"Fine," I snapped, pushing my legs as hard as I could to make the wooden swing I was sitting on go higher, "Ignore me and play by yourself." My sister barely seemed to hear. She kept her concentration on the daisy she held in front of her. "Lily!" I exclaimed in frustration. She still ignored me.

A couple minutes later, she held the daisy out and said "Tuney, look what I can do!" I glanced at her stupid flower, but instead of looking away and sniffing, as I had intended, my eyes locked on curiously. The petals were moving. They grew out, then back in. The flower bloomed, then died, and then bloomed again. It wasn't normal. I wanted to ask Lily how she was doing it, but I was too mad at her, so I just said "Freak! You're a freak, Lily Evans!" She looked hurt. "That's not nice," she said softly, "That's not nice at all." I didn't care. "That's not normal, freak! Stop it." She turned away from me and looked back at her flower.

A boy's voice came from behind us. "I know why you can do that." We both turned to see a skinny, pasty-skinned, greasy-haired schoolboy wearing an overcoat several sizes too large. I put my hands on my hips. "Yeah, right." Lily stared at him. "It's because you're a witch," he said, looking past me into Lily's face. She drew back and said the same thing she had said to me. "That's not nice." He shook his head. "No, I didn't mean-" I suddenly recognized him. "Hey, you're that Snape boy from the next neighborhood." He nodded, but kept focusing on Lily. "No, it's okay," he said to her, "you're a witch and I'm a wizard." She frowned. "What're you playing at?" He bent down and plucked a blade of grass. "Here, I can prove it." He held the grass out horizontally, then let it go. Somehow, it became a small bird. "Freak,"' I said almost involuntarily. Lily took a step toward him. " But magic, I mean it's not real, right?"

"That's what everyone tells you. Everyone who isn't like us."

"What do you mean 'not like us'? Are we…different somehow? Are we not human? Are we…" Her eyes travelled to me, "Are we freaks?" I didn't like how they were calling themselves "we" and "us." As I matter of fact, I didn't like this Snape fellow at all so far. I tried to grab Lily's arm to take her home, but she pulled away. I looked back and forth between them, then said the only thing I could think of: "I'm telling Mummy!" Then I raced away into the trees.

I didn't actually go all the way to Mum. She'd just say something about making new friends. Instead, I walked about for a bit and mulled things over. Everything that boy had said sounded like rubbish. I had stopped believing in magic ages ago, well, really a couple of months ago, but it didn't matter. But then how did he do the bird thing, and Lily the daisy growing? I didn't understand it, so I didn't like it. I ran back over to where I had left them and looked through the trees.

Lily and him were lying next to each other in the grass. It looked like they had already become friends. I felt a burning of quick anger as I watched Snape, how dare he steal my sister away from me? He was talking.

"…she's just jealous, Lily. You're special and she's completely ordinary."

I knew he meant me. I began to hate him even more. Lily as well, for liking him. As I watched them together, I hated. I hated and hated and hated.