Change can be annoying. Irritating. Sometimes, even boring. But not every time. Sometimes change makes you happy. Joyful. Or even downright jolly. So it's either this side of the coin or that. But very rarely, maybe once in a purple moon, you never know which side it is. Until the very end, you're going to be clueless about whether to love change or hate change. And such was the case with Miss Lily Evans.
If until the age of eleven you called lily a witch, she would just glare at you for the entire day or maybe even more until you apologized. But if you said that at eleven years and one weak, she would just grin conspiratorially and slowly whisper , "Are you like me as well?"
She knew from the very start that she was…. Different from the rest. No one else could make candle flames dance according to their will. No one else could turn Jimmy Price's hair a deep shade of magenta when he picked on them. But she wasn't scared. Because then, her world consisted of only three people. Her mom her dad and her sister, who was also her best friend and partner in most crimes, Petunia who was also fondly known as Tuney. To her, it was only their opinion that mattered. Her parents had never really paid attention to all of this but petunia hated her specialities. But for once Lily never cared about what Tuney had to say because she knew from the very start that Tuney was just jealous. Life was pretty much normal for the Evans,(if you include hair turning blue and doors flying off their hinges) until that one fated day . The day Lily realized how much her life was going to change.
The day had started normally enough. It was a Saturday and she had no school. She was frolicking in the sun with tuney, when she saw a tabby cat staring intently at her. She called, "Tuney, come look at this cat!" She reached out to pet it .to her utmost surprise, the cat, instead of basking in all the attention, started giving Lily something that resembled a stern look. "Are you sure I'm not dreaming? "Asked Petunia. "She just gave me a teacher look!" Something in Lily's brain prompted her to mutter, "Not a teacher, a professor. "What?" Snapped Petunia, bringing Lily back to reality. She shook her head, mystified at what she had just said herself. She picked up a flower and twirled it in her hands, changing its color from red to white, before noticing that the cat had vanished. Suddenly she had the strongest of feelings that she was being stared at. Intently. 'Could it be?" She wondered. Then she shook her head. Severus Snape had long since stopped hidings from her. They were friends now. And she was right. Snape was not there but she didn't notice a tabby cat, the same one for that matter, staring at her from behind a bush. That's when she had the strongest urge to rush back home. She knew something was happening. Something big. A few minutes later, both the girls were home, when it all happened. The cat found inside their home, its transformation to a human, the long talk between her parents and the cat/professor and the most amazing part of it all. The letter. The acceptance letter. The letter that allowed her to go to Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry. And it was not long before she bid her parents and Tuney goodbye and ran through the magic barrier, with her best friend Snape right behind her. Until then it was all fantastic. Until she boarded the train and as fate would have it, sat in the same compartment as James Potter. That's when she believed her bad luck had swung into action.
(5 years later)
"But I'm sure I'm going to fail! I know it, I can feel it, there is no point in telling me otherwise!" said an extremely distraught Lily." Ha-ha very funny. Remind me to laugh next time alright?" scoffed Mary MacDonald. "No I'm serious! Lily wailed "Lily Evans, fail? Yeah right. That'd probably happen when McGonagall and Dumbledore waltz together." Said Marlene Adams. "Well I wouldn't put it past them you know." Said Alice Fortesque smirking, causing Lily to groan. "You know I thought mates were supposed to help each other. A fat lot of good that's doing to me." Lily grumbled, making all the girls chuckle. Mary and Lily were Muggle born, Marlene was half blood and Alice was pure blood. Yet Lily felt odd some times. Mary had beautiful, wavy brown hair that fell up to her hip. She was slightly plump and extremely good natured. The first words that would come to your mind when you were asked to describe Mary, they would probably be beautiful amber eyes, gentle and kind nature and extremely helpful. But that was not the case with lily's other friend Marlene Adams. Bold, rash and loud would just begin to describe Marlene. A part of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, people usually steered clear of her, unless they wanted to be hit by a jelly leg or tentacle growing hex. But her black eyes would betray something else altogether. She was pretty sensitive although not as much as Mary, and hated being insulted. Alice Fortesque on the other hand seemed just….normal. Neutral. She modestly blushed at compliments and stood steadfast against criticism. The blond haired, blue eyed, perfect face girl was good at academia but not as good as Marlene or Lily. Lily always felt odd because of multiple factors. She was a redhead, wavy, long red hair which she despised and was pale so if she was ill, she looked almost corpse-like, no blood in her face. She believed she was average at studies (which was complete rubbish. She was brilliant.). The only parts she liked about herself were her eyes. Green, a beautiful shade of green they were. But they clashed so horribly with her hair (that's what she thought). She almost wanted to turn her hair brown with magic, but she knew better than to do that. She was quite good at charms; she had to admit and was the favorite of their charms professor, Professor Flitwick and pet of their potions professor, Professor Slughorn. But that was not what made her stand out. It was the fact that the most popular boy at school, whom she believed to be an eternally annoying idiot, had suddenly started fancying her. And he had been concocting the most ridiculous ways to ask her out. She had refused several times, but it bugged her to be asked out thrice a week. Girls went green-eyed with envy, but lily never understood what the fuss was all about. To her, James Potter was a prat.
Lily was broken away from her train of thoughts by a loud exclamation from Alice. "What in the name of Merlin is going on down there?" Lily turned, following her gaze. And within seconds, she was striding across the grass from the lake to the tree where Snape was being suspended upside down. Livid with fury, she shouted "Leave him alone!" She could sense people shaking their heads, warning her it was a bad idea but she just couldn't leave Severus. "Evans!" grinned Potter, jovially acknowledging her. Sirius Black gave her a curt nod. But she didn't respond. She just repeated, "Leave him alone!" "I will Evans, if you'll go out with me." Potter said, with that stupid grin still plastered on his face. Lily's mouth dropped open for a fraction of a second. He would pull this on her, in such a situation? But she collected her demeanor and calmly said, "I wouldn't go with you if it were a choice between you or the squid." She had just finished, when she registered a flash of light, and a gash across James' cheek. He looked up in fury. And soon Severus was hanging upside down again. "Just leave him alone, why don't you?!" "Alright. You're lucky Evans was here, Snivellus." And Severus flopped onto the ground. Lily was just about to move towards Sev, when he spat out "I don't need help from filthy little Mud bloodslike her!" Immediately a silence fell upon the entire clearing. She barely heard Potter roaring something about an apology and could also see that Marlene was pushing through everyone to get to her, but that was all. For a minute her heart had stopped beating. She couldn't digest the fact that her first friend, her best friend, whom she fondly called Sev, had just called her a Mud blood. She could feel tears coming to her eyes. But just then, something snapped inside Lily Evans. Hurt in her eyes was replaced by something cold. She squared her shoulders. He was from Slytherin. He called just about everyone other than lily who was a Muggle born, a Mudblood. So why should she been any different? She didn't know what had possessed her that minute. She barely understood what she was saying, but she made sure she struck a nerve with Potter, before storming off to the Gryffindor girls dormitory, with Marlene rushing behind her and Alice and Mary running to get a teacher to control the situation.
She remained quite normal that day, seeming unfazed by the whole incident. She ate dinner cheerfully enough and left the great hall, oblivious to stares and murmurs of sympathy she was receiving. She went up to her dorm and without the slightest trace of emotion, she climbed into her bed, pulling up her covers and falling into what she hoped was a calm, peaceful and dreamless sleep.
She woke up some time later not quite sure what time it was. She sat up, noticing it was dark outside. Her head was throbbing horribly, and suddenly the weight of the previous day's events crashed down on her. Her breath was caught for a minute and she slowly started weeping, tears spilling out in a rush. Marlene quietly got up from her own bed and walked over to Lily, who spent the night sobbing on Marlene's shoulder.
The next day was the history of magic OWL but Lily was seriously considering flunking it. Could they actually do that? Nah, it was probably too silly of her to have such hopeful thinking. She went down to breakfast, dark circles underneath her eyes. She was hoping for a quick, quiet breakfast so she could get some time to revise but to her utmost annoyance she saw someone approaching her when she was eating. She looked up from her waffle to be face to face with Severus Snape. A number of emotions ran through her. Initially shock followed by immense grief, which was replaced by extreme anger. And she was sure her traitorous face betrayed all these emotions, because she could see the desperation growing by each second on Snape's face. He started to speak. "Lily I'm …"
"No" she interrupted him
"But Lily…"
"No"
"Just listen…."
"No I won't, and just 'Evans' will suffice!" This time she yelled.
"Look Lily I'm extre…."
But Lily had had enough. She quietly got up and curtly told Marlene "I'm sitting outside." Before walking towards the door, wiping tears. Marlene pushed her plate away and started going behind Lily but not before shooting Snape a glare. If eyes could kill, Snape would have probably melted due to the intensity of Marlene's glare.
Marlene caught up with Lily and quietly asked her, "you alright, Lil? " Lily gave a curt nod. Marlene raised an eyebrow. "No really Marly, I'm fine." Lily insisted. Marlene shrugged her shoulders but did not press the matter. They both silently sat under a beech tree, quietly revising for their exam.