Disclaimer: If J.K. Rowling wrote fanfiction, the fangirls would know by now.
AN: So this is my first EVER chapter of my first EVER proper fanfiction, so I really hope you enjoy it and you don't rip on my spelling/grammar/punctuation too much as I don't yet have a beta :) Have fun!
Prologue
A tale of managed mischief.
The day Lily Evans turned 11, her sister Petunia was practically 14. You see her birthday was March 13th- which really wasn't that far away at all, if you thought about it. She didn't particularly understand why her parents would act like today would the most important day in the history of all history. She thought that maybe she deserved a bit of attention, besides it wasn't as if Lily had done anything especially amazing by becoming a year older. She had only managed to stay alive another year.
It was odd really, Petunia thought, she had never really felt jealous of Lily before. It was true that ever since the creepy boy from next door had entered their lives, the connection between the sisters had been severed slightly. However it wasn't as if she wanted to sabotage her birthday, in fact it was exactly the opposite. But there was just something about today. Something that made it extra ordinary- something that made it different from normal.
The doctor had once called it Metathesiophobia. It means the fear of change, the fear of something different. In Petunia's case she could feel it. Physically feel when something was changing- almost like a magical sense- and she didn't like it. In fact, she hated it- it made her feel like she didn't belong. It was times like these when she longed for her parent's attention the most, because she knew if they were around, everything was going to be alright.
But of course, today they had to be distracted by her charming little sister.
Lily was a small girl- small for her age at least. She smiled and giggled at things that didn't really interest Petunia and had a habit of fiddling. Hours, she spent with her art box, playing with play dough and sand bottles. She had shelves and shelves of pointless little crafty things that had pipe cleaner smiles and googly eyes. The bits of rubbish she collected annoyed Petunia greatly but the two sisters never really fell out. If Lily ever irritated her sister, Petunia would prank her in return with a punishment she saw fit. But from hiding her art box to smashing an egg on her head, it always seemed to be Petunia to come out worst off. No matter how hard she planned it.
One time Petunia had a Metathesiophobic fit because she had sneaked into Lily's bedroom one night and cut off one of her entire plaits- only to find in the morning, it had completely grown back.
In that way, Petunia could admit that Lily scared her sometimes. She did things- things that weren't normal- without even realising. Lily would always dread the times when she would send a smile over her shoulder to her sister and she return it with a stony stare. It could take Lily hours to get her to calm down.
But today of all days, Lily decided not to comfort her sister. On reflection, her only excuse was that she was far too distracted.
Because this was the day it came. The letter Severus had been talking about.
His arrived 21 days earlier on his 11th birthday- the two of them had never been so ecstatic in all their lives. Lily had personally looked over the parchment at least 17 times since Severus had revealed it to her- even making her own copy which she kept underneath her pillow, away from Petunia's prying eyes. She was nervous of course; the letter may not even come- Severus had said that they only sometimes came on your birthday. In fact, Severus didn't really know how you got your Hogwarts letter if you were a muggle born. But she squished the notion and pulled up her biggest grin as the Evans family sat around their kitchen table for breakfast.
"These pancakes are wonderful Mummy!" She sang as she dug into her second helping.
Mrs Evans laughed at her daughter stuffed her face- effectively getting syrup all over her cheeks. "Don't thank me, thank Tuney, she was the one who decided to get up at five o'clock this morning to make them for you"
Lily tuned to her sister, who was blushing slightly into her orange juice. "Fa-nk yhu Tunee! You-'re da befteft fifter in the whoooooooo-le rorld"
"Don't talk with your mouth full Lily, it's very rude"
At this, Lily took a huge gulp, "Sorry Mum, Tuney, you are the bestest sister in the whole world!" Her enormous grin didn't quite match Petunia's timid one.
"Now Red, you do know that 'bestest' isn't really a word?" Mr Evans spoke up.
"D-aaaaaad, my hair isn't red! Don't call me that"
Mr Evans chuckled, "Alright poppet, whatever you say" and winked at her, "it is your birthday after all"
"Speaking of, Tuney darling, will you fetch the parcels from the pantry?"
The day passed by in a whirl of brightly coloured wrapping paper and a sea of friendly faces arriving at the door of their cosy little house. It was raining as always, but the warm interior of the Evans's home made a nice contrast to the cold, dark exterior. But despite the amount of people running in and out of the'r little house, it wasn't until late afternoon that their closest neighbour finally arrived.
"Has it come yet?" was the first question that left his lips as a bubbly Lily opened the door to his ever dwindling form. The tone in which he spoke was filled with excitement and his black eyes sparkled. His cheeks showed a faint blush and his breathe came out in short pants- as if he had been running.
Up until this point, Lily had been doing all that she could to distract herself from the fact her letter hadn't arrived. Her forehead creased and her mouth lost its smile.
"No" she said quietly, "No it hasn't"
Severus hadn't even considered that Lily wouldn't be getting a letter and froze for a moment letting her words sink in.
"Well then, I guess old Dumbledore is running late" Severus says trying to smile reassuringly, "Mum always says he was a complete loon."
Lily smiles slightly but decides to change the subject, "Why don't you come in, I got a great new photo album from Lizzie Burkett from across the road, it has stickers and everything!"
Severus looks at her uncertainly, "What exactly is a… sticker?"
Lily laughed her trademark bell like laugh, grabs Severus's hand and dragged him to the living room, where her presents had accumulated over the day. They spent hours, sticking plastic images, not only over the photo album, but the scarf her auntie got her, the chessboard from her father's best friend- even the faded red armchair that sat in the corner was not spared. Eventually they settled into a game of who-can-stick-the-most-stickers-on-the-others-back-without-them-noticing. The only interruption they had from their games where the occasional knocks on the door and Lily's Dad trying to take some pictures on his new Kodak.
After Lily had stuck a horse shaped sticker to Severus's forehead, she looked to the window for perhaps the billionth time that day. Only to receive a sinking feeling in her heart as she saw the day drawing to a close.
"It's going to come you know" Lily turned to see Severus staring at her sympathetically.
"How can you be so sure?"
He thought about this for a moment, curling a heart shaped sticker in his hand. "I just am, okay? I've seen you do magic, you can't possibly not be a witch" Lily simply nods, unconvinced and looks back to the window.
Severus sighs and takes her hand. "Listen, Lils, if it doesn't come by the end of today, I'll write to Dumbledore myself" She turns and looks at him with wide eyes.
"And what are you going to say to him? My best friend Lily wants to come to Hogwarts too? That would sound so silly!"
"No, of course not! I would tell him that you are a very talented witch and that I have seen it with my own eyes. I will even send him a bit of my memory if I have to."
Lily looked at him sceptically, "How would you know how to give Dumbledore some of your memory?"
Severus shrugged and looked away, "I've seen my mum do it a couple of times, you know when she's had a bad fight with dad… she has this thing called a pensieve that like, contains them or something" Immediately Lily can tell that she shouldn't pry and just nodded solemnly.
"You would really do that for me? Write to Dumbledore?"
"Of course I would," he turns back to look into Lily's green eyes "You're my best friend" There is a moment of silence where they simply smiled at each other.
"Oh! I almost forgot" exclaimed Severus finally, "I got you a present"
He rummaged around in the pocket of his over grown trousers and pulled out a small bundle wrapped in some sort of green tissue paper.
"You didn't need to get me anything Sev"
"Well I wanted to" he smiled and handed over the present. Lily took it from him gingerly and slowly teased off the packaging. Inside was a small box.
"You didn't get me jewellery did you?" Lily says, wrinkling her nose in disgust.
Severus smirked, "Kind 'a"
Frowning, Lily opens the box. Inside lay a large silver hairpin in the shape of a lily flower. It is so realistically crafted, for a moment Lily believed it to be real.
"It's err… goblin made" Severus awkwardly comments from behind her, but she doesn't pay him any attention. Slowly, her small hand reaches down to touch it.
"Oh my!" She exclaimed as the flower physically shuddered at her touch before the petals started to sway in an invisible breeze. She gently picked it up and pined back the front of her hair and turns to Severus.
It is at this moment that Severus realises that Lily Evans is beautiful.
Lily suddenly smiles the biggest smile of the day and jumps onto a very surprised Severus and they fall to the ground. "Thank you" she whispers into his shoulder as her arms squeeze his waist.
"Anytime… Red"
Lily looks up at him and scowls, before erupting into a mini fit of giggles.
"What! What's so funny?" In response, she plucks the horse shaped sticker from his forehead and shows it to him. The scowl on his face only makes her laugh louder, however abruptly stops when he rolls them over and quickly sits on her stomach.
"Ow! Sev, you're squishing me!" Lily complains.
"Well you shouldn't laugh at me!" Severus retorts looking down at the squirming girl and sticking his tongue out at her.
"Well," Lily starts to push him off, "You" Push, "Shouldn't" Push, "Be" Push, "Such'a" Push, "Mardy" Push, "Bum!" And with one last effort, Severus tumbles to the ground, however grabs hold of Lily's wrists so she goes with him.
She lands on Severus stomach with her nose touching his. They both stare at the other for a moment until Severus finally speaks.
"Lily…" He pauses, a faint blush on his cheeks, "have you ever kissed anybody before?"
Lily feels a rush of excitement coursing through her veins and before she can think about it, the words leave her mouth: "No I haven't, but I would very much like to kiss you"
Eyes wide and heart pounding, Lily starts to close the distance between their lips. Just before they touch, however, there is a mighty shriek from the kitchen, and the two of them break apart immediately.
Lily, recognising her sister's scream, immediately runs to the kitchen- leaving Severus frozen on the floor. When she enters the kitchen, it is to an amusing sight. Petunia is crotched on the counter top, grasping a frying pan tightly in her hands, aiming to strike the giant brown bird that is trying to break free from the clasp Mr Evans has on its scrawny leg.
It takes exactly 6 and a half seconds for Lily to realise that the giant brown bird is in fact, an owl.
"Daddy! Let go!" She squeals.
Taken by surprise, Mr Evans loosens his grip on the owl- who immediately, struggles free and flies straight to Lily and lands on top of her head. Petunia utters one last shriek, and faints.
With shaking hands, Lily lifts the disgruntled bird from her head and places him on the counter top beside her. The owl twerps at her in an irritated manner and raises the leg Mr Evans hadn't been holding on to. Wrapped around it was a small amount of string attached to a letter marked:
Miss L. Evans
The Green Bedroom
7 Spinner's End
Cokeworth
Before Lily had time to even digest what the elegant green scrawl meant, there was yet another knock on the door.
By this point Mrs. Evans had reached the kitchen and was frantically flustering over poor Petunia. "Lily, run get the door will you? And George, for goodness sake, open that window and let the poor bird out of here. It's probably had the shock of its life today."
"Wh- the bird? The BIRD had a shock?" Mr. Evans argued as Lily left the room.
Bracing herself for another squealing ex-roommate of her mothers, she turned the knob of her front door.
But there instead, stood the most peculiarly person she had ever seen. He was a wizened man with grey hair that was mostly covered by his shabby blue hat. His clothes seemed stretched- touching the floor in layers of matching blue material. From his neck dangled a peculiar variety of instruments that banged slightly in the wind against his large silver belt.
"Didn't your mother ever tell you it was rude to stare" The man said with a smile on his lips and a twinkle in his eye.
"Y-yes sir, sorry sir... but I couldn't help wondering if you were a wizard sir?"
The man chuckled, "My name is Tiberius Ogden, Miss Evens, do you mind if i come in and speak with you and your parents?"
Lily nodded at opened the door wider so that Ogden could come through. Suddenly he cursed lightly under his breathe, "I see the owl already got here?" pointing to the gathering of feathers on the floor, "I can't believe it! I've been doing this job for 25 years now and not once has that owl beaten me! How ironic."
"What's ironic sir?" Lily questioned, her eyebrows furrowed slightly.
Ogden smiled kindly at her, "Well its just that this is the last time i'm going to visit the new muggle born Hogwarts students you see, Dumbledore secured me a place on the Wizengamot... Great man Dumbledore."
The confused look on Lily's face had Ogden chuckling again, but a small fluttering in her stomach started at the mention of Hogwarts.
"Perhaps we should sit down somewhere?" Lily led Ogden into the living room- now feeling slightly embarrassed about of all the stickers, but Ogden didn't seem to mind.
"Lily, I've put Tuney to bed, you know how she-" Mrs. Evans trailed off as she walked into the living room and laid eyes on Ogden. "Good heavens, Lily who is this?"
Ogden stood up with a charming smile on his face and stuck out his hand for Mrs. Evans to shake, "Tiberius Ogden, Mrs. Evens, a pleasure to meet you"
"The pleasure I'm sure is mine" she smiled uncertainly, "George! Come in here a minute!"
When the Evans family (minus Petunia) all finally gathered in the living room with the strange old man, their lives were changed forever. Ogden spoke of wizards and witches, castles and enchantments, a Ministry and a whole variety of magical creatures and objects- in so much more detail than Severus had ever tried to describe. It was late into the evening that Ogden finally left with a hug from Lily and a promise to visit.
There was silence as her parents sat on the sofa, slowly digesting the information. Then Lily remembered the letter she had in her pocket and pulled it out. Careful not to break the seal, she opened her letter and gazed at it in wonder.
Dear Miss. Evans,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress
The next few hours Lily would never be able to remember. The excitement that consumed her as she passed around her letter to her parents, made her practically blind.
It was not until the early hours of the morning when she was lying awake in her little green bedroom that she realised that she hadn't seen Severus leave.
Around 90 miles away in a grand country manor, sat a lone boy in his bedroom. His left hand slowly stroked the black delivery owl as his quick eyes scanned the parchment in his right. Although, it was doubtful that anyone would see his eyes as his dark hair had grown so long, they were a deep hazel and wide with excitement. He attempted several times to push back his messy hair so he could re-read his letter, but with little success.
"Mum" he called out suddenly in his badly lit room, "Mum!"
A slightly plump witch appears at the doorway moments later with a worried look on her face.
"James? Whatever is the matter?"
His head tilts up and his mouth formed a mischievous grin.
"I'm gonna need a haircut mum, I'm going to Hogwarts"
AN: So what do you think?
My plan is to make this as cannon as possible- I've literally spent hours on Harry Potter Wiki already- but I just think it sounds much more realistic that way. I want to go into more depth about Petunia and Severus as well because I think they sometimes feel rejected from J/L fics and I personally quite like them (plus I found an amazing fic shipping them and I absolutely loved it)
I'm aiming at about 3,000 words-ish a chapter? There will probably be more as I get better at this
Also, I'm planning to update monthly, but I know too well how hard it is for a writer to stick to a schedule. But I'll try my best :)
Finally, if you would like to beta this fic, please please please please pleeeaaaasssseeee send me a review or inbox me, because that would be amazing.
Thank you so much for reading and reviews make my day more than marshmallows :D
PennyxLane