
"Do strange things ever happen to you, Lily? Things that cannot be explained by the laws of nature or science?" he asked seriously.
She stopped laughing abruptly. "Like what?"
"Like the incident with the ball yesterday, erm, hitting one of your friends?" he questioned, his eyes twinkling again.
"How do you know about that, too?" she asked in awe.
"I know almost everything about you. You have been on the list for Hogwarts since you were born, and every magical thing that you do goes down with the accidental magic board at the ministry. Why, even yesterday Dobbins was telling me about this muggle boy who………" he trailed off when he saw the look of disbelief on Lily's face.
"Hogwarts? What's that?" Lily wanted to know.
"Ahhh, yes. That brings me to my next point quite well. Here's your letter. They're usually brought by owl post and come later in the summer, but this case is quite different, as you are muggle-born and are of muggle descent."
Muggle-born? Owl post? Wizard? The words whirled around in Lily's mind. "So am I………....am I……..…a……...." she stumbled over her words.
"Why yes! You are a witch, Lily" he said, cheeks red with happiness and pride.
Lily just stared at her letter, mouth wide open. She started reading it. "You have been accepted to Hogwarts' School of Witchcraft and Wizardry………First years will need 1 cauldron (black, pewter), 1 wand………the list went on.
"So this is for real? It isn't a joke or anything?"
"Of course not! However I daresay that if it were a joke it would be quite a jolly one indeed!"
A sudden grin broke across her face. She could get away from all those people! Her sister! "When do I start?"
He seemed crestfallen at these words, "Erm, well, actually I had to come here to break some rather unpleasant news to you, Lily. You see, unbeknownst to most wizards, a dark wizard is rising through the ranks seizing power where he can and………getting rid of those he doesn't. You see, he believes that the only good wizard is a pureblood, which of course is nonsense for he himself isn't even pureblood, and he has been getting rid of those who aren't, namely muggles and muggle-born--"
She interrupted him, "muggle?"
The seriousness of his tone stayed intact "non-magic folk. And since you are one, and the only muggle-born this year, I am very unfortunate to have to tell you that you will be needing a………disguise for school. For your own protection. He has followers even inside the walls of Hogwarts, and din order to ensure you complete safety, you will become someone else."
"Someone else? How so?" she asked, still trying to figure out the situation.
"Namely another wizard" he said, waiting for her reaction.
She paced the dewy grass, wringing her hands. This was happening so fast! First she finds out she's a witch brought up in a world outside the one she should be in, that she's going to transfer school, and now that she will be hunted by some psycho wizard who wants to kill her, and that she needs to go into disguise to avoid it? This was too crazy. She pinched herself to make sure that she wasn't dreaming and fell on her butt into the wet grass.
"Who will I become?" she said, still in shock.
"Unfortunately, there is only one wizard who comes from a well-known wizarding family and is your age. He died in an unfortunate muggle accident a year ago, and practically no one knows of his death yet, or had met him much beforehand. Now it is only our luck that he had red hair, so I'm sure you'll fit right in."
She glanced up at him, her piercingly green eyes boring into him "A boy? That's what I have to be disguised as?"
"Yes, it was the only way, Lily." He said, closing his eyes slightly.
Lily thought over her situation. Stay here, brave her social-climbing sister and the kids at school who were afraid to be near her, or disguise herself as a boy and attend a school where she belongs, and has a clean reputation (not being branded as the "freak")?
"It is also because your being a witch may put your own family at risk" he said slightly, as not to put too much pressure on the statement.
Lily's eyes shut, her full mouth slightly parted. They blinked open, her bright green ones locking with his blue. "I'll do it."
A/N: Chapter one complete! I promise the story will get more interesting………just bear with me here! Oh, and sorry for any mistakes in here, I am terrible at proofreading. **See that beautiful little purple button below? PUSH IT!!! =o)**