'Ello! This is my first FF, so don't be too mean. Please read, review, etc., etc. Also, if anyone is interested in helping me out…I'm far too modern and American. And I'm really not all that modern or American; this just happens to be a British story that takes place before I was born. No biggie. :P Also…I was going to jump right into Hogwarts, but I kinda wanted to explore Lily's relationship with her sister. Tell me watcha think! I was planning on one more chapter of this nonsense, which would include the train ride, and then everything would be magical. Thoughts?

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling does. I don't own any of the characters. (Actually, I'm gonna claim Jeannette, since I bothered to give her a name.) And I will have OC's later. Like, far too many. Watch out.

Prologue

Lily Evans was sitting in her room, curled up with a book, as she listened to her sister arguing with her parents downstairs. Tuney had wanted to go someplace with her friends, and their mother had refused. Now, she had apparently asked again, and been shot down.

Lily smiled to herself. While she didn't love all the fighting, she had to admit that she did admire Tuney's ability to fight for the things she wanted. It would be nice for her to lay off once in a while, but that was just the way Tuney was. She pushed the thought out of her mind, and returned to her book.

A second later, Tuney burst into her room, looking angry and breathless. "Come on, Lily. Quit reading that stupid book. We're going out."

Lily looked up. "Hi, Tuney! Where are we going?"

"Nowhere special," her older sister replied, rolling her eyes. "Mum won't let me do anything, remember?"

"Alright," Lily agreed, putting her book down, as requested, and following her sister out the front door.

"Mum, I'm taking Lily to the playground! Be back in an hour!"

"Alright, sweetheart. Be careful!"

"Whatever," said Petunia, rolling her eyes.

They walked out the door, and Lily stayed quiet, until they started going down a different road than usual. "Tuney, we're going the wrong way!"

"Shut up, no we're not."

"But this isn't the way to the playground!"

"Exactly." The reply was sharp, and Lily looked down and resolved to stay quiet until they got home.

Petunia sighed and looked at her sister. "Alright, I'm sorry. I'm just in a bad mood. I didn't mean to snap." Lily looked up and smiled, positively beaming at her sister. "Just…don't embarrass me when we get there, ok?" Lily nodded at her older sister, before skipping down the pavement, smiling. Petunia sighed, before walking quickly after her younger sister.

Finally, they reached a house near the end of the street, and Petunia stopped.

"This is where we're going?" asked Lily.

"Yes," Petunia replied. "Just...stay quiet, and don't touch anything."

Lily agreed at once, her face beaming as she skipped up the sidewalk to the door. Petunia smiled briefly, and followed. She knocked on the door, and heard bustling around from inside immediately. The door flew open, revealing a bunch of giggling girls about Petunia's age.

"Petunia's here!" one of them cried. "And, oh! She's brought Lily!"

That news seemed to draw out even more giggling girls, who quickly pulled both sisters through the front door and into the living room.

Soon after their arrival, Lily and Petunia were both comfortably settled on the couch with the rest of the girls. Jeannette was braiding Lily's hair, and absolutely gushing over how 'cute' Lily was.

Petunia loved her sister. She loved spending time with her, and talking to her, but she knew how much her friends adored having Lily to treat like their own personal doll. She knew her sister was "cute", but that really didn't excuse treating her like an object. The problem was, she tended to get upset with Lily when her friends did this, which just made matters worse, as Lily was, apparently, "even more adorable when she pouted."

After quite a while of sitting and watching her younger sister be fawned over, Petunia made up an excuse, saying that Lily had to be home by a certain time. The girls all protested, but eventually, Lily and Petunia left, and headed home.

Then Petunia realized a problem. Because the girls had been using Lily as their doll, her hair was done up in a million different ways, with braids, and flowers, and anything else you could think of. Her mother wasn't stupid, she knew that; if she came home with Lily looking this way, they would both be in trouble.

Thinking quickly, Petunia got a plan together, and smiled down at her sister. "Lily?" she asked.

"Yes, Tuney?" her sister questioned.

"Did you want to go to the playground after all?" Petunia said carefully, watching her sister's face light up and break into a smile.

"Yes, yes, yes! Absolutely! Let's go!" Lily took off running, pulling her older sister behind her in the direction of the playground.

Petunia was about to scold her, but thought better of it. 'Let her have her fun,' she thought to herself.

When they reached the playground, Lily headed right to the swings and jumped on the nearest one. Worried, Petunia ran over, sitting on the swing next to her sister.

"Sweetheart, you can have your fun, but just be careful, alright?" she asked.

Lily agreed instantly, and kept to her promise for a good half hour. She wasn't doing anything dangerous, and Petunia began to relax.

After a bit, however, Lily started swinging a bit higher than before. Petunia stiffened a bit, "but," she thought to herself, "it really isn't something to worry about."

Lily had begun to swing even higher, and was looking a bit excited. Petunia knew exactly what she was about to do.

Right before her sister let go of the swing, Petunia stopped her own, yelling. "Lily, don't do it!"

Of course, Lily did it anyway, flying through the air as if she were made of nothing. She came down lightly, not hurting herself, and Petunia was relieved. However, she might do the same in the future if she thought it was safe, and then she might actually get hurt.

"Mummy told you not to!" Petunia said sternly, hoping her mother's power would exceed her own and prevent any injuries to her sister.

She leapt up, putting her hands on her hips. Lily had to know she wasn't kidding around. "Mummy said you weren't allowed, Lily!" she cried, feeling like a bit of a hypocrite, as 'Mummy' had also said she wasn't allowed to visit Jeannette that day.

"But I'm fine," said Lily, giggling after her little flight. She turned on her heel towards a bush. "Tuney, look at this. Watch what I can do."

Petunia followed her, still upset about the swing, but trying not to upset Lily any more than she already had today.

Lily had crouched down, picking up a flower, and held it in her hand. The flower was sitting there, the petals opening and closing. It was beautiful, and almost…magical.

It was definitely different. Petunia knew that people didn't like different. If they saw some of the things Lily could do, they would not hesitate to ridicule her, and Petunia couldn't let that happen. "Stop it!" she said, not wanting to sound upset, but trying to protect her sister, nonetheless.

"It's not hurting you," Lily said softly, sticking out her bottom lip and throwing the flower on the ground.

"It's not right," Petunia said, with a heavy heart. At least she knew Lily wouldn't be ridiculed later, even if she was a bit upset now. "How do you do it?" she asked, hoping the question would make Lily brighten up a bit.

Before she could gauge her sister's reaction, however, something leaped up from behind a bush, and she heard it say, "It's obvious, isn't it?"

Petunia screamed not knowing what it was, and ran back to the swings, beckoning for Lily to follow. However, when she got to the swings she saw that Lily had not followed, and that the "attacker" was just a young boy.

Petunia blushed at her overreaction, and looked at them. They were talking, Lily looked startled, and the boy looked embarrassed, but he seemed relatively normal.

After a minute, Lily's eyes blazed, and she turned on her heel and marched away. "No!" the boy cried, running after her.

Petunia instantly disliked him. Lily didn't get upset that easily, so he must have done something quite rude.

Lily reached the swings, each of the sisters holding on to one of the poles, staring at the boy expectantly. "You are," he said. "You are a witch. I've been watching you for a while. But there's nothing wrong with that. My mum's one, and I'm a wizard."

Petunia considered him. First off, he had hurt Lily's feelings. He was also encouraging this weird, almost magical ability of hers, which would certainly get her teased. Lastly, he was claiming to be a wizard, which would draw ridicule to the boy, and certainly Lily, if she were to be talking to him.

"Wizard!" she laughed, intent on deterring Lily from believing in such things. "I know who you are. You're that Snape boy! They live down Spinner's End by the river. Why have you been spying on us?" she yelled, hoping that Lily would understand whose son this was. Their mother talked about them all the time, how the parents were fighting. He clearly would not be a good influence for Lily.

"Haven't been spying," the Snape boy replied, obviously trying to get on Lily's good side. "Wouldn't spy on you, anyway. You're a Muggle," he said, clearly trying to aggravate her.

Muggle…she didn't know the word, but she got the gist of it, and knew that it was a clear insult. She was not just going to stand there, and let some boy lead her sister to ridicule and hurt. "Lily, come on, we're leaving!" she cried, hoping her sister would listen.

Thankfully, she did, glaring at Snape, and following Petunia. The boy looked upset, but Petunia couldn't help that. Protecting Lily was what was important, and the world could be very cruel if you were…different.

All right. I'm done. Yay! That wasn't so hard. I'll have the next chapter up as soon as I can. Sorry this one was a bit short. Sadly, I actually had to add to it. XD Oh goodness. Once again, if you want to help me with my American-ness, shoot me a message. Thanks for reading!