HPFC Challenge: "A Deathly Hallows Quote Competition" : Quotes (underlined in the story) : Lily drew herself up to her fullest height and said, wish as much contempt as she could muster, "And what do you want?" and "I merely sought to greet you. But if my presence is not welcome…"

Summary: Life, almost by definition, is unpredictable. It takes pride in its ability to bring out the unexpected, and it can change – literally – on a dime or, in this case, a letter. This is the story of how Lily Evans' life changed completely and irrevocably. For the bad… and for the good.

1

Lily Evans was not having a good day.

It had started, as days generally do, before the sunrise, in the late hours of the night, where the moon reigns in it silent kingdom. It had been a beautiful one too, this morning's starless night, though it was made less pleasant by the fact that Lily had been up to witness it. Normally, during the time where the moon reigned, she was tucked safely in her warm, four-poster bed, dreaming in peace. Normally, she was not aware of the world, or of the lack of stars in the sky, or of the cold, or of anything other than her pillow, her blanket, and her dreams.

Normally, she was not being pecked by an owl.

Now, to be woken up by an owl is not a very pleasant thing, especially not at some ungodly hour of the morning, and especially not when the owl smelled. Wrinkling her nose and trying not to gag, Lily tried to shoo the owl away, to no avail. It was a persistent thing, this creature, and though he did fly backwards at her flailing arms, he was soon back on her bed, prodding her roughly as he held out his leg. Frustrated, and only slightly with her wits about her, Lily untied the letter from the owl's leg, taking in the letter's haggard appearance. Then, as if he couldn't leave without getting her attention at least once more, the owl hooted indignantly, flying quickly towards her face before veering sharply and exiting through the open window. Behind him, the moon still dominated, shining its gentle flow on the snowy mountains that curled protectively around Hogwarts. Yet still, even it the moon's peaceful silence, Lily couldn't help but feel a grim heaviness in the letters thin contents.

Thinking it would be best not to wait to read the letter – because, surely, anything delivered at this hour was sure to be important – Lily carefully unrolled it, taking in the few words on the parchment.

Her first thought, immediately, was rejection, disbelief. Surely, it was a prank, some sick humor from the universe, designed to punish her. But then, as she looked at the signature at the bottom of the page, staring at it with such intensity that she felt her gaze would literally burn through the paper, Lily knew that it wasn't a joke. Petunia might hate her sister, might call her a freak at every opportunity, and might attempt to disown her sister… but this was not a prank.

Mom and Dad were in a car crash earlier tonight. They died on the way to the hospital. – Petunia

There were more words, blurred out by tears her sister had shed not too long ago. Lily could only read a few, and those too became blurry as tears sprung into her own eyes, as she was forced to believe the truths on the paper, without another alternative. As Lily stared at the small signature, at the name of the only relative she had left, she could feel sobs escape her, and for once in her life, Lily did not try to control herself. Tears poured over her face and down onto her lap as she violently took the parchment in her hands, ripping them into tiny pieces and then ripping those. It was evil, the paper, these pieces, and all she wanted was to kill it, to make sure that it would never bear this bad news to anyone again.

Memories flashed through her mind, memories of her parents and little things – things she'd taken for granted without even realized it. She would never hear her father chuckle again, she realized, or see her mother planting more flowers in the garden. Her parents would never hug her, or pick her up at Kings Cross Station. She'd never be able to see the love, shining between her parents, assuring her that it was possible – that magical "true love."

They were gone.

More tears crashed down Lily's cheeks, waves during a thunderstorm, not knowing where to turn and thus creating chaos wherever they could. Petunia's parchment became nothing more than a lump of goo, and yet still Lily wished it gone, gone forever. Why should the parchment be allowed to live, why should anyone be allowed to live, if her parents were no longer alive?

No longer seeing any sense, Lily dashed out of her bed, almost slipping on the stone floor. The tile was freezing beneath her bare feet, but no pain could bother Lily now, not now that the biggest pain of all had enveloped her. Angry – furious even – she dashed down to the common room, ready to scream and yell and curse at the world, only to stop when she reached the fire. Everything, literally everything, had changed in the light of the moon's glow, in the shadow of the retreating owl and in the darkness of her parent's void. Even the fireplace was mourning with her, and it was no longer cheerily heating up the Gryffindor Common Room as it always did. Any hour of the day, the fire was on, merrily paying witness to the decades of Hogwarts students.

No however, it was off, as the fire mourned with Lily.

Lily could remember a time when her mother had told her that her hair was on fire, and that her father had playfully upended a bucket of water on her hair, triumphantly claiming to "have put the fire out" and dulled her vibrant red hair to a darker, mellower maroon. She could remember her mother burning herself while cooking, how her father had taken her mothers hand – oh so gently – and kissed it, as he would kiss Lily's when she was younger, before bandaging it and taking her mother to the hospital. She could remember the fire of her parents anger when she and Petunia had fought for an entire day, could remember the heat in her mothers gaze as she looked at her daughters with utter disappointment.

Lily could remember promising herself that, once she came back home, after Hogwarts, she'd make everything better.

She realized that now, she didn't have a chance to make up for lost time with her parents, that now, everything she'd done, every mistake she didn't apologize for, was irreversible. They were gone now, both of them, and nothing Lily could do would ever change that.

There comes a time, after a loved one dies, that the person simply accepts the fact and, oftentimes, looses all hope. When Lily sat down on the Common Room couch that day, with not even the typical fire for company, she began to loose hope in life.