He had to tell her; she was a witch. And she didn't even know it. Her sister, Petunia, watched her younger sister as she performed the strange magic. Eyes wide, face puzzled.

Severus stepped away from the oak tree and ran down the grassy slope. The two sisters looked up at him immediately. They stared at him in awe. Petunia must have been absolutely bedazzled. One minute her younger sister, Lily, was performing magic tricks - making daisies appear and grow in the very palm of her hand. Next thing she knows, a strange boy with sooty black hair and black heavy boots appears from nowhere.

Petunia glared at him with a stony look.

"Who are you?" she sneered.

Her sister nudged her. Don't be so rude! The discreet push implied.

Suddenly Severus was lost for words. He searched his mind; tried to remember what he was doing.

"I-" he stumbled. He made an uneasy eye contact with the younger girl (about his age) with the beautiful red hair flouncing off her shoulders - the witch.

"Oh, I know." continued Petunia. Despite her sisters nudge, she felt no regret in continuing to insult the boy. "Your from Spinners end. That poverty-stricken, grimy, disgusting place. You must have worked hard to escape from that place and come to a much nicer place like this. But, you should go back now, we don't want you here."

Lily looked at her in horror. Severus could only tremble underneath his clothes. She's a bit frightening, he thought to himself, but tried his best not to show it.

"Well," he began, "your just a silly old Muggle. A mean Muggle, that's what you are." it was like the words came spilling out of his mouth and he was unable to stop them.

"How dare you!" Petunia instantly snapped. But then she hesitated, and thought for a moment. "Wait, what's a Muggle?"

Severus decided he must stop bickering with this girl and get to the point.

"I need to tell you something." he addressed this to the younger one, who was simply observing the argument, not saying a word. She glanced over at him and nodded. Then she turned to her sister.

"I'll be just one minute." She said quietly. Her voice was soft and sweet. Severus waited till she came over to him, then they both walked over to the tree Severus had hid behind. They looked at each other in the eye for a moment. Then Severus spoke up:

"I'm Severus." he said, finally. "What's your name?"

"Lily." the girl replied. Her freckles were dotted around her face delicately; her hair brushed around gently in the wind.

"That's a nice name."

"Thanks. I like the name Severus. It's different."

"I feel different, too."

"That's not a bad thing."

"Isn't it?" Severus appreciated her being polite, but he knew that his kind of different wasn't exactly pleasurable. Lily smiled numbly.

"No, it's not, really. I'm different, too. I can do..." her words faded away as she realized she was telling a stranger about her special powers.

"You can do magic?" Severus finished her sentence for her. She smiled and nodded, but she also looked surprised. How did he know?

"Yes." she nodded wearily. "How do you know?"

"I can do them too, because I'm a wizard." Severus crouched down to the floor and picked up a leaf. He held it out to Lily, and it fluttered over to her. She caught it with ease, then looked up at Severus, her eyes sparkling like sapphires. His point had been proven.

"A wizard." Lily repeated in amazement. Her mouth opened to speak again, but Severus interrupted.

"Your a witch." he said. "But your half Muggle, too."

"Half Muggle?" Lily's face scrunched up in confusion.

"Yes. Your parents are normal. We call normal people Muggles. But you... you were born a witch. There's magic in your blood - that's why you can perform magic, and your sister can't" Lily's face grew more and more intrigued. She almost fell over because she lent forward in interest so much.

"Because she's a Muggle." Lily felt like she was a student.

"Yes. I'm a half -blood. My Father was a Muggle, too."

"Does it make a difference, being Muggle - born?" Lily asked.

"No. It doesn't make any difference."

"Wow." Lily breathed out heavily. She was so very fascinated by everything she had just learned.

Severus smiled at her once more; he felt accomplished. He knew he would be attending Hogwarts with Lily, and the thought made his stomach flip over with excitement. He fell immediately in love with this girl, and knew that they would be spending a lot of time with each other. They were best friends.