* (A/N) * Okay folks this is the story I have been laboring to make perfect. (Unfortunately I failed miserably) I do hope that you enjoy this. I do hope that you do, however: sighs dramatically:: I am GREATLY lacking in talent, so… Anyhow I'm sorry this isn't longer, ::cowers:: I promise the next will be better, after all the first chapter is always the worst right? Another thing When a word/ words are bordered by * it means they are to be bold. And Constructive reviews are nice!
Lily Evans woke up one Monday morning to find a large tawny owl perched on her nightstand. She rolled over and went back to sleep. After about 30 more minutes of dozing Lily opened her eyes to find herself being stared at by large golden eyes. She shrieked and dove beneath her covers. Then again she peeped out and saw whatever it was gone or so she though. A flash of brown in the corner of her eye caught her attention. Slowly as not to startle it she raised herself up on one elbow and looked it over. The Large orange eyes were framed with dark brown feathers the wings were the same brown but flecked here and there with black bars. The Chest was a lighter brown and looked soft to the touch. The cruelly hooked beak and massive talons completed it. But there tied to one leg was a roll of what? Parchment? But no one used parchment these days! And wait… TIED TO AN OWL'S LEG???!!! Slowly Lily reached over toward it wary of the large talons. The owl transferred its self onto her wrist from the nightstand and balanced on one talon while holding up the parchment for Lily to take. She took it and unrolled it out dropped another parchment and a scarlet slip of paper…
Dear Miss Evans,
I am pleased to inform you that you have been selected to come to Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The term starts on September 1st. Please come on said date to Kings Cross Station there you board the Hogwarts Express on platform 9 ¾. To get your school things (The List is enclosed) you must go to Downtown London from there look for a pub going by the name of The Leaky Cauldron talk to the Bartender there he will show you the way. Please send your reply with the Owl by July 31st.
Yours Sincerely,
Minevera McGonnagal Deputy Headmistress
Lily read it again and re-read it. The words seemed to swim in front of her eyes. A rather warm, bubbly feeling rose in her stomach and she yelled, "MUM, DAD! GUESS WHAT?"
Lily's parents were downstairs in the sitting room drinking tea when Lily rushed in with an owl on her wrist and jumped on the sofa, dancing up and down its length waving the parchment with a huge grin plastered to her face. Lily's parents looked at each other and then back to Lily whose excitement and happiness seemed to crackle in the air. Slowly her dad spoke, "Lily," she looked over at him. "What do you have in your hand? And why is there an owl on your wrist?"
Suddenly Lily looked wary and rather hesitantly spoke "It's a letter from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The owl is what brought it to me!"
Her parents blinked, for a moment neither spoke. Then, "Lily are you all right?" Her mother had risen from the chair and made her way to Lily, and placed a cool hand on Lily's forehead. "Your not feverish or anything?"
"Mum I am fine! This is a letter from Hogwarts, and I HAVE MAGIC!"
"Lily?" Lily threw a look at her father feeling a comforting buzz of anger below her cheekbones.
"What?" Lily managed with much will power to keep her voice even and polite.
"Lily," her father continued. "There is NO SUCH THING AS MAGIC!"
"My dear ignorant father," Lily drew herself up, her green eyes flashing, "in my HAND I hold the proof that magic does indeed exist and there is a school, which teaches students how to control their talents. As I have said before that school goes by the name of Hogwarts, the full name being, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Now do you or do you not believe me?"
Her mum and dad seemed to be a bit, well shocked. This was the first time their daughter had been anything but sweet, charming and generally docile. "I believe you darling, could you please read us the letter?" her mum had cut off her fathers blistering reprimand.
"Sure mum!"
Lily paid close attention to her parents, more at her father's reaction. They seemed to be taking the contents rather well considering.
"Lily I think your room needs to be tidied please go do it and before you leave could you please leave the letter for me?"
"Sure mum!" She gave the letter to her mum and kissed her as well as her father before she swept up the stairs to begin tiding her room.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Both parents looked intently at the crumpled piece of parchment before them. Slowly her father reached forward and touched it, the second contact was made he pulled back and examined his hand.
"Is it all right John?" the sarcastic amusement very present in her mum's voice.
"Its, Its, FINE!" his face turned red as he blustered.
Her mother soothed her husband and spoke, "Well John? What do you think? Should we let Lily attend this Hogwarts?"
"I don't know Violet. She is a witch, with MAGIC for crying out loud. I didn't believe in magic, no sane man does but this seems to prove me wrong, WRONG. I just don't know Vio, I really don't."
Lily's mum spoke carefully, "I remember when as a little girl, I pretended to be a witch. My sister would occasionally join me in my imaginary games. We would fly on broomsticks, wave our magic wands and dance with the fae on moonlit nights. It was great fun and I believe that if Lily truly has magic and wishes to go, we shouldn't hold her back."
"I think your right Vio. She needs to grow up, I suppose I still wish she was the ickle five year old who begged me to twirl her around my head."
"I know John, but all kids grow up eventually."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"REALLY? I CAN GO?" Lily shrieked.
"Yes darling, your mum and I have talked it over and we both agree, that you can go to this * Hogwarts *. But we need to send this off to the school and then we need to eat breakfast."
"Going? Going where?" the snotty voice of Lily's older sister Petunia asked.
Lily turned to answer and ran into her older sister. Petunia was about 14, snotty, stuck up with frizzy blonde hair, flat blue eyes and a very long neck. Lily smothered a giggle at the caked makeup that adorned that rather unattractive face.
"Your sister has been accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She is a witch!"
Lily watched bemused at the expressions, which flitted across Petunia's face. First shock, which melted into anger and jealousy which finally, faded into raw fury all melded over her horseish features.
"She, no IT is a freak, get the word right mum, its FREAK, I am in NO WAY SHAPE OR FORM related t-t-to that little FREAK!" Petunia had started out speaking softly and had slowly gotten louder and louder until Lily had to cover her ears.
Petunia then raced to her bedroom and locked the door before her parents had time to recover from the shock she had given them. Lily's face had grown very still, she had secretly hoped that Petunia would have been proud of her. She had always looked up to her big sister even though Petunia seemed to hate her. The fact that Lily was MUCH prettier than Petunia with her long bright auburn hair, creamy complexion, pink full lips and huge green eyes had never crossed Lily's head. She was unconscious of the way she walked and talked. For those reasons as shallow as they were, Petunia was jealous of Lily. She was also jealous of how Lily made everyone around her love her. Tears welled up in Lily's eyes and her mum came over and put her arms around her,
"Shh it's all right my dearest. Petunia was just… well shocked. She will calm down eventually. Now," she said straightening up "the letter said something about a list do you know where it might be? Daddy and I need to see what our Tiger Lily needs for her school!"
Lily laughed through her tears and ran up to her room to get the list. On the way she met Petunia. "You must think your pretty special, but I know what you truly are a FREAK and I will never let you forget that. What if someone I know finds out just what you are? My life will be ruined! That had better not happen LILLIAN and if it does Lord help you!"
"Do NOT call me LILIAN! You know very well that is NOT my name! Furthermore what can you do to me Petty? What can you do to the 'Freak', the 'freak' who could just RUIN anything and everything for you? Well Petty? What can you do to me, a witch?" the air around Lily sparkled and lighting danced in her copper, slightly wavy hair.
Petunia shrieked and quickly stumbled back into the bathroom, shut and locked the door. Retching sounds were clearly coming from within.
Lily ran into her bedroom and threw herself onto the bed, trembling violently. How could Petunia, her own sister do this to her. Lily supposed that it was as much her fault as Petty's. Her famous 'Redheaded temper' had just blown up and with it her magic had come alive, magic that could HURT people. Sobs racked her slender shoulders, and Lily buried her face into the down pillow. About an hour later she woke up suddenly remembering why she had come up in the first place. About three inches from her head lay the parchment and the slip of colored paper.
When she got back down stairs her mum had made pancakes for breakfast. "Oh mum! You made my favorite!"
"Yes dear I know, now tell me what do we need to buy for the Hogwarts?"
Lily however was already consuming large quantities of pancake and her mouth was full. Her mother looked over and sighed.
"Well then I will read, seeing as how you are temporarily busy."
At this statement Lily burst out into giggles.
Violet gave a rather pointed look at her daughter. Which failed to stop the giggles, rather they seemed to fuel them. Secretly she smiled wishing that Lily would always laugh like that, carefree and innocent. "Ahem, as I was saying…
First Year Students will require:
Three sets of plain black work robes
One pair of Dragon Hide Gloves
One plain pointed hat for day wear
And the following set of books:
'The Standard Book of Spells' by Miranda Goshawk
'A Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi' by Phyllida Spore
'A History of Magic' by Bathilda Bagshot
'Magical Theory' by Adalbert Waffling
'A Beginners Guide to Transfiguration' by Emeric Switch
'Magical Drafts and Potions' by Arsenius Jigger
And Also:
'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' by Newt Scamander
'The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self Protection' by Trimble
All Students must be equipped with:
One Wand
One standard size 2 pewter cauldron
And may bring, if they so desire; a Cat, Toad or an Owl.
Well Lily darling that's quite a list! But I think we can manage. With a little careful planning, and some luck!"
Quite suddenly Lily felt horrible, she knew her parents were always a bit strapped for cash and now she was causing more cash flow problems. Her mum saw her distress and immediately reassured her daughter. "Don't worry Lily we will manage. We can do without a little for you my darling flower."
Lily starting crying "I'm sorry mum; I don't mean to be a bother. B-but I really want to go! I-I have always wished that something would happen. I used to think t-that they were just fantasies that nothing would ever happen. And now… well everything is different. I'm a witch. I can do magic!"
"Lily, it's okay! There is nothing to be sorry about! We will be just fine, and I'll be damned if you don't go looking like the lily we named you after, practically perfect in every way!"
Lily was rather touched, after all it wasn't often that your parents told you that they thought you were perfect. "Oh mum I am far from perfect but thank you anyway."
Lily threw her arms around her mum in a tight hug. Her mum held her daughter tightly. "So when do you want to go to this Leaky Cauldron place and get your school things?" her mum asked.
Lily hesitated, and then spoke, "How about next week? After all Daddy's birthday is the 20th and it wouldn't be fair to go before he celebrated his birthday don't you think?"
"I think that, that is a wonderful plan! We will go on the 21st then! And," she added with a wink "Your daddy just received a pay boost so perchance we can splurge a bit!"
"Mummy!" Lily giggled "That's wicked. I think it should be fun!"
"All right it's settled then. We shall go find the Leaky Couldren and get your school supplies!"
Unknown to either of them Petunia was crouching on the stairs listening. "So perfect little Lily gets to go to a freak school and get freak things. A tear streaked down her face it hit the wooden floor and disappeared. That tear was the only time Petunia ever cried over Lily's luck. From that point on she hid her jealousy behind a mask one that never broke. She Petunia Evans would NEVER let the Freak know, know that she was envious."
*(A/N)* Please review and tell me what you think. 5 (good) reviews and I will continue the story. Flamers will be given 5 detentions with Argus Filch do do with you as he pleases.
Lily Evans woke up one Monday morning to find a large tawny owl perched on her nightstand. She rolled over and went back to sleep. After about 30 more minutes of dozing Lily opened her eyes to find herself being stared at by large golden eyes. She shrieked and dove beneath her covers. Then again she peeped out and saw whatever it was gone or so she though. A flash of brown in the corner of her eye caught her attention. Slowly as not to startle it she raised herself up on one elbow and looked it over. The Large orange eyes were framed with dark brown feathers the wings were the same brown but flecked here and there with black bars. The Chest was a lighter brown and looked soft to the touch. The cruelly hooked beak and massive talons completed it. But there tied to one leg was a roll of what? Parchment? But no one used parchment these days! And wait… TIED TO AN OWL'S LEG???!!! Slowly Lily reached over toward it wary of the large talons. The owl transferred its self onto her wrist from the nightstand and balanced on one talon while holding up the parchment for Lily to take. She took it and unrolled it out dropped another parchment and a scarlet slip of paper…
Dear Miss Evans,
I am pleased to inform you that you have been selected to come to Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The term starts on September 1st. Please come on said date to Kings Cross Station there you board the Hogwarts Express on platform 9 ¾. To get your school things (The List is enclosed) you must go to Downtown London from there look for a pub going by the name of The Leaky Cauldron talk to the Bartender there he will show you the way. Please send your reply with the Owl by July 31st.
Yours Sincerely,
Minevera McGonnagal Deputy Headmistress
Lily read it again and re-read it. The words seemed to swim in front of her eyes. A rather warm, bubbly feeling rose in her stomach and she yelled, "MUM, DAD! GUESS WHAT?"
Lily's parents were downstairs in the sitting room drinking tea when Lily rushed in with an owl on her wrist and jumped on the sofa, dancing up and down its length waving the parchment with a huge grin plastered to her face. Lily's parents looked at each other and then back to Lily whose excitement and happiness seemed to crackle in the air. Slowly her dad spoke, "Lily," she looked over at him. "What do you have in your hand? And why is there an owl on your wrist?"
Suddenly Lily looked wary and rather hesitantly spoke "It's a letter from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The owl is what brought it to me!"
Her parents blinked, for a moment neither spoke. Then, "Lily are you all right?" Her mother had risen from the chair and made her way to Lily, and placed a cool hand on Lily's forehead. "Your not feverish or anything?"
"Mum I am fine! This is a letter from Hogwarts, and I HAVE MAGIC!"
"Lily?" Lily threw a look at her father feeling a comforting buzz of anger below her cheekbones.
"What?" Lily managed with much will power to keep her voice even and polite.
"Lily," her father continued. "There is NO SUCH THING AS MAGIC!"
"My dear ignorant father," Lily drew herself up, her green eyes flashing, "in my HAND I hold the proof that magic does indeed exist and there is a school, which teaches students how to control their talents. As I have said before that school goes by the name of Hogwarts, the full name being, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Now do you or do you not believe me?"
Her mum and dad seemed to be a bit, well shocked. This was the first time their daughter had been anything but sweet, charming and generally docile. "I believe you darling, could you please read us the letter?" her mum had cut off her fathers blistering reprimand.
"Sure mum!"
Lily paid close attention to her parents, more at her father's reaction. They seemed to be taking the contents rather well considering.
"Lily I think your room needs to be tidied please go do it and before you leave could you please leave the letter for me?"
"Sure mum!" She gave the letter to her mum and kissed her as well as her father before she swept up the stairs to begin tiding her room.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Both parents looked intently at the crumpled piece of parchment before them. Slowly her father reached forward and touched it, the second contact was made he pulled back and examined his hand.
"Is it all right John?" the sarcastic amusement very present in her mum's voice.
"Its, Its, FINE!" his face turned red as he blustered.
Her mother soothed her husband and spoke, "Well John? What do you think? Should we let Lily attend this Hogwarts?"
"I don't know Violet. She is a witch, with MAGIC for crying out loud. I didn't believe in magic, no sane man does but this seems to prove me wrong, WRONG. I just don't know Vio, I really don't."
Lily's mum spoke carefully, "I remember when as a little girl, I pretended to be a witch. My sister would occasionally join me in my imaginary games. We would fly on broomsticks, wave our magic wands and dance with the fae on moonlit nights. It was great fun and I believe that if Lily truly has magic and wishes to go, we shouldn't hold her back."
"I think your right Vio. She needs to grow up, I suppose I still wish she was the ickle five year old who begged me to twirl her around my head."
"I know John, but all kids grow up eventually."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"REALLY? I CAN GO?" Lily shrieked.
"Yes darling, your mum and I have talked it over and we both agree, that you can go to this * Hogwarts *. But we need to send this off to the school and then we need to eat breakfast."
"Going? Going where?" the snotty voice of Lily's older sister Petunia asked.
Lily turned to answer and ran into her older sister. Petunia was about 14, snotty, stuck up with frizzy blonde hair, flat blue eyes and a very long neck. Lily smothered a giggle at the caked makeup that adorned that rather unattractive face.
"Your sister has been accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She is a witch!"
Lily watched bemused at the expressions, which flitted across Petunia's face. First shock, which melted into anger and jealousy which finally, faded into raw fury all melded over her horseish features.
"She, no IT is a freak, get the word right mum, its FREAK, I am in NO WAY SHAPE OR FORM related t-t-to that little FREAK!" Petunia had started out speaking softly and had slowly gotten louder and louder until Lily had to cover her ears.
Petunia then raced to her bedroom and locked the door before her parents had time to recover from the shock she had given them. Lily's face had grown very still, she had secretly hoped that Petunia would have been proud of her. She had always looked up to her big sister even though Petunia seemed to hate her. The fact that Lily was MUCH prettier than Petunia with her long bright auburn hair, creamy complexion, pink full lips and huge green eyes had never crossed Lily's head. She was unconscious of the way she walked and talked. For those reasons as shallow as they were, Petunia was jealous of Lily. She was also jealous of how Lily made everyone around her love her. Tears welled up in Lily's eyes and her mum came over and put her arms around her,
"Shh it's all right my dearest. Petunia was just… well shocked. She will calm down eventually. Now," she said straightening up "the letter said something about a list do you know where it might be? Daddy and I need to see what our Tiger Lily needs for her school!"
Lily laughed through her tears and ran up to her room to get the list. On the way she met Petunia. "You must think your pretty special, but I know what you truly are a FREAK and I will never let you forget that. What if someone I know finds out just what you are? My life will be ruined! That had better not happen LILLIAN and if it does Lord help you!"
"Do NOT call me LILIAN! You know very well that is NOT my name! Furthermore what can you do to me Petty? What can you do to the 'Freak', the 'freak' who could just RUIN anything and everything for you? Well Petty? What can you do to me, a witch?" the air around Lily sparkled and lighting danced in her copper, slightly wavy hair.
Petunia shrieked and quickly stumbled back into the bathroom, shut and locked the door. Retching sounds were clearly coming from within.
Lily ran into her bedroom and threw herself onto the bed, trembling violently. How could Petunia, her own sister do this to her. Lily supposed that it was as much her fault as Petty's. Her famous 'Redheaded temper' had just blown up and with it her magic had come alive, magic that could HURT people. Sobs racked her slender shoulders, and Lily buried her face into the down pillow. About an hour later she woke up suddenly remembering why she had come up in the first place. About three inches from her head lay the parchment and the slip of colored paper.
When she got back down stairs her mum had made pancakes for breakfast. "Oh mum! You made my favorite!"
"Yes dear I know, now tell me what do we need to buy for the Hogwarts?"
Lily however was already consuming large quantities of pancake and her mouth was full. Her mother looked over and sighed.
"Well then I will read, seeing as how you are temporarily busy."
At this statement Lily burst out into giggles.
Violet gave a rather pointed look at her daughter. Which failed to stop the giggles, rather they seemed to fuel them. Secretly she smiled wishing that Lily would always laugh like that, carefree and innocent. "Ahem, as I was saying…
First Year Students will require:
Three sets of plain black work robes
One pair of Dragon Hide Gloves
One plain pointed hat for day wear
And the following set of books:
'The Standard Book of Spells' by Miranda Goshawk
'A Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi' by Phyllida Spore
'A History of Magic' by Bathilda Bagshot
'Magical Theory' by Adalbert Waffling
'A Beginners Guide to Transfiguration' by Emeric Switch
'Magical Drafts and Potions' by Arsenius Jigger
And Also:
'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' by Newt Scamander
'The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self Protection' by Trimble
All Students must be equipped with:
One Wand
One standard size 2 pewter cauldron
And may bring, if they so desire; a Cat, Toad or an Owl.
Well Lily darling that's quite a list! But I think we can manage. With a little careful planning, and some luck!"
Quite suddenly Lily felt horrible, she knew her parents were always a bit strapped for cash and now she was causing more cash flow problems. Her mum saw her distress and immediately reassured her daughter. "Don't worry Lily we will manage. We can do without a little for you my darling flower."
Lily starting crying "I'm sorry mum; I don't mean to be a bother. B-but I really want to go! I-I have always wished that something would happen. I used to think t-that they were just fantasies that nothing would ever happen. And now… well everything is different. I'm a witch. I can do magic!"
"Lily, it's okay! There is nothing to be sorry about! We will be just fine, and I'll be damned if you don't go looking like the lily we named you after, practically perfect in every way!"
Lily was rather touched, after all it wasn't often that your parents told you that they thought you were perfect. "Oh mum I am far from perfect but thank you anyway."
Lily threw her arms around her mum in a tight hug. Her mum held her daughter tightly. "So when do you want to go to this Leaky Cauldron place and get your school things?" her mum asked.
Lily hesitated, and then spoke, "How about next week? After all Daddy's birthday is the 20th and it wouldn't be fair to go before he celebrated his birthday don't you think?"
"I think that, that is a wonderful plan! We will go on the 21st then! And," she added with a wink "Your daddy just received a pay boost so perchance we can splurge a bit!"
"Mummy!" Lily giggled "That's wicked. I think it should be fun!"
"All right it's settled then. We shall go find the Leaky Couldren and get your school supplies!"
Unknown to either of them Petunia was crouching on the stairs listening. "So perfect little Lily gets to go to a freak school and get freak things. A tear streaked down her face it hit the wooden floor and disappeared. That tear was the only time Petunia ever cried over Lily's luck. From that point on she hid her jealousy behind a mask one that never broke. She Petunia Evans would NEVER let the Freak know, know that she was envious."
*(A/N)* Please review and tell me what you think. 5 (good) reviews and I will continue the story. Flamers will be given 5 detentions with Argus Filch do do with you as he pleases.
