This is my second story, hopefully waaay better than my last one > Its just a quick beginner in my protaonist's life...Please review and i will give you an imaginary cookie!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything of Harry Potter (sadness)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In England, in a farmland area with the closet neighbor a mile away, a young girl of eleven stared unhappily out her window, the bars throwing cold shadows over her face. A fresh bruise was forming under her left eye and the paths of tears shone bright. Her name is Elizabeth Turner or Lizzie for short. She had just come out of another argument with her parents, the bruise her souvenir. The argument had surrounded the most popular topic of recent; the strange accidents that happened around her. Recently, she had made her sister's hair blue, supposedly while she slept. Lizzie hadn't done this of course but her parents had never listened to her anyways.

Lizzie's parents were abusive, but only to her. Not her sister Nicole. Because Nicole was perfect, Nicole wasn't the freak of the family.

See, just a week ago, Lizzie had received a strange letter from some school called Hogwarts. Hogwarts was a school of witchcraft and wizardry, therefore a make believe school. How they had gotten her address, let alone how it had said 'House 3, Country Road, Bathe'. Lizzie told her parents that she didn't send anyone her address, but as usual they didn't believe her so they beat her and sent her to her room for three days with no meals. Last night, Nicole had taken Lizzie's letter from her room and had torn it up, laughing and teasing Lizzie. She became really angry but knew she couldn't hit Nicole so she just picked up the pieces and went to bed. The next morning, the letter was repaired and Nicole's hair, which the owner prized beyond anything, was not only bright blue but full of knots that wouldn't come out.

Strange, but to Lizzie's liking.

Lizzie sighed and grabbed the letter from her bedside table to reread it, it being the only chain of hope in her misery. It told her the date of the time she needed to go the train station, the place where she could get her school books (Diagon Alley), and the list of what to get. It also talked about a fund that she could get, being something called Muggle born. The envelope held a small key and a number of the vault. Of coarse, she had no way of getting to Diagon Alley, nor of getting to King's Cross Station to get to school. Her parents never let her out of the house. She had never gone to school, unlike Nicole but she had self taught herself, stealing the notebooks at night and studying them.

Tonight though, was the night she was going to leave for London. She didn't fear walking alone for miles at night but she feared never finding Diagon Alley….and the whole Hogwarts being a complete joke.

She had money…stolen over a long period of time from her parents and Nicole, so she could get a bus to London but after that, she would be with little left. Plus, she had to bring a suitcase along for obvious reasons but it had to be light, otherwise her parents could catch her and hell to pay afterwards.

The sun was low now, almost gone over the small hills. Lizzie was ready though; her suitcase packed (not full, she didn't have much), the money safely stored in a pouch around her neck, and the letter tightly folded in the pouch. Now all she had to do was wait till night could sweep her away…

Her door swung open, shedding bright light into her dark room. Her father stood there, glaring into her neat room.

"Bed, now." He demanded, pointing to her bare mattress. She nodded then got up and lay on here bed, curling away from the glaring form. He sniffed.

"I thought I told you no food!" he roared, sweeping the room for the non existent food. The smell he smelt was coming from downstairs; his drunk mind couldn't grasp that.

"No sir," she said courteously, keeping her eyes lowered "the food you smell is coming from mother's cooking and Nicole's plate she brought up before."

Her father looked at her with disbelief.

"Nicole doesn't eat here, she'd rather eat with the pigs."

Lizzie nodded in the direction of Nicole's open door across the hall then said "No sir, she eats in her room but turns the fan on. The smell travels."

The noted smell was making her stomach rumble but she grabbed it to keep it quiet.

Her father sniffed again, then grunted, annoyed that he couldn't find a reason to get angry at her.

"Then bed, now. No noise or I'll be here with a poker," he threatened then left, slamming the door and knocking a picture down, fortunately muffled by his laughing with Nicole.

Lizzie glared at the door, angry tears running down her face. She was glad she was leaving tonight; she didn't know if she could last another minute here. Tomorrow would be her eleventh birthday, and being free would be the best, and only, gift she had ever gotten.

Three hours later, by her reckoning of the clock chiming downstairs, Lizzie crept from her bed and moved to the window, pausing as she heard a great grunt from her father in the next bedroom. When it passed, she grabbed the window handle and pulled upwards, wincing as the old sliders made a slight screech. Grabbing a screwdriver from her bedside table drawer, she worked at the bars, poorly screwed in by her father. Her mother had helped with most of it, meaning its structure was better in some areas but again, weak. A slight 'clink' gave the last screw and she grabbed the bars before they could fall and make noise. She lifted them into the room and plopped them onto the bed. Next was the tricky part, for she had to toss her stuff down then get herself down while making no noise. She had no blankets to make a rope and no rope to use so she'd have to climb on the wall.

"I wish I had a wand…maybe I'd make myself fly or something…" Lizzie murmured, tossing her bag gently as possible out the window, the bag landing with a muffled thump as it hit her pillow. Then she lifted her legs up and through the window and gripped the sill for dear life.

"God, please be nice to me," she said then let go.

Magic happened.

Suddenly Lizzie found herself bouncing on the ground as if it were a trampoline, skidding to a halt near the road. Blinking and smiling, she placed her right hand under her and lifted her left in the air as if to grab something.

BANG!