Chapter 1: The letter
"Come on, Tune, hurry up! You can't stay out there all day!" Lily Evans was banging furiously on the bathroom door. Every morning it was the same; her sister, Petunia, was the first out of bed and therefore she could occupy the bathroom without interference. Apart from her angry 11-year old sister who couldn't see why she should be so severely punished, just because she didn't enjoy getting up in the morning, and didn't think it important to dress up.
The bathroom door creaked open, and Lily seized her chance: "Finally! I thought you were smuggling food in there, so you never had to leave the room again!" She received a scornful look from her sister, who hurried across the floor and disappeared into her room. At the same time as Lily set foot on the threshold, her mother came up the stairs. "For heavens sake, Lily, why aren't you ready yet?" "Well it isn't easy to get to the bathroom in the morning in this house!" Lily exclaimed. "Well, that's how it is to have a teenager in the house. You'll understand in a few years' time", her mother said, "I doubt it" Lily replied, and closed the door behind her. She looked in the mirror and sighed. The red curls were dancing and dangling around her face, and the green eyes sparkled. People said she was pretty, or rather, that she would be pretty when she grew older.
Lily was tired of hearing that. Why couldn't they just accept the way she looked, or the way she was? The thing was, Lily often did strange things, not on purpose of course, it just happened. For example when she was smaller, and other children teased her. Then she could loose her temper (and generally, people didn't want to come in the way of Lily Evans when she was angry) and say something like: "Watch out, or I'll turn your hair purple!" And suddenly there would be screaming and confusion, as the offending girl would develop orange polka dots in her face. Lily couldn't explain this, even though she sometimes really wanted to. She sighed again, and unlocked the bathroom door, steeped out in the hallway and began her way down the stairs. "Honestly," she thought "that museum has got to be good." The night before, Lily's parents had proclaimed that hey intended to visit the British Museum the following day. Petunia had made a deep sigh and seemed truly annoyed with the fact that she would have to spend and entire day together with her embarrassing parents, and her annoying little sister. Lily had sighed as well, not as audiable as her sister, but a sigh nonetheless. She was quite certain that something odd would occur. There always did when she was bored, and this, in her mind, was as boring as a history lesson in school.
When she had completed these highly depressing thoughts, she found herself at the bottom of the stairs. She then entered the kitchen where her father was enjoying a cup of tea and his newspaper.
Petunia was organizing her fruit on a plate while their mother fuzzed about her not eating enough.
Lily sat down, poured some tea in her cup, and took a sip. She reached for some toast with her free hand, but as she made the move to drop the toast on her plate, she found it already occupied, by a letter, clearly addressed to her in green ink. Not only was the ink unusual, the paper the envelope was made of, was not real paper, it was thicker and more yellow. "Quite ugly" she thought to herself, as she turned the envelope to see who on earth would send her something like this. At the back of the envelope there was a coat of arms with a large "H" surrounded by four animals: a lion, a snake, an eagle and a badger. She couldn't remember seeing this before, and she began to get curious. She ripped the envelope, and unfolded the letter. "What's that you got there, dear?" her mother asked. Lily's eyes widened as she read the letter:
HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,
Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)
Dear Miss Evans.
We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress
"Er, a letter from something called Hogwarts" she replied, after having finished the letter.
"From what?" her father said. "You don't know what it is?", Lily replied. What ever came across her path in life, she had always felt sure that her parents would know what to do. "No, we didn't even know you had got a letter!" her mother explained. "Come on," Lily said, "you must know! I mean, who else put it on my plate?" She finished, and turned to look at Petunia. "Oh no, no don't look at me, I've got nothing to do with it" she assured them, and continued cutting her grape.
"Well, somebody must have, it can't just have flown through the window" Lily said.
She unfolded the second piece of paper (or whatever it was) and read her booklist. At this moment a lot of things happened: Petunia shrieked and dropped her knife, which cut deeply into the linoleum floor. Her mother dropped the frying pan with the freshly fried, crispy bacon, and her father was hit hard in the back of the head by a letter, which seconds later was dropped on the table by an owl. The owl then swooped down, took a piece of bacon off the floor in its beak, and flew out of the window, leaving the kitchen in an astonishing silence. Lily's father was the first to speak. He chuckled and then said: "Well now we know how Lily's letter got here," and he was right. The second letter looked like the first apart from the fact that it had "William and Elizabeth Evans written on it. Elizabeth Evans took the letter, opened it, and read aloud:
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Evans.
Congratulations with your daughter's acceptance at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. A book list has been enclosed with her letter and you'll find the needed shops in Diagon Alley. Simple follow the instructions written beneath and ask the innkeeper, Tom, to show you the entrance…"
She stopped, scanned the rest of the letter and then looked up. "Lily, had you any idea of this?" she asked. "No," Lily replied, as she thought: "Idea of what? Clearly this had to be some kind of sick joke. "Well then," her father said, "I think we better cancel our trip to the museum and go shopping".
A/N: So, what do you think? I know I didn't get very far story wise in this chapter, but the second one is coming up soon. Please review if you've got any ideas or suggestions, or just to make me happy! Oh, and I'm not quite sure of Petunia's age, but I like to think that she's a couple of years older than Lily.
