A/N- this is my first fic, so please R&R to tell me what you think. Enjoy.
Where Life takes us.
Chapter 1: Hogwarts at last
"Your late" Lily's mother said pointing at the big clock on the wall, it showed that it was seven and two minutes.
"I'm sorry, but it's only two minutes." Lily said dryly.
"You are never to be late again, even if it is by a second 'only'" said Robert, emphasizing the only. "After diner you are to go to your room and I shell come up and see to it that you are punished for your lateness and rudeness to your mother. Now sit down, we are about to begin our meal." He said in a cold voice.
The door opened and Robert got in. "Now, for your punishment." He pushed her from her sitting position to a lying position. "Ley face down!" he said angrily.
Lily, scared of the angry man, did as she was told.
Then, she felt a sudden pain on her back; it was so painful and surprising. The teenager screamed in pain as the belt hit her across the back again, it kept coming, for a few minutes, then Robert grabbed her by her hair and pulled her of the bed, tears came streaming down from her emerald eyes.
"Stop crying" the man shouted "Stop crying, you little brat, stop being a baby.
He shoved her to the wall. As her head hit the wall, she slid down to the floor and curled into a ball.
"I SAID STOP CRYING, YOU IDIOT. DO AS YOU ARE TOLD!" he kicked her hard.
The sixteen years old Lily woke up, covered in sweat, her emerald eyes watering and her face as pale as the sheets on her bed.
As she moved into a sitting position, she felt sudden pain in her side, and then the Memories of the previous night drowned her. She clenched her side and lay back down on the bed lowly; she felt the torn flash on her back burning in pain.
She looked at the alarm clock on her bedside table. It was two in the morning, in an hour she had her tutoring session with her next door neighbour.
She got up and got into the shower. The hot water made the pain unbearable for any normal human being, but Lily was used to that, being in such pain for over five years now.
She got out of the shower and got dressed, checking if her any of her ribs got broken. none of them were, luckily.
At five to three am Lily climbed down the pipe next to her bedroom window.
She walked over to the house next door and smiled to herself as she remembered how she came to know the Hiresons.
-Flash back-
An owl came into the eleven year old Lily's room.
That's weird she thought, an owl in broad daylight.
Then she noticed it had a letter tided to its leg. She scrambled of her bed and over to the owl to try and grab the letter from him. To her surprise, it gave the letter to her and then flow off out of the window.
Lily opened the letter and read it-
Dear Miss Evans,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry.
You will find that there is a list for your school equipment, and where is the best place to find it on the other side of this parchment.
The Train will leave the station King's Cross, Platform 9 3/4 on the 1st of September.
Sincerely,
Deputing Headmistress, Professor McGonagall.
When Lily finished, her jaw fell open, she just couldn't believe it.
She quickly got up and went downstairs to ask her mother. But her mother refused, she couldn't send her daughter to learn some 'stupid magic tricks from a bunch of freaks' was what she said.
Just then the doorbell rang and the butler went to open it.
In the doorway stood a very pretty woman, tall with long honey colour hair and blue eyes. Next to her was a small girl, about Lily's age, with the same hair, eyes and face that the woman had.
"Hello, my name is Mary Hireson, the next door neighbour and this is my daughter Alice." The woman said, "We came here because we herd that you just moved into the neighbourhood and wanted to welcome you."
Lily looked the two over and suddenly she saw a letter sticking out of Alice's pocket with the same green writing as hers. She tried to signal to them behind her mother's back. She didn't want her mother to know about Alice going to Hogwarts, and understood that Mary was a Witch as well, by the wand that was just sticking out of her pocket.
Alice noticed her and got the message.
"I just saw…" Mary began but trailed of s Alice tagged at her skirt. She bent down and Alice whispered something. Nodding, Mary continued, "I just sew your daughter out the window and thought I should come and introduce my little girl, I have a feeling they are going to be very good friends." She finished.
Rachel, Lily's mother, smiled coldly. "Lily, why don't you go and play with Alice outside.
Lily walked with Alice to the backyard.
"So, I see you got the letter as well." Lily said quietly, looking at her feet.
"Yes, we saw the owl fly into your house and came over, we thought you were a wizardry family as well. Why didn't you want us to mention your letter?" Alice asked.
"My mother doesn't want me to go. She says she couldn't send her daughter to learn some 'stupid magic tricks from a bunch of freaks'" Lily made the same face her mother had. Alice laughed and then her expression went bitter.
"You mean you're not going?"
"Once my mother says something, it goes, and there is no chance she'll change her mind." Lily said "and if I disobey her my stepfather punishes me."
"Wait, how about my mom tutors you, and then you can still become a witch?" Alice said.
"I'd like that" Lily said, "I really do want to be a witch".
Alice spoke with her mother about it, and it was agreed that Lily would be secretly tutored by Mrs. Hireson.
Mrs. Hireson sent an owl to the headmaster of Hogwarts and it has been ranged with the ministry that Lily could do magic out side the school even though she was underage, and the tests of each year would be sent to her.
-End of Flashback-
The door opened and smiling at her, the sixteen year old Alice stepped aside to let Lily in.
"I'm glad you came, mom is going to teach you something really important today and we got your results for the O.W.L.s you finished a week ago." Alice said and handed her an envelope.
Lily stared at it.
"Well don't just stand there, open it" Mrs. Hireson said as she came in the room.
Lily did as she was told.
"Well?..." Alice asked impatiently.
"I got twelve O's." Lily said handing the paper over to her friend smiling.
"That's great!" Alice hugged her, as did Mrs. Hireson.
"What doe's the letter say?"
Lily opened the letter and read it quietly.
"It says that if I attend Hogwarts this year I can be Quiddich Captain, since the coach of our girls Quiddich teem recomended me, after that match on Sunday, saiding I was the best one there and he hasn't seen anyone better in any of the school matches he wet to watch. I really can't agree with that, but whatever."
"Lily! You have to come to school this year!" Alice cried, hugging her friend tightly.
"Ow, Alice I told never to do that." Lily winced.
"Sorry…"
"Here, drink this." Mrs. Hireson handed Lily a goblet.
Lily drank it and the pain was gone. "Thank you" she said quietly.
"Glad to help" Mary said "I heard the screams…" She trailed off.
"That's it!" Lily cried "If my 'parents'" she practically spat the word parents "think that someone knows about what they are doing to me, they would want to get me away, so that someone doesn't get any evidence of what they are doing, and I would refuse to go anywhere else but Hogwarts, they wouldn't have a choice, they would have to send me to Hogwarts!" Lily said all that so quickly, it was very hard to understand. "I can't believe I didn't think of that before!"
"We could try that…"Mary said thoughtfully.
Over the next few days, Lily planned and replanned how her parents would find out the Hiresons know about them beating her up almost daily.
On Sunday afternoon, Mrs. Hireson came over to the Williams' house (Lily's stepfather was Robert Williams, but Lily kept her real name, Lily Isabella Evans) for an afternoon tea with Lily's mother.
Rachel decided to make friends with Mary Hireson because her high place in society, she was friends with very important and famous people. That was the only reason Lily got the chance to stay friends with Alice, without it being a secret.
"How are you today, Rachel?" Mary asked, fighting to keep her voice from sounding bitter.
"Oh, very well, thank you. It is a lovely day today." Rachel said dryly.
"How is your daughter?" Mary asked, trying to stay casual, but wanting to get it over with quickly.
"She's well. Didn't you see her this morning?" Rachel asked, knowing that Lily went over to be with Alice that very morning.
"Yes, I did, and she looked unusually pale. She also had a blood stain on her sleave." Rachel went pale, but it was gone very soon.
The continued to talk, sipping their tea, but not for long. Mary made an excuse and left, to Rachel's great relief.
Lily was leaning on the doors of her stepfather's study. She tried to listen what was going on inside.
"Robert, we need to do something, Mary Hireson is suspicious." Lily heard her mother saying, panic in her voice.
"Relax Rach, she doesn't have any prove." Robert said dryly.
"We have to get rid of Lily, if she stays to long, Mary would find a way to prove that we are beating Lily, and then we are done for. I really think we should get her out of the house, boarding school or something, just get her away." Rachel said.
"Well, I wanted to get rid of her from the beginning, so, why not. I'm tired of her; it would be like getting rid of a bourdon." Robert said.
"Good, so I would go and look for a boarding school as far away s possible." Lily heard footsteps getting closer to the door and she hurried back to her bedroom.
The next morning, Lily walked into the dinning hall for breakfast.
"Lily, what are you doing here?" her mother asked, clearly surprised.
"I came to have some breakfast, mother," she said, as if it was very obvious, even though she knew it wasn't. Lily didn't have breakfast for the last five years, ever since she moved into her stepfather's house. She only came down to have dinner. Her body got used to that after two months or so.
"Well, I'm glad you are here," she posed, looking up to see her daughter's reaction to the words, but Lily's face showed no emotion, so she continued, "I wanted to inform you that your Robert and I had a discussion last night and decided you are to go to a boarding school wen your school year starts, instead of staying here and home school."
"And my I ask why that is?" Lily asked, well trained in hiding her thoughts.
"Well…" Rachel trailed off and looked at Robert for help.
"No, you may not, it is none of your business, it is our decision and since we are your legal guardians, we get to do as we please." Robert snapped.
"Fine, may I at least know where am I going to go?" Lily made a desperate face, which fooled her mother straight away.
"You are going to attend High hill high school." Her mother said.
"No," Lily said simply, shaking her head "no, I won't"
"I beg your pardon?" Robert asked, in complete shock.
"I said I won't go." She said slowly.
"Of course you are" Rachel said.
"No, I'm not, you see, I know why you are sending me away," she observed their stunned faces in satisfaction, "In fact, I recorded your conversation last night." Lily took a tape out of her pocket and played it. On it was the same conversation she heard in her Robert's study.
When it finished, she sew her parents' face go paler.
"Now, I do agree to go to a boarding school," she took out the letter she reserved from Hogwarts when she was eleven. "But, I am not going anywhere but Hogwarts." Rachel looked puzzled, but when she saw the letter, her face went dark.
"No way, not a chance you are going to…" her mother begun, but trailed off when she saw Lily waving the tape in her hand.
"It does give you some advantages, though," Lily said, "No one can find me in the magic world, so they can't get anything to prove."
"Fine." Robert said shortly, "as long as you are out of here."
Lily had a victory grin spread across her face as she hurried upstairs to owl Dumbledore, telling him that she is going to attend Hogwarts that year after all, then she would go to tell Alice and then they would go shopping for her school equipment.
This year is going to be the best year ever.