Chapter 2:
It has been 2 days since the incident and I haven't eaten since then. I can't prepare my own food and mother has been in her room crying. Every time I open the door to comfort her she stands up and starts screaming at me to go away and tells me that I am a horrible child and she doesn't understand what she has done to deserve me. I don't take it personally though. I know she doesn't mean it. But I don't know why she's upset. Underneath all of her anger is a sad woman with a broken heart. The trouble is finding the woman and persuading her to come out.
I remember one day, when dad was still here, I came home crying from my muggle school, some kids had been bullying me and I came home with a black eye and a cut above my left eyebrow. She had lifted me into her lap, healed my injuries and held me close to her, whispering in in my ear that it was ok as I sobbed into her shoulder. The next day however, she was as cold and distant as the very depths of the ocean.
I took a deep breath with my hand resting on the door knob and I prepared myself for her shouting. Before I entered, I pressed my ear against the door and listened so that I could determine what state she was in. Instead of the muffled sobbing I heard every other time; I heard her talking to herself in a cold voice:
"No." She said.
After a pause she said again. "No. No Tobias! I have made my decision! You will not have anything to do with our child. You left us and…" she broke off into sobs and I realised in the silence who she was talking to. She was on the telephone (or whatever it's called) with my father. She resumed talking once more, "I have to go now… goodbye." She hung up the telephone and flopped back onto the bed with a resounding crash. Abandoning my attempt to comfort her, I crept away towards my bedroom.
I peered out of the hole in my wall. The girl and her sister were at the park again. I stared into the distance beyond the park and the screams of laughter from the girls became distant as if they were down the other end of the street. What was my father doing, calling my mother on the telephone? How dare he decide that he wants to become a part of my life after 6 years of abandonment?
I made my decision with a clear motive. I would slip out of my window and crawl across the yard to the cover of the scrub on the edge of the park and watch the red-headed girl, purely to clear my frenzied mind. So that's what I did.
I sat cross-legged in the bushes watching through a gap as the red-headed girl showed "Tuney" something in her hand.
I crept slowly around the edge of the park to get a better view of what was going on. "Tuney" was peering into the other girl's hand looking highly disappointed.
"It's just a grain of sand." Petunia said looking crestfallen.
"I know." She said with a glittering grin spread wide across her face. "Made you look you dirty chook!" She ran away laughing as "Tuney" chased after her red in the face with embarrassment.
"Here, Tuney I'll show you a real trick!" The red-headed girl said. Sure that this was to be a joke again, I looked down at the ground smiling stupidly at the little girl's wit. As I gazed at the ground I saw the most amazing thing I had ever seen. Macadamia nuts! Realising how hungry I was I cracked one open with my warn out shoe and popped it into my mouth. It was delicious.
I looked to my left and saw that a squirrel was sitting a few feet away from me staring at the nuts longingly. With a smile, I coaxed him gently bribing him with a cracked macadamia nut to come closer. I finally succeeded and he ate gratefully out of the palm of my hand.
I glanced up again and, to my amazement, saw that the little girl was swinging really high on the swing.
"Be careful, Lily!" "Tuney yelled. With this, Lily (the red-headed girl) spread her arms wide and flew, quite literally flew, off of the swing again, taking way too long to touch the ground.
"Lily Evans! Mummy told you not to!" Tuney yelled.
"You're such a worry wart, Petunia!" Lily laughed. As I crouched in the shadows I knew that I had been right.
Lily Evans was a witch.