Author's
Note: Just the usual. Thanks to all that reviewed. And
a special thanks to our griping Beta Reader (who is mad because we didn't thank
her in the first chapter)
Disclaimer:
Of course, we do not own any of the characters from the Harry Potter
books. And we would be lying if we said
we did. And so you have absolutely no
reason to sue us, we hope.
Chapter 3: Lily Evans
Lily Evans was a smart, pretty girl with long auburn
hair, and bright green eyes. She loved
to read and hated to hang out with her sister, unlike most kids her age.
Her sister, Petunia, was two years older then
her and had the exact same feelings for her sister as her sister did for her,
at least they did now.
See, Petunia hated anything unnatural and absolutely hated anyone who was abnormal. When they were little girls they used to love to play with each other, but that all changed when Lily got a strange letter delivered in an even stranger way.
*****
It was a warm summer day, on July 25, when the
Evans family was eating breakfast around the table as a family, as most
families did. Petunia was commenting on
the cute new boy that had moved next door when an owl had flown in the
window. The owl flew straight to Lily,
who quickly untied the note from around its leg.
Lily quickly read the letter that the owl had
delivered and showed it to her parents. Their parent quickly got excited and made remarks such as "Your
grandmother and grandfather were ones. We were hoping so much that one of you would carry on in their
footsteps." Then Lily pulled a
piece of paper out from the drawer and started to write something on it.
She was almost finished with her letter when she
suddenly looked up and said, "I
can go can't I?"
"Of course dear," their mother
replied. "Now we must make arrangements about going to London to get your
school supplies and see if your grandparents will assist us and show us where
every thing is."
Lily finished the letter, and tied it to the owl with the string that the original letter had come in. Then Lily ran out of the room, yelling something about telephoning their grandparents about the wonderful news.
Petunia picked up the discarded letter that lie
on the table and read:
HOGWARTS
SCHOOL
of WITCHCRAFT and
WIZARDRY
___________________
Headmaster:
Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First
Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,
Supreme Mugwump,
International Confed. of Wizards)
Dear Ms. Evans
We
are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of
Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find
enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term
begins on September 1. We await your
owl by no later than July 31.
Yours
sincerely,
Minerva
McGonagall
Minerva
McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress
Petunia felt as if her sister had just been torn
away from here. She would be gone for
all of the school year and she would change.
She would no longer be that adorable sister that
she could talk into doing anything she wanted to do, but she would be different
then almost everybody else. And
different was bad.
*****
Now it was September 1st. They had gone to Diagon Alley, leaving
Petunia at home with her friends. It
wasn't as if she had wanted to come but they hadn't even consulted her. Lily
and her were not talking at all. Giving
their parents a strange headache from the quietness, but Petunia thought that
they had deserved it.
Nowadays, it was always Lily this, or Lily
that. Nobody cared about Petunia now,
all they cared about Lily. Petunia was
sick and tired of it and she wasn't going to put up with it anymore.
Lily was still upstairs getting ready while everybody
else in her family was eating breakfast. She had memorized as much as she could out of her textbooks, so she
wouldn't be behind in anything. She was
also very worried about the first day. She had always been worried about the first day of school, but this year
was different. Lily now wouldn't have
Petunia to show her around or know anyone at all that would be going to
school. For these reasons, and many
more, she was getting very worried.
Petunia was very irritated that morning at breakfast. She had been woken up from her precious
sleep so they could take precious Lily to the train station. Yet Lily wasn't even down here eating breakfast
with them. Petunia finally couldn't
stand it anymore. She excused herself
from the table and walked quickly to Lily's bedroom.
"Are you ready yet?" Petunia asked in an irritated voice, as she
watched Lily close her trunk.
Lily looked up startled from where she was
standing over her trunk. She wondered
what had come over her sister to actually talk to her. Petunia hadn't said a word to Lily since the
letter from Hogwarts had come.
Am I ready? Lily asked herself. Knowing that
she would never be ready if she just stood there and wondered if she was ready
or not. "Yes, I am. Will you help me carry my trunk out to the
car?" Lily asked Petunia, hoping
with all her might that Petunia's nice streak might stay for a while.
"What do you think I am? Your
slave?" Petunia questioned her,
before turning around.
As she turned around she heard Lily say
"Gosh what is with you? You
haven't been nice since I got my letter."
Petunia practically exploded at these
statements. "What is with me? You're the freak around here. I
can't believe you actually believe in that stuff. You haven't talked to me since you got the letter either you
know." Petunia yelled at her
sister.
From the kitchen, the parents heard this. Tamara Evans stood up to go consult her
daughters, but her husband, Paul, grabbed her arm and mouthed 'let them take
care of this.' Tamara gave Paul a
doubtful look but sat back down and continued to listen to their daughters'
conversation that could be heard from the other side of the house.
"I HAVE TO TRIED TO TALK TO YOU." Lily
yelled back at her sister. "DOES
THIS ALL HAVE TO DO WITH ME BEING A WITCH?"
Petunia stared at her sister disbelieving. She thought her sister knew her well enough
to know that she hated anything abnormal. "OF COURSE IT HAS TO DO WITH YOU BEING A WITCH! WHAT ELSE WOULD IT HAVE TO DO WITH? I HAVE BEEN YOUR FRIEND FOREVER AND THE
MINUTE THIS LETTER COMES ALONG YOU DROP ME LIKE AN OLD TOY!"
Lily couldn't believe her sister was being so
thick. She had tried to be nice to
Petunia but all the response she had gotten back from her was silence. It disturbed Lily to not be able to talk to
her sister. Their whole life they had
shared every secret, and every moment possible. How could she believe that she, Lily, didn't want to be her
friend anymore, It was down right ridiculous. "FINE IF THAT IS THE WAY YOU WANT IT TO BE, THAT IS JUST FINE WITH
ME." Lily knew that her temper was
getting the better of her when she had said it and that she shouldn't have said
it but Petunia had made her mad, and she was going to pay.
"FINE!" Petunia yelled back before turning around and running to her
bedroom. Away from the place in which
the fight with her beloved sister had taken place. Petunia let her self fall onto the bed as she muttered, "I
hate you," over and over under her breath.
*****
Lily headed downstairs, dragging her heavy trunk
behind her. It took all her might to
not fall down the stairs as she carried her trunk down them. She was so upset with her and Petunia's
argument that she didn't say much while she ate. Right before it was time to go, as her dad loaded up her trunk,
Lily walked up to Petunia's room and softly knocked on the door.
"GO AWAY!" Was Petunia's cry.
It broke Lily's heart to not say good-bye to her
only sibling before she left for school. Lily softly muttered a "Goodbye Petunia. I'm sorry." Before she left to go out to the car.
Petunia listened to her sister's words from
where she laid on her bed. The words
raced through her brain and she heard them over and over. She carefully listened to the car drive out
of the driveway, trying to block Lily's words out of her head. But it didn't
work and she heard them over and over as she cried herself to sleep.
*****
As the reached Kings Cross Station, Lily felt
her anger and sorrow ebb away as she became increasingly nervous at the thought
of what laid ahead of her. She quickly
bid her parents good-bye kissed them both on the cheeks, and ran through the
barrier between platform 9 and 10. Her
grandparents had explained this to her when they had taken her to London.
When she got onto Platform 9 3/4. She watched in amazement at the sight that
beheld her eyes.