The Life and Times of Lily Evans
Hi everyone! It feels so good to be writing so much. So, in this chapter Lily and her parents have their first trip to Diagon Ally! Petunia tags along. Lily encounters some of her future classmates, chooses her wand, and takes in her first breath of magic! Hope you like it!
Lily Evan's POV, Diagon Ally
"Mum! The letter said that we had to get a standard size 2 pewter cauldron! Not silver!" I exclaimed. We had finally received my letter, along with instructions to Diagon Ally, my supply list, and a pouch of wizard money.
"Yes, yes, Lily. I'm sorry. Come on, don't you have to get those, erm, what are they called? Oh, yes, scales. And brass scales, darling, not silver." She teased me.
I laugh and say, "Very funny, Mum. Come on! I want to get into the book shop before there's a line!"
Without even waiting for their approval I run off.
CRASH!
I toppled into a boy and knocked over his books.
"I'm so sorry! Are you ok? I'm really sorry!" I apologize. The boy looks about 15 years and he's got blonde hair to his shoulders.
He looks a little bit angry but composes himself and replies, "It's fine. Really." He straightens up and brushes himself off and extends a hand to me "I'm Lucius Malfoy. 5th year. Slytherin prefect."
I shake it tentatively, "I'm Lily Evans. 1st year."
Lucius smiles grandly "New, huh? Well then, if you're looking for books why don't you go to Flourish & Blotts? They've got all the books you'll ever need!"
I return the smile and pipe, "Thank you!" And continue running towards "Flourish & Blotts" As I walk in, I immediately smell fresh parchment and ink, everywhere. I stare in awe at all the books. There were some floating in the air, depositing itself in the shelves.
"Wow! This is amazing!" I say, walking further inside the shop.
"Lily! Lily, over here!" I hear a familiar voice and glance over my shoulder. Severus!
I rush over to him and greet him cheerily "Sev! How're you doing? My family is just outside. Have you found your books yet? I'm having a bit of trouble. It's really confusing in here."
He only smiles while I jabber on and on about everything, the books, Hogwarts, Gringotts, lessons, wands, owls, everything. Then, unexpectedly, Severus falls over. I turn around and see these two boys, both with black hair racing past us (wonder who that is).
"Gits!" I yell after them and I lean down to help Severus.
"Those idiots." He mutters
I nod, "The nerve of these people!" We finish gathering up his things and continue through the shop.
"Lily! Lily, where are you! Lily!" I hear my parents calling me, so I grab Severus's hand and pull him with me. We find my parents at the doorway of Flourish & Blotts. My parents grinned at the sight of Severus while Tuny just wrinkled her nose at his clothes.
"Why, hello there, Severus! Fancy meeting you here! It's been a while, how have you been my boy?" My father says cheerily, shaking his hand enthusiastically. My parents absolutely adore Severus, since he's my best friend and he's a wizard. They find him so fascinating and they don't mind him over at our house. It's only Tuny that turns her nose up at him. I don't linger on the thought though, we had to move on so I could go get my wand.
We waved good-bye to Severus and his mother and ventured off, in search of the wand shop called Olivanders. Soon enough, we found ourselves just outside of it, standing under the sign.
"So… who's going in first?" Mum asks slowly, staring at the sign hanging above her.
"I think Lily should go first, she's the one getting the wand after all." Tuny says with a smirk and a smug look on her face.
Dad considered it for a moment and agreed "Go on, Lily. If you can't learn to do this by yourself, I doubt you could make it through Hogwarts."
I gulped and inched my way into the shop, taking note of the endless shelves, stocked with millions of rectangular boxes. Out of no where, a man with frizzy white hair and milky eyes appeared before me.
"Greetings! Welcome to my wand shop! I am Olivander, maker of wands. How may I help you?" He says with a grand sweep of his arm.
I swallowed and said, "I-I'm here f-for my wand, Mr. O-Olivander."
"Ah, of course! I should've known! Right this way, I've got a vast selection here." He leads me to a shelf and I glance behind my shoulder to see my family slowly making their way in. Olivander climbs a ladder and picks a black box from the top shelf.
"Try this one out. Hawthorne, a good 11 inches, dragon heartstring. Very nice." He tells me, extracting the wand from the box and delicately placing it in my hand. I hold, clutched in my hand like I was holding a pathetic twig.
"Well, go on, give it a flick!" He urges and I do. The papers on his desk flew up in a flurry.
Tuny cries, "God, Lily! Control yourself! Just because you're a freak doesn't mean you can blow things up for no reason!" She waves her hands above her head, trying to settle the papers, but only making them fly even more.
"Sorry! Mr. Olivander, surely you have another wand for me." I ask
He was in shock from Petunia's offensive comments and reassures me, "Of course, of course! Plenty more!" He lifts a brown box and hands me the wand, carefully, "Willow, 10 ¾ inches, unicorn hair. Swishy, excellent for charmwork."
I grip it tightly and take a deep breath and wave it in the air, expecting another disaster. Instead, a beautiful shower of blue, green, and yellow sparks erupted from the tip. I smiled and laughed as the last of the sparks disappeared in the air. Even Tuny was too enchanted by the show to say a snide remark of some sort. Mum and Dad exploded into applause and I playfully bowed for them. Olivander joined in the applause. I smiled widely and thanked them.
"How much is this going to cost, Mr. Olivander?" Dad asks, pulling out the wizard money pouch.
"Yes, let's see… 8 galleons."
Dad counted out 8 of the shiny gold coins and handed them to Olivander "There you go, my good man. Have a nice day!"
"And a very nice day to you, sir!" Olivander replies.
As we walk out I admired the wand, turning it over in my fingers. It had a polished wood surface and I knew that there was a strand of unicorn hair in the center of the wand. I smiled the whole day. And when we got my owl, Rivage (French for "river") I was bursting with joy! I practically jumped in my seat the way home. And soon I had run to Spinner's End, where Severus lived and showed him my wand. In turn, he showed me his brand new ebony wand with dragon heartstring as the core.
I fell asleep that night, my wand in its box, the lid lying next to it, my hand resting on my wand.
Ooh. I guess the ending was kind of abrupt, but in m defense I wrote that last part at 3 in the morning so you can't exactly blame me.
-Dr. Asian
