Chapter 1- Letters and Meetings
It had been a hot summer and Lily Evans had taken to spending the first week of her summer holidays in the house where it was coolest. One particularly hot day she came downstairs to see her family sat around the table. Her mother was dishing up breakfast, her sister was sitting at the table staring into space, and her father was reading the post; as she sat down opposite her sister her father handed her a letter.
'It's for you Lily' he said offhanded, reading a postcard from his brother. Lily looked down at the letter in her hand and read the address:
'Miss L. Evans
The Bedroom on the left
23 Beech Lane
Little Whinging
Surrey'
Frowning slightly she tucked a loose strand of her fiery red hair behind her ear and opened the letter, out fell two pieces of heavy paper, like the envelope was made of. Lily read the first letter, telling her she had been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Lily didn't even pick up the second one.
'Someone's got a really bad sense of humour' she said as she put the paper aside and turned to the bacon and eggs her mother had just put on her plate. Michael Evans picked up the letter, with a slight curiosity, and read it; he sighed and looked at Lily.
'Lily, no one is trying to play a trick on you, it's real' he looked straight into his daughter's emerald green eyes. Lily was shocked at what she was hearing.
'What do you mean?' she asked quietly.
'Your Aunt Lyn also got a letter like this. She's a witch too. I didn't think anyone else apart from her children would have magic in them. Well I'll go and call Lyn, Wendy, she'll be able to help Lily best. I just hope she's remembered to keep a phone in her house,' he said turning to Lily's mother, and then he stood up and left the room. Petunia made a point to stay away from Lily the rest of the day, and the holidays at that, the only contact she made was to make snide comments about her. Aunt Lyn came to stay three days after Lily had received her letter and started to teach lily about the wizarding world, though never about magic ('You'll have plenty of time at Hogwarts to learn magic'). With only three weeks left until the start of term Aunt Lyn took Lily to Diagon Alley, her father had given her some muggle money to change into Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts at Gringotts.
Aunt Lyn promised Lily that after she had all her Hogwarts things she could then buy whatever else she wanted to buy, within a reasonable range of course. Aunt Lyn left lily in Madame Malkin's Robe's for All Occasions and went to get her potion ingredients for her.
'Hogwarts dear?' Lily nodded, 'Come in, there's a boy being measured up as well.'
Lily was led into a back room where she was put on a stool and started having the robes pinned to the right size. Next to her, on another stool, was a boy with untidy black hair, hazel eyes, and black rimmed glasses.
'First year at Hogwarts?' he asked her; Lily nodded, she was usually very shy around strangers when she was alone, the boy smiled at her encouragingly
'I'm James potter' he said.
'Lily Evans.'
'Are you the daughter of Lyn Evans?'
'No, she's my aunt. I'm a muggle-born' Lily replied. The conversation had stopped, it looked as if the boy was trying to find another subject to continue the conversation with.
'What house do you think you'll be in?' she asked.
'I dunno, I guess I'll be in Gryffindor 'cos all my family have been in there. Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad I guess, or Hufflepuff, but I'd hate to be in Slytherin.'
'Yeah, I'd probably leave,' she laughed a little to show she was joking, 'My Aunt was in Ravenclaw so I might be in there' Lily replied.
'Has your Aunt been teaching you?' James asked.
'Only about the wizarding world, not magic. Are you a pureblood?'
'Yeah; both my parents are Aurors, that's how we know your Aunt' he answered.
'Right, that's both of you done' Madame Malkin (her mother) told them, 'get the cloth cleared up girls we've got another two customers waiting.'
Lily and James walked out and stood outside the shop with their robes, looking up and down the street. Three people were coming towards them, a man and woman Lily didn't know and her Aunt Lyn.
'Ah Lily, I see you've met James' Aunt Lyn said, Lily smiled and nodded, 'This is Lucy and Carl Potter, this is my niece Lily.'
James' parents smiled at her; Lily felt a little awkward, she was surrounded by people who knew almost everything about the world she had just entered and knew almost nothing about, true Aunt Lyn had been teaching her the more important things, but at that moment it felt like a cupful of water out of a lake to Lily. Lily and James finished their school shopping together; Aunt Lyn and the Potters went to the Leaky Cauldron and left Lily and James to do any extra shopping they wanted. James grabbed Lily's arm and dragged her into Quality Quidditch Supplies.
'James we've been in here the last ten minutes. Are you actually going to buy something or are you going to continue gaping like a fish at things?' Lily asked with a grin. James gave her a look of mock anger and horror and put a hand to his heart
'Are you saying that you find the idea of spending time in a Quidditch shop boring?' he demanded, Lily rolled her eyes and gave him a playful shove. They walked out and Lily headed towards the bookshop; James stopped an lily looked at him questioningly.
'Please tell me we are not going into the bookshop again?' he said. Lily rolled her eyes (again) and tried to drag him in, and then she had an idea.
'They've probably got a lot of books on Quidditch in there' she said quietly. James grinned and bowed to her.
'Well them lead on m'lady' Lily laughed and they walked into Flourish and Blotts. Lily bought a few more books for background reading while James looked for the books on Quidditch; as she went to pay for her books she noticed a book on the new releases titled 'Quidditch through the Ages', grinning she picked it up and paid for all her books. She found James looking longingly at the book and dragged him out before he could buy it. Once outside she pretended to be looking in her shoppi8ng bags to see if she needed anything else.
'I was gonna buy that' James said, obviously annoyed. Lily looked up at him.
'Am I going deaf or did James Potter just confess to actually wanting to buy a book?' she said in mock surprise, 'Are you sure you're feeling alright?' James stuck his tongue out at her as she reached into her shopping bag, grinning.
'Here,' she said handing him the book, he looked at her surprised, 'I got it just now, that's why I dragged you out,' she laughed at the look on his face. He took the book and then pulled her into a tight hug.
'Thanks Lily' he said. She was a little taken aback by his sudden show of emotion, but recovered quickly and smiled.
'Come on, we better get back' she said.
'Where you off to, potter?' came a voice behind them. A boy with a curtain of greasy black hair and a protruding hooked nose leaned against a wall with another boy, he had a pale, pointed face and bleach blonde hair.
'Snape, Malfoy,' James said, he put a hand on Lily's arm. She felt a little scared.
'Whose this, Potter? Newest girlfriend?' Malfoy sneered.
'You wish' James retorted; he tightened his grip slightly on Lily's arm, he was a little worried as to why Snape and Malfoy where so interested in lily, especially as she was muggle-born. Snape gave him an evil smile and walked past with Malfoy, making sure they bumped into Lily as they walked past. James watched them warily and then quickly dragged Lily towards the Leaky Cauldron.
'James, what's wrong? Who were they?' Lily asked, wrenching her arm free. James sighed and slowed down, he turned to face her.
'The boy with the blonde hair was Lucius Malfoy and the other was Severus Snape. They're both pure bloods and think all muggle-borns are scum, I've only met them a couple of times at parties, and don't really like them. Correction, I can't stand them. If they don't end up in Slytherin I won't eat for an entire term.'
They quietly made their way back to the Leak Cauldron, Lily thinking over what James had just told her; she now realised that Hogwarts obviously wasn't going to be all fun and games. Lily, Aunt Lyn, and the potters were all going to stay at the Leaky Cauldron that night and then return home; Lily was going to Aunt Lyn's and then on to Hogwarts from there. Whilst they were having breakfast the next morning, however, the innkeeper came up to them.
'I have an urgent message for Lyn Evans' he said, indicating to his office where they could hear a fire crackling.
'Thank you,' she said and followed him through. James' parents cast grave looks to each other, Lily tried to get it out of her mind and focus on breakfast. Aunt Lyn sat down and sighed, looking weary.
'Ministry business Lyn?' Carl Potter asked her, Aunt Lyn nodded and the adults had a quiet conversation that Lily and James couldn't quite hear.
'Do you want Lily to stay with us for the time being?' Lucy asked, pushing back her brown hair with a quick look at Lily. Aunt Lyn paused for a moment.
'I think it would be best. Who knows how long we'll be there for. Could be a few hours, could be a week; that is if you don't mind Lily?' Aunt Lyn said turning to her, 'You'll be safer there than at your parents' home. And better understood I dare say.' She was of course referring to Petunia.
Lily nodded, 'I don't mind. I'd prefer to be anywhere Petunia isn't at the moment though, she doesn't seem to like me very much any more… if she ever really liked me much at all,' she sighed and looked down at her food. She had always gotten along with petunia really well, or so she thought, until the letter had come; now petunia would hardly even look at her, she had cried a few times about it and had even tried talking to petunia, but it hadn't worked.
Aunt Lyn left five minutes later and Lily went up to her room to finish packing, her black owl stood in her cage and looked at her with her bright blue eyes.
'Why does everyone I like seem to hate me Opal?' she asked the owl sadly as she sat on her bed having now finished her packing.
'They don't' a voice answered behind her. Lily looked round and saw James standing in her doorway. She looked down at the floor.
'It feels that way,' she said as he shut the door and sat next to her on the bed. 'My sister's been my best friend my whole life and now, ever since I got my letter, she's hated me.' James saw tears start falling from her green eyes.
'What about your parents?' he asked softly.
'They're proud of me, which makes Petunia's rejection even worse. I could take anything Hogwarts and everyone in it throws at me if I just knew Petunia was at home waiting for me to come home, replying to all my letters… I just want her on my side.' Lily started sobbing and soon she found herself crying into James' shoulder, she couldn't remember how she had gone from sitting next to him to leaning into his shoulder with her arms around his neck and his arms around her. At that moment, though, she didn't care; all she cared about was that someone did care about her and cared about what happened to her. They stayed motionless for a few minutes until there was a knock at the door.
