Another Lily

Prologue: An Unmarked Parcel

The Great Hall was buzzing with the shouts of students as the mail came that morning. It was Lily's first year at Hogwarts. She and her mates were chatting as the owls flew above. While Katy and Emily blathered on about this and that, Lily became lost in her thoughts.

She was a muggleborn and had never seen anything more beautiful than Hogwarts. Her professors found her completely brilliant and she was the top of her class already. Lily decided that her life was practically perfect since she started at Hogwarts, except for one thing: Potter. Lily had been pranked by him so many times in her first month of school. He couldn't very well leave her alone, it was as if it was his personal mission to make her life miserable. And then he had those two mischief makers along side him: Fred Weasley II and Alex Longbottom. All three were handsome boys, even at 11. James was tall with hazel eyes that twinkled behind glasses and the messiest black hair Lily had ever seen; he was rumoured to look just like the first James Potter. Then there was Fred with the "Weasley red" hair and soft blue eyes just like his dad and his Uncle Fred, whom he had never met. Alex was different, he was the kindest of the three, a mate of Lily's in fact; his soft brown hair and sapphire eyes distracted you from the three long scars by his jaw. But none the less, the boys were all menaces.

The first prank Lily was subjected to, her hair was turned green, to 'match her eyes' according to Potter. She used Potter as her guinea pig for her bat bogey hex, which she had perfected since then. They had stolen her textbooks and turned her fingers purple for a day. Quite frankly, Lily was fed-up with their antics. She was so deep into her thoughts that she jumped when a rather bulky parcel was dropped into her lap by her owl Agatha.

It had no return address, only her name, Lily Ryann, boldly printed on the front in a rather harried looking scrawl. Lily opened it gingerly and withdrew a rather ancient looking piece of folded, seemingly blank looking parchment. On the top of it she found a note:

Dear Lily,

I think this will come in hand; the boy's harassed you enough.

Tap the parchment and say: I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.

When you're done, tap it again and say: Mischief managed.

It's time he was beat at his own game.

Love,

A friend

Lily grabbed the parcel's wrapping searching again for an address or a name. Finding nothing, she handed the note to Katy and Emily, who read it in haste. The two girls looked at her and the three stood up to scurry back to their dorm.

When they had at last climbed up the Gryffindor tower, Lily took out her wand and tapped the parchment.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

Black ink started to scroll across the parchment as the girls watched with wide eyes. Eventually, words and pictures were made out of the black mess.

'Messrs. Moony, Padfoot, and Prongs present the Marauders Map.

Mister. Prongs would like to say that Miss Lily and her mates are very pretty and he hopes that he may be of assistance.

Mister. Padfoot would like know where Miss Lily's red hair went.

Mister. Moony would like to say that Mister Padfoot is an idiot and that this is another Lily.'

The girls, intrigued by what they had read, opened the parchment. They gasped at what they saw: a map of the castle, showing exactly where everyone was. Lily's mind was racing, she looked up at her two best mates.

"Girl's this is the answer to our problems! Potter will never be able to prank me or anyone else ever again," she said excitedly, eyes shining with mischief.

"It's bloody brilliant!" Emily squealed. "Oh Kay, we'll never have to hear another 'I hate that bloody James Potter' rant again!"

"When do we start?" Katy laughed.

Lily considered her question, "Tonight, we can prank him tonight, he'll never know what hit him!"

And with that the three girls pulled out their wands, "Mischief managed," they whispered together. Lily folded it neatly and stuck it in the pocket of her robes. The girls set out and continued on to class, all three brainstorming ideas to drive Potter and the other two completely and utterly mad.

Lily once again went back into her thoughts. She wasn't sure who this 'friend' was, but she decided that she would find that person one day and thank them for saving her but that would have to wait for now, she had a prank to plan.

A note from the author:

Dear reader,

Hello again! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of Another Lily. This is more a prologue to the story and will help you understand the rest of the fanfiction as you read on. Yes, I am aware that I wrote myself into this, but I'm completely in love with James Sirius Potter and I thought that it would be a lot more challenging to try and write myself into the magical world of Harry Potter. Please let me know what you think! Reviews are greatly appreciated, but please, constructive criticism, there's no need to be a ruddy git about things.

Love always,

xx Lily

P.S. I'm only doing this once: I, Lily Ryann, do solemnly swear that I do not own Harry Potter, J. K. R., the Queen does. Mischief Managed! xx