Chapter 3
Letters and Dursley

Lily walked into her old room, her family had just returned from their home in Ireland and Lily was looking forward to seeing her friends. Since the age of eleven, Lily has attended The Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Before she was accepted, Lily had gone to The Richards School in North London with her older sister petunia who was two years her senior. Petunia was tall and very thin, often described by Lily as having the appearance of a horse, her blond hair fell to her shoulders and her blue eyes glared with distain at the slightest mention of Hogwarts. Petunia despised Lily greatly for her magical powers as well as her popularity. Yes, Lily was quite well liked at Hogwarts amongst her fellow classmates and professors. Lily excelled greatly in her studies often leading people to think she was a pureblooded witch.

At Hogwarts Lily felt at home, while in her muggle life she felt enclosed, no one around her could understand what she experienced at Hogwarts, not even her parents and what with Petunia's constant insults and tantrums, Lily always looked

forward to the start of a new term.

Lily looked around her room, it was colored green with white molding, her bed stood along side the wall and her desk and book case was across the way. Posters of her favorite bands as well as photographs she took hung on the walls. Lily magically guided her trunk and suitcases to the far corner and set them down. Lily looked outside of her window and saw the ground to be wet and the sky dreary. 'must have stormed' she thought to herself. Lily turned back to her bed and walked to it, setting her self on it she laid down and closed her eyes. She thought about her friends, what they might be doing at that very moment.

'Ashley is probably at the beach with some cute guy, while Bridget is probably dancing.' Lily thought. Bridget, Ashley, and Lily had met on the train to Hogwarts. Lily having been a new witch and unfamiliar to the Wizarding world gained much knowledge from them both.

Ashley Brenan came from a prominent wizarding family who lived in Northern Ireland. Ashley was a medium sized girl, well toned and loved boys. She had very short brown hair, she wore her hair in a boy style, usually known as a pixie, which brought out her facial features. Her bright pale blue eyes sparkled when in the sun light and her sun kissed skin, during the summers, made her look amazing. Ashley had many flings while at Hogwarts, but wasn't one to stay long with one single guy, as she liked to put it, she liked to play the field. Coming from Auror parents, Ashley's career choice was quite obvious, she wanted to go straight into Auror training once out of school. Lily loved her personality the most, because she was loyal, very plain, and lastly she was a true friend.

Bridget Miller, born to pureblooded wizard and witch, she had known much of the wizarding way of life, her mother was a homemaker who took care of her younger sister Elizabeth. Her father was a prominent Department head at the ministry who dealt with dark magic and charms work. Bridget was small and petite, she stood five feet, three inches tall and had black wavy hair, her brown eyes accentuated her olive colored skin, she usually wore a basic uniform when not in her school dressings. Whenever Lily saw her, she would wear jeans, a colored shirt and a various jacket with plat formed shoes. She was neat and proper and her mother was very strict on her appearance, she didn't like her daughter to wear provocative clothing or wear make up that was too flashy, to put it simply, Bridget was a bit plain, she wore a little make-up, but she had a pretty face which didn't need much. Bridget lives in London Like Lily, though she lives in a wizarding community.

Lily sat up on her bed and looked into her side drawer, she pulled out her video camera, Lily had grown to love film and cinematography ever since her father took her on one of his trips to Africa, Robert Evans worked as a photographer for a London based magazine. He had photographed many people, places, things, and animals for various projects for the magazine. During Lily's first year of Hogwarts, she had brought her own video camera, true it wasn't top of the line or at all high tech, but it still was hers, to video tape her life at Hogwarts. She taped so that her parents could perhaps get a glimpse of what their daughter has been doing at school. Lily had then gotten the idea to make each year a film. Occasionally Lily would also write scripts and her friends would act them out and she would film them.

Lily's first film was of her family on a holiday to Germany to see her Father's family, it wasn't much only footage of her relatives laughing and having a good time, but it wasn't until her trip to Africa which got her hooked.

"Alright, I guess I'm to continue filming with out my voice, so here it goes all sign language" Lily said to herself. Lily took her wand out and levitated the camera so that it was facing her.

-Hello, this is Lily again and unfortunately mum has banned me from using the verbal charm for my voice, so I will be using sign language, which is very cool, I'll probably cover this in voice later on, but for now here we go.-

-So I'm back home, in London, we just got back from our holiday in Ireland , visiting the family, you know grand mum and Grand da, so that was nice. Petunia's been a pest this past week, because I told my grandparents of my school and they found it to be exciting, but anyhow, I'm really looking forward to my year at Hogwarts, hopefully my letter will come with in the next day or two, and hopefully I'll be named Head girl, cross your fingers and knock on wood!- Lily signed with a hopeful smile.

-So come on, apparently Petunia's boyfriend is coming for dinner, this should be interesting- Lily got up and went to the door with her camera following behind her. Lily came down the stairs and ran into Petunia . . . Accidentally.

"Watch it!" she barked, Lily rolled her eyes and continued her way. "Ow! Lily watch where you're flying your stupid camera! And that better not be anywhere near Vernon tonight or else," Petunia shouted. Suddenly Margaret, Their mother came into the hall way. "Girl's what's going on?" she asked. Lily looked to her "Nothing," She said. Lily looked to Petunia, "So when's he coming?" Lily asked in her rough voice. Petunia looked to her, "Six, don't do any freakish tricks alright? No funny business," Petunia said tightly. Lily nodded and moved into the kitchen. Her family lived on a tiny street in London, her mother was a writer and had published much of her work and currently was working on her fifth novel. Lily made her way to the refrigerator and took a bottle of water out and opened it. Lily took a large swig and took a seat at the table. A copy of vogue was sitting on the table, her father had just done a four page spread on location in Australia for it's July issue. Lily flipped through the pages and consumed herself in the photos. Twenty minutes into her picture gazing Robert entered carrying his camera. "Hello Lily," he said. Lily continued looking at the photos.

Robert looked to Lily and tapped her on the shoulder, he smiled when she looked up. -they're nice aren't they- he signed referring to the photographs, Lily nodded.

"Yeah they're great," Lily said. Her father looked to her a bit surprised, "You're not using the charm," he said. Lily nodded unhappily, "Mum doesn't want me using it, she thinks it's abusing my power, I can't use it until I go back to school," Lily said. Her father nodded. "Well Vernon should be arriving in the next half hour, I suppose we should get everything ready," he said. Lily nodded and closed the magazine. "He's not as bad as you claim India," he said at the look of his daughter's face. Robert then looked to the camera and smiled. Lily left the kitchen with the camera behind her. Lily went to her room and began picking out a nice shirt to wear for dinner.

India, had become Lily's nick name at home as well as amongst her family. India is Lily's middle name, derived from where Her mother grew up, in Mumbai. Her parents were in the Royal army and were stationed in India. India stuck once her friends started calling her India when she told them of her middle name. Since then Lily had traveled to India with her Mother and sister when her Father was sent to do a photo shoot. Lily loved the trip and being able to wear a sari thoroughly thrilled her. Lily turned the camera off and changed into her shirt and looked to the camera and turned it back on, -alright, ready for . . .hell- -let's go, oh and be warned Vernon is the most vile creature on this planet-

Vernon soon arrived at the door. Petunia greeted him with a kiss. He was tall with brown hair and was a bit heavy, he full faced and his eyes were small and close to each other. Lily came down the stairs with her camera invisibly flying behind her, filming every thing.

Lily greeted Vernon. Vernon and Petunia went into the parlor where tea was set up and Lily's parents were sitting.

Lily went into the kitchen and charmed the camera to record all of her thoughts through out the evening. He then entered the parlor with a fake smile. She sat down next to her mom and the group began chatting about Vernon's career ambitions . . . Screws.

Lily poured herself some tea and listened to Vernon.

"Yes, the company is just booming, really it's great, today alone we've sold two tons worth of screws to various places and work sites, I'd say it'll have a major profit boom in coming years. Lily looked to him with complete disinterest. She looked to her father, who she could tell was faking his agreement movements. "Yes that's what it sounds like," Robert said, quickly taking a sip of tea, and looking to Margaret. She quickly looked to Vernon and nodded, "That's nice, uh why don't we all make our way to the dining room, shall we?" she asked. They all entered the dining room and Margaret plated the dinner. They soon we eating. They began eating and Lily, honestly couldn't help but look away from Vernon whilst he was eating.

'That is just disgusting' she thought, looking down to her plate. Lily looked to her father who was taking a sip of wine. "So Vernon, Where did you receive you secondary education, a boy's school?" he asked Vernon looked up and brightened at the subject.

"Yes, sir I was educated at Smelting's School for boys, it's a fine institution," he replied. Lily took a sip of her martinelli, "I'm sure it is , if you want to become an arrogant berk" she said to herself as she looked to Petunia, who looked thoroughly interested in what Vernon was saying.

Vernon continued eating continuing to push his fork into his food forcefully and putting it into his mouth just as quickly.

'Vernon continues to eat forcefully, jabbing his food fiercely and quickly repeating the process of jab, lift, bite, chew, swallow, repeat. Oh wait, he's stopped, he looks ill, perhaps he's stuffed himself entirely and he can't eat anymore . . .let's hope so." Vernon then continues to eat, 'Darn' Dinner soon finished and lily helped her mother clean up. Once all of the dishes were done, thanks to magic Lily returned to her room where Pashma, her owl was sitting on her bed besides two other owls. Lily smiled.

She walked to the bed and took the letters from Wilson and another bird she did not recognize. She took the letters and opened them one at a time.

Dear Lily,

I hope everything is going well for you, this summer has been long with out you, we must hang out in Diagon before term begins, how about this weekend? I'm back in London from Scotland. I wrote to Ashley and she's coming to London this weekend to get our school things, the letters should be arriving at your house today or tomorrow, write back and let me know how your summer's going.

Much love,
Bridget

Lily smiled and opened the other letter not sure of who it was from. She looked at the owl, it was a nice owl with clean brown and black feathers. She looked back to the letter and began reading

Dear Lily,
Hello, Lily-flower I do hope you're enjoying your summer, I just thought I'd write to you to see how you're doing. My summer's been well, I've just been hanging with Sirius and Remus, Peter's in Whales right now, and we've been having much fun doing nothing. Word on the street is that you're up for Head girl, heard that from Remus himself, good luck. I hope you get the position, you'd be great at it. Oh darn, I must run, mum's calling, See you in Diagon Alley if you happen to be there this weekend. Cheers.

Sincerely,
Your Favorite Marauder, James.

Lily finished reading and folded the letter and threw it away. James Potter, is Lily's nemesis. He is tall muscular with jet black hair and hazel eyes and round glasses. Most of all he loved to prank students, those who he thought deserved it. Lily hated this and consistently bashed him for it, calling him numerous names and what not. In Lily's fourth year James had begun asking her out, but Lily had full heartedly declined each proposition flatly. She thought him to be arrogant and full of himself in every way and couldn't believe he was still standing with his large head and foolish nature over powering him.

Lily went to her bathroom and got ready for bed, she returned and turned her camera off until tomorrow.

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