Lily Potter and the 04:31
Authors Note: I do not own any of the rights of J.K Rowling's series 'Harry Potter'. This story was written for the pure love of her books.
The 11th Birthday of Lily Potter
As the sun rose over London, Lily Luna Potter awoke to see her father sitting at the end of her bed. His familiar green eyes gazed down affectionately at his daughter's brown ones. Lily sat up, grinning back at her father.
'Happy birthday Lil'.' He said proudly.
'Thanks dad. And a non-happy birthday to you.' Lily replied still smiling as wide as her lips would allow. Her father laughed.
'Come on, let's get you some breakfast. It's a very important day, and everyone is waiting for you down stairs, well that's if they are awake yet.'
Together the pair walked down Grimmauld Place's stairs, chatting and laughing down to the warm, basement kitchen. Ginny, Lily's mother, was cooking eggs, bacon, toast and pancakes for the family to eat. She was an older version of Lily- she had long orange hair, brown eyes, she was small compared to Lily's other aunties and slim.
'Oh there you are!' said her mother smiling, 'I thought you would never wake up! Happy Birthday' she said hugging Lily.
When they broke apart, Lily stared at her mother's face of love and warmth. Lily didn't notice how long they had looked into each others identical brown eyes or how long the kitchen had been silent for, but she knew that she had never been happier in her whole life.
'Thanks mum.' She said.
'All right,' said her father, 'let's not get too soppy just yet. I'll go wake the boys, shall I Ginny?'
'What?... Oh yeah. Lily, eat something before your food goes cold, or before your brothers eat it all.' She smiled at her daughter then returned to the pancakes that had burnt rather badly.
10 minutes of laughing about the burnt pancakes, and talking about all the things Lily wanted to buy before going to Hogwarts, the sound of her brothers and her father coming down the stairs filled the house.
'What's the time anyway?' Lily heard her brother James, ask her father.
'About six o'clock.' Her father replied casually.
'Six o'clock!' He sounded disgusted, 'It's holidays!'
'And it's your sister's 11th birthday.' Replied her father, Harry, sternly.
Lily was sure she heard her other brother, Albus, groan before he said,
'But, she could have slept-in, couldn't she?'
Lily knew that he would have spent the night awake in his bedroom reading or planning a prank to use on James.
'Well, I woke her up.' Replied her father calmly. They were at the bottom of the stair case now. 'And I recall that you woke up at two in the morning on your eleventh birthday, Albus.'
She heard the loud echo of James making fun of Al until they came into the kitchen- Albus as red as a tomato.
'Happy birthday Lil'. ' He said, trying to ignore James's sniggering.
'Cheers.' She replied, also trying to ignore James.
'Me and James,' He cleared his throat loudly, James stopped at once and stood next to his younger brother. It gave Lily the feeling of been cornered, even trapped, they were towering over while she was sitting down at the table. 'looked high and low to get you a good present…'
'But,' James took over from his brother. 'we aren't very good at that sort of stuff, so we put our pocket money together so you could buy something you wanted from Diagon Alley. What do ya' think?'
'I think it's a great present.' She said, as she got up to hug her brothers.
James pulled out a draw-string bag from his pyjamas' pocket, and handed it to her. Usually they would get something that would result into a prank, so she was very grateful that they had given her something that wouldn't ruin her day.
'Now,' Said her father, after the boys had sat down at the table, his arm around her mother's waist. 'Now, for your main present. We thought we would get you an owl, but then again you would be sharing one between James and Albus. So we decided… well you'll find out in a second!'
He walked into the pantry and came out carrying a wooden basket a second later. He placed it on the table in front of her.
Excitement rushed up inside of Lily. All the possibilities of what it could be came into her head.
A broomstick? But that wouldn't fit. A wand? But her parents couldn't buy that without her…
Finally, Lily lifted the lid of the basket. For a moment it was all pitch black, she had to put her head in to get a better look. Then she saw a black kitten sleeping. She could hardly hear it's purring as it dozed. She looked towards her parents, who were beaming at her.
'Can I pick it up?' she asked. She knew it was a dumb question but the thought of having her own cat was too good to be true.
'It's your cat Lily, you can do what you want with it.' Said her mother whole heartedly. Slowly, Lily's hands reached down to the bottom of the basket until she felt the outline of the kitten's smooth, soft, warm fur. She picked it up gently out of the basket, and put it down on the table.
It was only small and it had smooth, black hair. But Lily's favourite thing about the cat was its green eyes. They were so bright it hurt her own pair, but they were so beautiful that you could not look away from them. They were all staring at Lily's present until James piped up,
'It looks like you Dad! And it looks like Albus as well!' They all roared with laughter (except for Albus, who seemed to have sunk low in his chair). James was right, it's hair and eyes were identical to Harry and Albus'.
'So, what are you going to name him, Lil'? ' asked her mother.
'I do have the urge to name him Albus junior,' she said with a grin, 'but I don't think that would work very well. I was thinking something that muggles own, Grandad was showing me some of his collection of muggle objects the other day and they were pretty cool. I like the sound of
Tell-a-ma-ff-oh-knee, I think it's called. What do you think Dad?' She asked her father. She knew that he would know about muggle objects because he grew-up with muggles.
He laughed. 'Sounds great Lil', but how does 'Telephone' sound?'
She laughed at the mistake she made. 'It sounds great to me Dad.'
As soon as Telephone jumped down onto Lily's lap, 3 ows tapped at the window.
'That will be my letter!' said Lily, excitement was flooding through her.
She picked up Telephone off her lap and handed her to Albus, then ran towards the window. When she opened it the owl flew inside and landed on the table. As Lily untied the letter from the owl's leg, she couldn't help but jump up and down. When she had at last opened it, she read it out loud, so that everyone could hear;
HOGWARTS SCHOOL
of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY
Headmistress: Minerva McGonagall
(Order of Merlin First Class, Head Witch of Grand Sorcery, International Confederation of Witches)
Dear Ms. Potter,
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,
Neville Longbottom
Deputy Headmaster
HOGWARTS SCHOOL
of WHICHCRAFT and WIZARDRY
UNIFORM
All first-year students will require:
sets of plain work robes (black)
plain pointed hat (black) for day wear
pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)
winter cloak (black, with silver fastenings)
Please note that all pupil's clothes should carry name tags.
COURSE BOOKS
All students should have a copy of each of the following:
The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk
A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot
Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling
A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch
One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore
Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander
The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble
OTHER EQUIPMENT
1 wand
1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)
1 set glass or crystal phials
1 telescope
1 set brass scales
Students may also bring and owl OR a cat OR a toad.
PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS
When Lily looked up, her mother and father were smiling proudly at her, she couldn't help but grin back. She was sure that she was the happiest witch on Earth.
After a delicious breakfast, and the opening of her presents from her Godmother Luna and the Potter's family friend Neville (A special edition of the Quibber, and a book on Plants) the 5 Potter's got ready to go to the Burrow, where they were to meet all the Weasley's. This made Lily rather anxious, she couldn't wait to see her cousins again. One of her favourite cousins, Hugo, was going to be starting Hogwarts too next year, so they had heaps to talk about.
One by one the Potters stepped into the fire place with a handful of floo powder in their hand, and spun around in the emerald green flames yelling, "THE BURROW!", and arrived at the familiar, warm house which Lily's grandparents owned. Lily stepped out from her grandparents' fireplace, feeling slightly dizzy (she was never quite comfortable after using the Floo Network, she hated how she felt as though she was been sucked into a vortex.) and walked towards her grandmother, arms outstretched ready for a hug. She was a plump, elderly witch. Her hair had gone a grayish-white, though you could still see parts of her orange hair, which Lily and her mother had inherited.
'About time! Happy birthday sweetie.' Said Nana Weasley
'Thanks Nana.' Lily replied, as they broke out of their hug. 'The others are coming in a minute, Albus is coming with my cat! My cat! She is so cute Nana, I can't wait for you to see her.'
'She sounds lovely dear, what did you name her?' Asked Nana politely. Lily was a bit disappointed, she wished Nana had been more excited, but then again she was one of the last grand kids, all of her other cousins had had heaps of pets before she did.
'Grandad's going to love her name, she's called Telephone!' said Lily excitedly.
'Who said something about Tell-a-ma-ff-oh-knees?'
Lily's grandfather, strode into the family room with an anxious expression on his face. He loved muggles, and loved any opportunity to talk about them. His brown eyes, golden-rimmed glasses, baulding orange hair and tall figure were looking down at Lily.
'Happy birthday Lily.' He said ruffling her hair.
Lily explained about her cat and her name. He seemed simply delighted that she had named the kitten after something muggle-made.
'Can't wait to meet her.' He said honestly, then as though right on queue the rest of the 4 Potters arrived. Hugs and handshakes were exchanged and about 15 minutes later the rest of the Weasley's had arrived. Lily usually hated the fact that her birthday was so close to Christmas but now that she thought about it, it was handy because she could see everyone while they weren't at school or work.
After a chorus of 'Happy Birthday' Lily received her other presents, which were exceptionally better than any other ones she had on previous birthdays.
Nana Weasley and Grandad gave her some homemade mince pies and –obviously a choice by Lily's grandfather- a telephone. From Uncle Bill and Aunty Fleur a charm bracelet and chocolate, Uncle Charlie gave her some dragon hide gloves ('I knew that you'd be needing them, so why not?'), Uncle Percy and Auntie Andrey she received an organization diary, Uncle George and Auntie Angelina gave her one of her favourite presents, clearly with an input from her cousins Fred and Roxanne which was a large variety of product from Wizarding Weasley's ('If you ever run out of Dungbombs meet me in the Gryffindor common room.' Fred whispered in her ear), Auntie Hermione and Uncle Ron gave her a nice set of quills and a journal. Hermione said that when she was older, Lily would read it and remember how beautiful Hogwarts was and be glad she kept record of it.
Lily had a great day at the Burrow. She talked with Hugo about Hogwarts and how excited she was even though it was a little bit less than a year away. She tested a few of her prankster gadgets -she made a mental note to use them against Al and James later-, as well as play wizards chess against all of her cousins. They started a game pretending it was the Wizards Chess World Cup. It was heaps of fun until Uncle Ron came in and beat them all.
'If you work hard, are as attractive and talented as me, you kids could one day win such a fine prize' he said indicating our trophy… ie a spoon we found in the kitchen. We all laughed at him then went outside for a mega snow ball fight.
Once it was getting dark and all the marshmallows had been eaten the adults said it was time for them all to go home.
Once at home and a delicious dinner which Kreacher had prepared the 5 Potters all went up to bed. While the others drifted off to sleep, Lily sat in her bed for hours thinking about Hogwarts. Thoughts about the castle, the teachers Albus and James had told her about, her friends she might have and most importantly what house she would be in (she was hopping for Gryffindor) circled around her head.
'Nine more months' she kept telling herself, 'Only nine more months.'
And before she could stop herself she fell into a deep sleep.
THE END
Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed this! It is my very first Fan Fiction and it's not much chop but I would really appreciate any feedback that may help me improve my writing. Please feel free to say if anything was bad but I wouldn't mind some good stuff in there as well!
Thanks.
