Disclaimer: All HP characters and things belong to J.K. Rowling, Bloomsbury, Scholastic and everything else. Anything that is not HP, but simply a character of my own IS my own.
The Life and the Story of a Lily
By: Alana the Great
Chapter 1: Of Letters and Spilled Milk
The warm smell of waffles and bacon woke eleven year old Lily Evans from her peaceful slumber. Sitting up and stretching, she lovingly scratched her cat, Mel behind the ears. The cat arched its back into her, and slept on as the sun light flooded in through the window. Lily gazed into the sun's warmth and pulled herself out of bed, and ran to peek out the window.
Below, she watched as her father was tying a horses long blonde tail into a wrap. The chickens had been let out of their pens and they were pecking the ground, hopeful to find a juicy worm. Bess, the milk cow was allowing her calf to nurse and Nikki, the sheep dog was allowing her pups to chase after the ducks and the geese, even though the geese weren't too keen on the idea.
"Papa!" Lily cried out the window, watching her father look up in her direction. He smiled and tipped his hat to her.
"Hurry up and eat, Lily love," he called up to her. "I need all the help I can get with Steeple."
"Is she ready to have her baby?" Lily asked.
"It certainly looks it," Mr. William Evans said, taking off his hat and wiping his brow. "Now hurry on there, love. Get Petty up as well."
Lily nodded and turned to dash out the door. She stopped short to pull off her nightgown and pull on a denim skirt and a purple tee shirt. Pulling her long red hair into two braids rather quickly, Lily made way down the hall towards her sister's room.
With out bothering to knock, she barged in to find Petunia still asleep, her blonde hair tangled on her face. Lily pounced on her sister's bed and shook her.
"Petty, wake up!" Lily said, as her sister stirred. "Steep's going to have her foal awful soon. Pa wants us to eat breakfast and to go help him get her ready.
"I'm up…stop shaking me," the fourteen year old groaned, as she rolled over to glance at her younger sister. "What's going on?"
Lily gave a deep sigh, grabbed her sister's hands and pulled. "Come on! Steep could have her baby any minute now!"
At this, Petunia nearly knocked Lily off the bed. She was on her feet and pulling on her boots faster than lightning. She threw a brush through her hair quickly before tying it into a ponytail. Lily stood up and watched as her sister raced out of the room. Lily made to follow her lead, but as she was about to enter the hallway, Lily found her self on the floor again. Petunia stood in the doorway, looking excited and slighted shocked that she had just knocked over her younger sister. Petunia grabbed Lily's arm and the two raced down the stairs together.
In the kitchen, Mrs. Breena Evans was putting bacon on a platter. Her face was sweet and gentle and her gentle almond eyes were a light honey brown that made her dark brown hair highlight her face. A light splatter of freckles fell across her nose and cheekbones. She wore a light, airy skirt and an apron over her flowered shirt. The smile that she gave her daughters turned into a frown as Petunia led Lily to the door.
"Girls, are you forgetting something?" she asked, watching as Petunia struggled to grip the door knob.
"No time, Mum," Petunia said as she wrenched the door open. "Steep's going to have her baby."
"Yeah, Mummy. You ought to bring out breakfast to us, so we could have a special breakfast picnic outside," Lily said as she stole some bacon off the platter. Petunia dashed out the door. Lily, meanwhile, mouth full of bacon, trying to cram her feet into her boots watched in horror as Petunia left her side.
"Petty! Wait!" she hollered as pieces of chewed bacon flew from her mouth. Mrs. Evans sighed and bent down to help her daughter untie her boots, but Petunia came running back. She grabbed Lily underneath her arms and carried her down the porch. Lily waved at her mother with the bacon in one hand and the other wrapped tightly around Petunia's neck. Mrs. Evans smiled and put the freshly made waffles on the platter of bacon, grabbled the maple syrup and dashed out of the farmhouse as well.
Mr. Evans glanced up and grinned was his two daughters came prancing out of the house with his wife at their heels. He went back to stroking Steeple's head, whispering words of good thought to the mare.
"How is she, Pa?" Petunia asked as she stopped next to him. "How soon?"
Mr. Evans turned and took Lily from Petunia. "Seems like it'll be a while. I'm just getting her ready, just in case. After we eat, you girls can set out some clean straw in her pen. We'll also need somebody to keep checking her every so often."
Lily raised her hand in the air, showing she indeed, wanted to help. Mr. Evans smiled and gave her a whiskery kiss on her cheek and wrapped her arm around Petunia.
Mr. Evans was a burly man with red curly hair and green eyes. His face was bearded and tough, but it was kind and gentle all the same. Lily was able to get his red hair and his green eyes into her gene pool. Some thought that red hair was ugly, but Lily thought it was beautiful and unique.
Mrs. Evans smiled toothily and held out the breakfast she had made. Mr. Evans let out a laugh and led the family out into the field where they could dine together. He set Lily down on the picnic table and guided Petunia to sit next to her. Lily and Petunia shared a look as their parents sat down next to each other. Lily knew that both her parents were both deeply in love and they both wanted another child. Yet, even Lily was a miracle to them. Mrs. Evans was nearing forty-five when Lily was born and now that she was in her fifties, it was near impossible to have a child. Mr. Evan's had suggested adoption, but Mrs. Evans, who was from a foster home, said that it would have been down right hard now that they were getting older and older.
The family ate breakfast together, laughing and talking about school and how the summer was going by. Petunia talked to her parents mostly about boyfriends and going on to her new secondary school. Lily mostly gossiped about her friends and what they had told her in their letters. She watched as her parents and sister chuckled about some of the things she told them. Lily wondered if they believed her, mostly because whenever she was around, weird things tended to happen. For instance, she got sent home from school one day for setting frogs loose in the science wing. She just happened to be in one of the science rooms alone and the cage that held the frogs opened all by itself. Soon, frogs were leaping through the hall, terrifying girls and entertaining boys as they went.
Later, after breakfast, Lily and Petunia cleared out the old hay from the pen and laid down a fresh batch. Lily was tossing the hay gently on the ground when Petunia looked over at her.
"So, are you excited?" she asked, scattering more hay up and down the pen. Lily looked at her and smiled.
"Yeah…It'll be my first time watching a horse give birth. Have you seen it before?"
Petunia nodded. "When I was a little younger than you, I watched Black Rose give birth to Steeple Gray." Petunia shut her eyes and smiled at the memory. As Lily looked at her sister, she noted how angelic her sister looked with her eyes closed and the sun making her hair shine like gold. Petunia had a round, childish face and she had an average body. She wasn't the skinniest girl, but she certainly wasn't fat. She was also quite tall for her age. Petunia opened her blue eyes again and smiled at Lily.
"Steeple was born at night. Pa woke me up and brought me to see her. He would have woken you up as well, but you were a little girl then. He wanted you to get your rest."
"I remember being mad at Pa," Lily said, smiling brightly. Petunia looked at Lily and smiled as well.
"You were angry with me too, you know," Petunia put in.
"Yes, but I was more angry with Pa, because he got you up and not me," Lily chimed cheerfully as she pulled open the gate and grabbed the chicken food her father left.
"But you forgave father before me, because he took you to the ice cream parlor up the street," Petunia said, leaning against the pen, smiling.
Lily grinned. "Yep, that sound 'bout right." With that, Lily threw the chicken feed to the ground, and immediately, brown and white chickens came waddling up the path, eager for food. Lily squealed as one pecked viciously at her leg. She ran back into the pen with Petunia, who was laughing heartily at her. Lily glared at her and through hay at Petunia, getting it all over her hair. Petunia turned and grinned at her little sister.
"You really are still angry with me," Petunia said, laughter evident in her voice.
Lily laughed and threw more hay at Petunia in delight.
"But Pa!" Lily said sadly as her father led both her and Petunia back up to the porch that night.
"No buts, Lily, popkin," Mr. Evans said, kissing Lily on the cheeks and hugging Petunia. "It's getting late, and I don't want you two out here right just yet."
"Come on Lily love," Mrs. Evans said, reaching out to take Lily's hand. Lily took it reluctantly and gave her father a look. He chuckled and put a hand on her cheek.
"Come on, poppet, don't look at me like that. I just want to get a good night's worth of sleep." Lily still frowned at him, but she gave him a big hug. "That'll do, my love."
"Goodnight Pa," Petunia said, wrapping her arms around her father tightly. "Wake me if anything happens."
Mr. Evans smiled, kissed Petunia's temple and looked over to his wife. They kissed and then Mr. Evans turned to tend to Steeple Gray. Lily sighed deeply as her mother guided her into the house.
"Alright, my loves," Mrs. Evans said, "I want you both in bed. It's late and I don't want you two to be tired tomorrow if there is a little pony hobbling around out there." Lily and Petunia nodded and they turned to leave the kitchen. As they made to walk up the stairway, Petunia looked down at Lily.
"Pa'll get us up if anything happens."
"I know," Lily said angrily. "I just wanted to be down there before anything happened.
"He'll get me first though, because I'm older."
Lily gave her sister a cold look, as anger towards her sister flooded her tiny body, before stalking over to her room. "Goodnight, Petty," she said stiffly.
"Goodnight, Lilikins," Petunia replied, a slight smile in her voice. The anger Lily had felt at Petunia was gone. Lily didn't know why, but Petunia always did that. She made Lily angry with her, and then at the last possible moment, Petunia made Lily positively smitten with her.
Lily shut the door to her room and turned on the light. In the middle of putting on her nightgown, she heard her mother knock on Petunia's door to say goodnight. Pouting like a six-year-old, Lily went and sat on her bed, waiting for her mother to enter. Sure enough, Lily saw her mother's beautiful, yet worn face peer through the doorway.
"I made chocolate chip cookies," Mrs. Evans said brightly as she entered Lily's room. Lily shrugged and allowed her mother to tuck her into bed. Taking a chocolate chip cookie off of the silver platter, Lily looked into her mother's hazel eyes.
"Mummy, I want to be out there with Pa," she said like an injured child. Mrs. Evans chuckled, and got up to shut the window.
"Poppet, you know he'll come and get you girls if anything happens."
"Yes, but I want to be down there with him to keep Pa company," Lily whined. Mrs. Evans smiled and locked the window. She made her way towards Lily and sat down on the bed. Stroking Lily's red curls, she leaned down and kissed Lily's temple.
"Don't worry love, Pa'll come and get you. You know he'd never break a promise to you, love."
Lily nodded sleepily and allowed her mother to push her gently into the soft pillows. Mrs. Evans found Lily's music box on her bureau and she wound it up and let it play the sweet, harmonic melody that always put Lily to sleep. Mrs. Evans kissed Lily on the forehead.
"I love you, Lilikins," Mrs. Evan's whispered, her voice getting farther away.
I love you too, Mummy," Lily replied, yawning. The lights went off and Lily was left alone, with the moon as her only guide.
"Lil! Get up!"
Lily cracked her eyes open to see that her father was grabbing a big quilt from on of her drawers.
"Pa?" Lily whispered, stifling a yawn. "Wh-wh-what do you want?"
"Here, love, put your house coat on," Mr. Evans said, draping the housecoat around Lily's shoulders. She slipped it on, wondering what in the world was going on, when her father then wrapped the quilt around her body. Mr. Evans picked her up and carried her out of her room.
"Lily, the most wonderful thing is happening," Mr. Evans said anxiously, as he ran down the steps, not making a sound. Lily blinked tiredly, wishing she were back in her warm bed.
"Pa…what—are you doing?"
"Steep's baby's coming."
Lily was wide-awake at this, her green eyes wide with excitement. Mr. Evans carried her outside, towards the pen. Inside, Mr. Evans sat Lily down in the hay and Lily watched with amazement at Steeple slowly walked around the pen.
"Daddy, what's she doing?" Lily whispered.
"She's coming over contractions. Remember how Dixie the cat was panting when she had her kittens? This is how Steep's over coming hers."
"Where's Petty?"
"Petunia has already seen a foal get born. It's your turn to see this," Mr. Evans said softly, staring at the horse. "You need to see this alone."
"And what about Mummy?"
"She's seen horses give birth loads of times before."
"Come on Steep," Lily whispered as her dad wrapped his arms around her.
"That a girl, Lily. Give her confidence," Mr. Evans whispered. "Come on Steeple, ol' girl. You can do it."
Then, Lily watch as a small foal fell from the mother. Mr. Evans broke away from Lily and cleaned up the baby foal. She watched as her father sucked on the foal's nostrils, taking away the mucus.
"And we have a little boy," Mr. Evans said proudly. "Come on love, don't be shy." He beckoned Lily over towards him. She reached out slowly and patted the foal. It snorted and made forth to get up. Mr. Evans pulled Lily up into his arms and he held her.
"What should we name him?" he asked, kissing Lily's cheek.
"Storm," Lily said promptly, still staring at the young foal. "We'll call him Storm."
"Pa, you didn't wake me up?" Petunia asked, her voice high and angry. Lily was eating her pancakes happily with her mother.
"You got to see Steep," Mr. Evans said, buttering himself some toast. "It was Lily's turn to see Steep's baby get born. Next time, you'll both be able to see Black Rose's new foul…"
Petunia scowled at Lily and crammed a piece of sausage in her mouth. Petunia poured herself some milk and turned to grab some pancakes from the plate.
At that precise moment a barn owl flew in through the window. Petunia shrieked as it ran into her milk glass, spilling milk all over the table. Mr. Evans leapt from his seat and Mrs. Evans jumped and reached out to clutch Lily. The owl toddled over to Lily where it held out it's leg. A letter was attached and Lily took it slowly. The owl took flight again, causing Petunia to yelp. Mr. Evans walked over to the window and watched the barn owl fly into the sun.
"Strange," he mumbled to himself.
"I'm-I'm a witch!" Lily cried, staring at the piece of parchment in her hands. Everybody turned to face the small red headed girl, who had jumped out of her seat in surprise.
"Oh, poppet," Mrs. Evans said, taking the letter and reading it over. "That's wonderful! Imagine, Will," she said, then turning to face her husband, looking shocked but thoroughly pleased all the same, "a witch in our family!"
"Oh, Lily! That's beautiful! I'm so…happy for you!" her father said, as both of her parents swooped down and embraced the small girl.
Through her joy, Lily couldn't help but notice Petunia, who was standing with her back to the wall, looking sallow faced and quite ill. Her eyes were set in a narrow glare and her cheeks were red with anger. Lily couldn't remember seeing Petunia this angry. Slowly, Petunia cleared her throat as her parents let go of Lily.
"I'm…proud of you too…Lil," Petunia said, with a forced smile on her face. With that, Petunia stalked out of the house, her blonde hair bouncing on her back. Mrs. Evans patted Lily on the shoulder.
"Don't worry, Lily," Mrs. Evans said bracingly, beaming at her youngest daughter. "She'll get over it."
"Your mother's right, sweetheart," Mr. Evans said. "Petty's probably jealous right now. First you get to see Steeple go through labor, and now…you're a witch! You're both sisters, you'll work it out. Now, lets see what we have to do to keep you a witch."
Mrs. Evans laughed at her husband and looked down at the letter. Lily was still gazing after her older sister, wondering why she had looked so disappointed and angry. Lily knew it wasn't just because she was jealous. There was something else behind her angry eyes.
I think it was alright for the first chappie? Next chapter, we'll flip straight to third year, where Lily will be at on the train home from Hogwarts for the summer, and then, we'll jump right into seventh year in chapter three. The first two chapters are kind of like…flashbacks. They show what you need to see, in order to understand the flow of this story. Please Review? Please!
Love from,
Alana