25 June 1969 – 14:00 (Wednesday)
Dear Diary,
It feels strange to have time during the day to write. Well, as you know, my punishment has finished and I have graduated from primary.
Tunia is still not talking to me. Actually I should say that Tunia is not talking to me unless she has to. She will talk to me if Mum and Dad tell her to. At first I was rather relieved as that meant that she wasn't calling me names but now it is getting rather lonely. At least before she would sometimes be nice to me. Now she just pretends as if any chair that I'm sitting in is empty. She use to acknowledge my presence but now she just looks past me.
Why does she hate me so much? I love her. She's my sister. I'll always love her. Why can't that be enough for her to love me too? I realize that sometimes I'm not as nice as I could be but I do try. I just wish she would see that.
I've got to go. Mum is calling. She says that Emily has called for me.
Lily
Marie Evans
30 June 1969 – 20:00 (Monday)
Dear Diary,
It's the last day of June. We go to London in two days. I wonder who our guide will be. It is someone that we know. Someone who went to Hogwarts when they were my age. Well that could be anyone, couldn't it?
Do you want to know who I think it is? I think that it is Widow England. She seems like the type. She hardly ever comes out of her house and always seems to be wearing strange clothes. Similar to what the professor wore when he came by. I don't suppose I mentioned that did I? He was wearing what looked like a bathrobe and had on a cloak. Strange isn't it? But he said that everyone in the wizarding world dresses like that.
Widow England also has a lot of cats and birds are always flying towards her house. I've even seen some owls. And the professor said that they use owls for communicating. Owls are to wizards as phones are to muggles.
The word muggles still makes me giggle. It sounds so silly.
I've just had a thought. The guide could also be John. He use to take care of Tunia and me when we were younger. Then he went off to a boarding school in Scotland. He has graduated by now but has a high end job in London. His parents say that he works for the Ministry.
I think that that is all I can think of. I don't know of anyone else who it could be. Though it could actually be anyone. I don't think I will manage to wait until Wednesday. I want to know who it is now. I just know I will be thinking on this all night. There are just so many possibilities. I could fill you up with just half of them. Which means it would probably be better if I stopped writing or else I may end up filling you before I even get to secondary school.
Lily
Marie Evans
2 July 1969 – 21:30 (Wednesday)
Dear Diary,
Today we went to London to buy my school supplies. You will never guess who our guide was. It was Mr.Walker. He went to Hogwarts when he was my age and agreed to accompany us. He has been busy telling me all about the Magic world. Did you know that they have a sport that is played on broomsticks? Its called Quidditch. I hope I don't have to play. I hope I don't have to learn how to fly either. I'm terrified of heights.
I should probably go back to the beginning of the day and start to explain what occurred. Otherwise you will just get confused and wonder in which order things happened. So I will do what someone great once told someone else to do. "Start at the beginning and when you get to the end stop..." I wish I knew who said that. I just know I'm going to be thinking on it all night now, and I will wake up at around 3am and say this person said that. I do that all the time. It seems I do my best thinking when I'm asleep.
Well today started perfectly. Mum made me blueberry pancakes and let me have a cup of tea because it was a big day. We were planning on leaving around 9 so that we could get a full day of shopping done. Our guide was to arrive at around half 8. At 8:15, Mr.Walker showed up. Well, we didn't realize that he was the guide and Mum asked him "To what do we owe this pleasure?" Which is Mum's way of saying "what are you doing here?" Mr.Walker's reply was that he was there to help me get my schoolbooks. Well, you can just imagine our surprise. I didn't even guess that it would be Mr.Walker. I am really pleased that it was though. Widow England is not the most fun person to spend time with. She keeps on going on about her cats. Mum just says that she is lonely so it is good of people to spend time with her. I just think that she's not all there. Though I don't suppose that is a very Christian thought to have, is it?
After we got over the shock of Mr.Walker being our guide, Mum and Dad invited him in. I had so many questions for him, but Mum told me to let him be as we had all day. He asked for the list of school supplies so that he might know which shops we would need to go to. Dad passed it over to him and Mr.Walker took one look and started to laugh. Apparently the list hasn't changed since he went to school.
We took the train into London but Mr.Walker said that in the coming years I should feel free to go over to his house to "floo". I didn't know what he meant so I asked. Apparently witches and wizards use floo powder to travel. It is a connection that goes through the fireplace. You need to stand in the fireplace, shout where you want to go and through down the floo powder. At least, that's what I understand you are suppose to do. And I am sure that it is called floo as I asked Mr.Walker on the spelling and wrote it down. That is what you are suppose to do when you come across new words. It helps you to remember them.
When we got to London, we used the Underground or as Londoners call it the "tube". We got off at Bank station, that's on the Circle, Metropolitan, and Northern Lines. We used the Northern Line to get there. Dad showed us where he worked. Then we walked for a bit until we came across a pub called the Leaky Cauldron. Mum and Dad had trouble seeing it but Mr.Walker and I noticed it almost straight away.
We went through the pub and Mr.Walker greeted the barman who looked friendly. His name was either Tom or John. Then we went out back and Mr.Walker took out his wand and tapped the wall several times. And you will never guess what happened then. The wall seemed to melt away and there was this street filled with magic and people dressed in robes and it was so wonderful. I wish you could have seen it. My eyes nearly popped out of my head.
Mr.Walker led us to the wizarding bank called Gringotts. I wrote down the name. I also wrote down the poem which was on the inside of the door. I think that it is rather interesting. I write it in here so that you might read it.
Enter,
stranger, but take heed
Of what awaits the sin of greed
For
those who take, but do not earn,
Must pay most dearly in their
turn.
So if you seek beneath our floors
A treasure that was
never yours,
Thief, you have been warned, beware
Of finding
more than treasure there.
Isn't that interesting? And instead of human bank tellers, they have goblins. Mum was afraid of them so Dad had to get the money converted. Yes he had to get money converted because wizards do not use pound sterling. Instead they use knuts which are bronze, sickles which are silver, and galleons which are gold. One galleon equals 17 sickles and one sickle equals 29 knuts. I hope I can remember that. It might come in handy when I am at school.
After converting the money, we went down to the end of Diagon Alley so we could work our way back. The shop closest to the end that we needed was Ollivander's Wand Shop. Mr.Ollivander was very nice and he had this curious tape measure. He started off measuring my arm and my height but the tape measure continued to measure until Mr.Ollivander told it to stop. It was measuring my eyelids, ears, hair and all sorts of silly things. Then Mr.Ollivander started pulling out wand after wand and getting me to try them out. But before I could raise most of them he would snatch them away. The more wands we went through the happier he seemed. He mentioned that it is the wand that chooses the witch. In the end he found the wand for me. It is made of willow and is 10 and ¼ inches long. Mr.Ollivander told me that it will be good for Charms. If you will remember, I already mentioned that I would like Charms. It seems as if it was meant to be.
We then went to Madam Malkin's to get my robes. There was a boy there who seemed nice when I was talking to him but his mother told him not to speak with me and pulled him away. When I asked Mr.Walker about it later he said that some wizards don't like muggles. These people don't think that witches and wizards who have muggle parents should be allowed to go to Hogwarts. He said that the majority of people don't think that but there are still those few. Then he asked me if I remembered the talk we had in class about coloured people and segregation. I had and Mr.Walker said that it was very similar only instead of the difference being in the colour of our skin, the difference is all in the bloodlines.
To cheer me up Mr.Walker treated me to an ice cream while Mum and Dad paid for my robes. I just dont understand why anyone can be so mean when they dont even know me.
I finished up my ice cream and we went to get my books. I cant remember the name of the store and I didn't write it down. We bought several books not on the school list along with my schoolbooks. After they managed to drag me out of the bookstore, we passed a quidditch store and there was a group of boys looking through the window and talking about the newest broom. I think they called it a silver apple... no wait it was a silver arrow. Mr.Walker stopped to talk to one of the boys father a Mr. Potter and explained quidditch to me. Mr.Potters son, whose name was James, came over when he heard that I didn't know what quidditch was. He could not believe that muggles didn't play quidditch. According to James, quidditch is the best game in the world and everyone should be playing it. He is going into first year too. James was the one who told me that first years aren't allowed to bring their own brooms. Then he tried to convince me that they were changing the rule for him and he was going to bring a silver arrow. I didn't believe him. Mum said it was cute how he was "trying to impress me" but just I think that James is full of himself.
After that intriguing conversation about quidditch, we finished getting my school supplies. I got some bottles of colour changing ink which I think are marvelous. I will use them in you once I get to Hogwarts as Mum said I am not allowed to use my school supplies until then. I also got some nice quills made of ostrich feathers. Mum and I were using them to tickle each other in the shop. Mum also bought me some ordinary quills but I like the ostrich feather ones best.
We also got a very nice brass telescope which I have set up next to my window so I can see the stars. Mum and Dad also got me a cauldron, some glass phials, and a set of scales. I have already packed those items away. To get the ingredients for potions class we went into an apothecary. It was rather creepy. One of the jars on the counter had eyes in it and I swear they kept on winking at me.
We had something to eat at one of the cafes and then went shopping in muggle London. It still makes me giggle. It is a funny word. You have to admit that. It is almost as funny as when David said "discombobulous" last summer. He still hasn't told me what that means.
I had best go to bed. It is really late and I have written a lot. Sleep tight.
Lily
Marie Evans
12 July 1969 – 18:45 (Saturday)
Dear Diary,
I'm sorry I haven't written in a while. I have been busy reading my new schoolbooks and trying out some of the simpler spells. So far I have been able to levitate a quill and repair a broken tea cup. Though it did take a few tries before the tea cup was fully mended. I have also been able to make my wand light up like a torch. All you do is say lumos and when you are done you say nox to turn it off. So far all I have read is terribly interesting. Although I suppose that most of the first years will be coming from wizarding houses and will already know these things.
I am going to go back to my schoolbooks. I have so much to learn. I may not write for another few days.
Lily
Marie Evans
15 August 1969 – 21:00 (Friday)
Dear Diary,
I cannot believe it has been over a month since I've last written. Though, to tell the truth, not much has happened. I have been reading my schoolbooks everyday. I have finished The Standard Book Of Spells Grade 1 and A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration. I am currently working on Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them. I spent a few days at Emily's but I had to leave my schoolbooks at home as I didn't think her parents would allow them in their house.
I still find it hard to believe that in just two weeks I will be leaving for Hogwarts instead of going to Precious Lambs with David and Emily. I don't know what I'll do without them. I suppose that I will find new friends but it just won't be the same. I hope that I fit in at Hogwarts. Imagine if I don't make friends. That would be horrible. If everyone was like that woman in the robe shop? Mr.Walker said that not everyone was like that but he went to Hogwarts ages ago. Things change. They'll probably hate me there. Just like Tunia hates me.
Speaking of Tunia, today was her birthday. She had invited several of her friends from school over. They are here for a few more days. While they are here I am not allowed to have my schoolbooks outside of my room. Tunia doesn't want them to know that she has a "freak" for a sister. That means that I won't be able to practice any spells until I go to school. I will only be able to read through the books and I will only be able to do that in my room. I'm not even allowed to share any interesting pieces of information with my parents unless Tunia and her friends are out. I guess that I will survive this but it will be hard to keep it all a secret. All I want to do is learn more about the magical world and I know that Mum and Dad want to learn more about it as well. After all one of their daughters is a witch.
Tunia opened her presents at dinner today and I am very happy to say that she loved my present to her. She is always buying fashion magazines and so I bought her a years subscription to her favourite magazine, Glamour. I don't personally understand what she sees in fashion magazines. All of the women in them look as if they need a decent meal but Tunia looks up to them and I think she secretly wishes she looked like that.
I have to go. Tunia's friend Beatrice is pounding on the door telling me to keep down the noise. I never realized that writing was a noisy pastime. I guess you learn something new everyday.
Lily
Marie Evans
Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter world, Hogwarts, Lily, James, Siruis, Remus, Peter, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Flitwick, Hagrid, or any of the other characters that appear in the Harry Potter book series. I just borrow them, without asking but with all intentions of returning them at some point in time.
A/N- Thank you to everyone who reviewed! It really made my day... you all said such nice things. Almost made me blush as much as Dumbledore when Madam Pomfrey complimented his earmuffs. So shout outs to Toto's Girl and Mad Over Mooney who are very nice people. I hope you like this chapter and I put James and someone else in this chapter just for you.
