Author's Note: I'm not sure if this has already been done, considering how much airtime this song is getting on the radio. But I've been listening to it nonstop, and I couldn't stop thinking about this story all day. So here we go.
The lyrics belong to Coldplay and everything else belongs to JK Rowling.
When she was just a girl
She expected the world
But it flew away from her reach
So she ran away in her sleep
Dreamed of para- para- paradise
Para- para- paradise
Para- para- paradise
Every time she closed her eyes
Whoa-oh-oh oh-oooh oh-oh-oh
When Lily Evans was young, her father used to read to her before bed every night. His deep voice would gently lull her to sleep, where she dreamt of magical places, of kings and queens, magic and love. He always told her she could be anything she wanted to be, and she let her imagination run wild with the possibilities.
When Lily Evans was young, she idolized her sister Petunia. She was her best friend and teacher. Their days were filled with tea parties in the garden and dress up dolls; their nights with giggles and whispers in the dark of their shared bedroom. All she ever wanted was her sister's love.
When Lily Evans was just eight years old her family moved to a new house. She overheard her parents talking one night about money but she didn't understand. And she didn't really want to. Petunia told her not to worry, so she let it pass. But she felt something was changing. Strange things were happening around her and Petunia didn't seem to like it.
When Lily Evans was nine years old she met a boy at the park. He told her she was special and she couldn't help believe him. She always put her faith in these things, always wanted to believe in the magic and promise of the unknown.
When Lily Evans was eleven she went off to school. It was a place of magic and wonder, something straight out of her fairy tale dreams. Her parents were so proud and Severus was so thrilled. But Petunia was angry and she could feel their friendship already slipping away. And there was nothing she could do.
When she was just a girl
She expected the world
But it flew away from her reach
And the bullets catch in her teeth
She missed home and she missed her family. Every night she would close her eyes and see the face of her sister. She could feel the wool of her father's sweater as he kissed her goodnight. She could hear the whispers of her past echo through her dreams.
When Lily Evans was twelve she realized this new life was not all she had hoped for and imagined. There were people here who did not like her, who in fact hated her because she was different. Funny, that was the same thing Petunia had told her before she came to school. And when her father died when she was fourteen, she felt even more alone than before, stuck between these two worlds and even further from the paradise of her dreams.
When she was sixteen she realized that a boy with messy black hair and glasses might fancy her, and maybe she liked him too. But Severus didn't approve. And he was already slipping away. The distance was growing between them and she was terrified she might lose her oldest friend; terrified that he might become the person who hated her the most. So she held on tighter, ignoring her heart, closing her eyes to the truth and to the pain. And then he broke her heart—the one boy who she had trusted. And she never felt further from her dreams.
Life goes on
It gets so heavy
The wheel breaks the butterfly
Every tear, a waterfall
In the night, the stormy night
She closed her eyes
In the night, the stormy night
Away she flied
She dreamed of para- para- paradise
Para- para- paradise
Para- para- paradise
Whoa-oh-oh oh-oooh oh-oh-oh
She lay in bed at night, staring out the window. The stars in the night sky were the same that she and Petunia had once stared at together, laying in the grass of the garden. She closed her eyes, dreaming of the life that had been, the life that could have been. Would that be paradise? Could she give it all up? A tear fell down her cheek. Just one, but to her it felt like a waterfall. The weight of the years pressing down on her.
Life went on, as it is wont to do. And she laughed with her friends and visited her mother and her silent sister. But the skies grew dark in the world around her and she worried about what was to come.
When she was seventeen she realized that she was in love. That boy with the messy hair and glasses and quirky smile, oh that smile, had stolen her heart without her even realizing. It wasn't a love like those of her father's stories. They fought too much and he didn't write her love songs. But in his arms she found the closest thing to paradise. Wrapped up in him, with him filling every one of her senses, she couldn't feel the pain anymore. And when she cried he didn't ask questions, but he was always there.
So lying underneath those stormy skies.
She said oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh.
I know the sun must set to rise.
This could be para- para- paradise
Para- para- paradise
This could be para- para- paradise
Whoa-oh-oh oh-oooh oh-oh-oh.
When she was eighteen she married James Potter. And together, side by side, they fought the darkness that was threatening the world. And perhaps eighteen was too young to be married. But together they were stronger and their love burned like a star on a dark night.
When Lily Potter was twenty she gave birth to a son, a bundle of joy with his father's hair and her eyes. They were surrounded by danger, hiding away in secret, worried that any day might be their last. But as she lay in bed, her child asleep beside her, and her husband's arms wrapped around her she knew that she was in paradise. And she held onto that feeling and that love until she drew her last breath and her eyes closed for the last time.
This could be para- para- paradise
Para- para- paradise
Could be para- para- paradise