"Get up now or I'll tell your father!" shouted Violet Tayfor. Lily rolled over unwillingly, groaning. She let herself roll onto the floor before she remembered what day it was. June 30! Her heart leapt. She hurridley got dressed and raced down the stairs.
"What's your hurry?"
"I told you, I'm going shopping with Lola and her mum!" Lily snapped.
"Not today!" Violet reflected.
"But-but I've planned it out already! Mother!" Lily whined.
"That's just too bad! I know today is special for you, but I'm sure your older sister will appreciate it!"
"I don't care what Petunia wants! It's my birthday! She's already 13! She won't even want to come!" Lily wailed angrily. Today was Lily's 11th birthday, and she hadn't wanted to spend it on her family, but with her best friend, Lola.
"That's enough young lady! You're coming with us and not another word!" Lily stomped back up to her room and grabbed the phone, dialing Lola.
"Listen, I can't go shopping today," she began apologetically, "my mum won't let me out on my own."
"But isn't today your birthday? Unless I'm quite mistaken, you're supposed to do what you want on your birthday!" Lola said forcefully.
"I know, I know, it's not my fault! I wanted to go shopping, I really did! But noo, then she brings Petunia into this-"
"Who cares about your dumb sister?"
"I don't know! I'm furious! Now we'll probably go somewhere dreadful, like the zoo…"
"The zoo? But you're 11!"
"Yes! Oh no, my mum's knocking on the door…I'll see you on Monday at school, all right? G'bye!" Lily hung up the phone and opened her door.
"How about we let Petunia decide where we go?" Violet suggested.
"Mum! NO! I want to decide, as it's MY birthday! She'll pick somewhere stupid where I don't want to go!"
"Oh PLEASE, Lily, she will not!" Violet stormed off to Petunia's room. Lily screamed at the top of her lungs and slammed her door. Soon Violet knocked again.
"She wants to go to the zoo! All right?"
"NO IT IS NOT ALL RIGHT!!! I WANT TO GO SHOPPING!" Lily shouted. When Violet didn't answer, she added, "WITH LOLA!"
"I told you, you can't go with her! You're going to the zoo with us!" Violet's footstep's faded away. Lily let out another loud scream.
A half hour later, they were in the car on their way to the zoo. "So," her father, Nicolas, began, "excited?"
"No," Lily said spitefully.
"Yeah!" Petunia piped gleefully, shooting Lily an evil look. Nicolas looked satisfied nonetheless.
Violet and Nicolas seemed to enjoy the zoo more than either Petunia or Lily, and insisted on staying for hour upon boring hour. Even Petunia began letting her true boredom show.
Around 5 that evening, Lily and Petunia were both begging to go. "N-no! Aren't you interested in, er, boa constrictors?" Violet asked, as though she was trying more to convince herself.
"We've visited the Reptile House 4 times, seen the Dolphin Show 7 times, and gone to the Petting Zoo 9 times! I want to go home!" Petunia said exasperadley. "Yeah!" Lily agreed quickly. Violet looked unsurely at Nicolas.
"A-all right!" she stuttered. On the way home, they got caught in a huge traffic jam.
"Well, I guess we'll have to wait!" Violet said happily. Of all the things Petunia and Lily were expecting her to say, it wasn't anything positive.
"What are you hiding Mum?" Petunia asked.
"Why would I be hiding anything? Nevermind, don't even supply an answer, close the subject. How very rude of you!" Petunia cowered in shame, but Lily wasn't convinced.
"I believe we have a right to know! At least, I do! You've completely ruined my supposed-to-be-perfect day, and I want to know why!" Lily demanded. At first she thought Violet was going to yell, but saw that instead, she looked very uncomfortable. She pushed onward.
"I mean, why would someone want to stay at the zoo so very long? Not even Petunia or I wanted to stay so long! There just must be something at home you've been hiding!"
"You'll find out soon enough." Violet blinked and the traffic began to move fluidly. Lily looked curiously around, glanced at Petunia, who seemed not to notice, then at her father in the driver's seat, who was also seemingly oblivious. Did I just see what I thought I saw? Did my very own mum make all those cars go? Lily thought. She shook her head and turned her thoughts back to what awaited at home.
Lily was the first one through the door when they arrived back home. She rushed around, trying to find out what the surprise was. She found a big yellow envelope with emerald green writing on it on the table in the living room. She also found some small silver coins beside it.
"Lily!" Nicolas shouted in protest. But it was too late; she already had the envelope in her hands.
"Why does this have my name on it?" Nicolas sighed, walking over to her.
"Open it, if you want to know."
"Is this what you've been hiding all day?" Nicolas nodded, as Violet walked in. She gasped as she watched Lily open it.
The letter itself was written on a piece of parchment in the same color ink. Lily read through it and looked up at her mother.
"What is this?"
"An invitation to Hogwarts, Lily. It is the greatest oppurtunity of your life." Petunia looked thoroughly abashed.
"What is Hogwarts?" she asked apprehensively.
"A school for magic, for witches and wizards. Your father never went-" Nicolas looked down to the floor, "and neither will you Petunia."
"Why can't I go?"
"You aren't a witch dear. You just-aren't. I'm sorry." Petunia's eyes filled with tears. She ran up to her room before she spilled over in front of them all.
But Lily's face was beginning to reflect her sister's. "I have to leave? Go off to a new school that's far away to learn nonsense?"
"It's not nonsense! Magic is much better than living as a Muggle!"
"A what?"
"A Muggle-" Violet said, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world, "is a non-magic person. Your father and sister are both Muggles." Lily still looked just as outraged.
"I want stay here! With Lola! And my friends! I don't want to go to some stupid school!" Lily shouted, throwing down her letter. "I'm not replying!"
Violet fought the urge to scream and instead allowed her to storm up to her room.
After she heard the door slam, Violet went into the kitchen. Nicolas didn't follow. He was wondering why his daughter would want to pass up an oppurtunity he and her sister could never have.
Violet took out a piece of parchment from a cupboard above the microwave, and a very old but elegant Eagle feather quill. She sat down and began to rapidly write:
Dear Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore,
First off, allow me to ask how you are doing. Secondly, I want to apologize for writing this letter myself, when in fact, my daughter Lily should be the one doing so. We had waited for years for Petunia's letter to come, and when it never did, I for one, was heartbroken. Now Lily has received hers and is trying to pass up the chance to go to Hogwarts! I couldn't believe it!
I ask you to please not respond, and let me handle the situation with Lily after this is sent. I assure you that she WILL be on the Hogwarts Express this September First. I understand that normally this would not even be allowed, the parent responding for the student, but I beg you to permit it! I just know she'll do well! So, consider this her official reply and consent, instead of mine. Hope to see you again soon, Violet Tayfor
She set down the quill, reread the letter once, then glanced into the living room nervously. Nicolas still looked shocked, so she left him be and went out into the front yard. "Apparcio!" she whispered, and a small tawny owl appeared from nowhere.
"Take this to Hogwarts, you remember where that is, right?" she asked the owl, who flapped its wings in agitation. "Off you go then…" she tied the letter to its foot and let it go out into the night sky. Then she went back inside.
She grinned at Nicolas. "Well, that's that. I've sent her letter. She'll be going to Hogwarts." Nicolas looked disaproving.
"You know, she's supposed to give consent, not you." He chuckled regardless. "She's lucky. I hope she knows that."
Yes, Lily knew. But Lily didn't care. As soon as she had arrived in her room, she had called Lola. Lola didn't believe a word of it.
"Why would you be a witch? Witches come out on Halloween!" Lily, of course, agreed wholeheartedley.
"I know! And my mum was going on about how she got to go there, and I'm missing the oppurtunity of a lifetime-but I'm thinking it's all some big joke on my birthday! Whose ever heard of Hogwarts? And Petunia's part was well-played! She actually summoned what looked like real tears!" Lola laughed.
"It's probably some awful boarding school where you'll have to do push-ups whenever you're bad, and wear ugly uniforms with long skirts!" The idea seemed to leave poor Lily speechless.
"D'you really think so?"
"I know so!" Lola expected to hear laughter from Lily mix with her own, but stopped abruptly when none came.
"I'm only kidding you know, lighten up!"
"Then what do you think it really is?"
"How should I know? I've never heard of Pig-warts before-"
"It's Hogwarts!"
"Why are you getting so offensive? You don't even want to go!"
"Maybe I do!"
"You do?"
"Yeah!" Lily hung up the phone angrily. She sat for a moment, wondering what made her say that. Maybe she really did want to go. How could she go back on her word like that? She had been so convinced that she wanted to stay here with Lola, she hadn't even considered the other option; the prospect of making new friends away from this plain old town.
She prowled uneasily down the stairs, her sister's tears echoing the entire way. This HAS to be real, why would Petunia cry like a little baby if it wasn't? she thought. She stopped when she saw her dad sitting in the living room motionless, staring at her letter.
"This isn't a joke Lily. This is serious. You have to go." She brushed past without comment, trying to find her mother. She was in the kitchen, sitting in a position much like her father's.
"Oh, hullo Lily. What's going on?" she asked, trying not to sound hopeful.
"I've just been on the phone with Lola," Lily began, "and she thought it was some big joke too. I don't know what made me do it, but somehow, I decided I wanted to go, while I was talking to her. I don't even think we're friends anymore."
"Can I still go? Or is it too late?" Violet could have exploded into tears.
"I'm, so, proud that you've made the right decision!" she ran over and hugged Lily.
"Well, it's not too late, but I've already sent a letter for you. I knew you'd be convinced eventually, and I didn't want you to miss out. But here-" she shuffled through some cabinets, "your first piece of parchment!"
Lily picked it up, turned it over, and examind every angle of it. Then she took the quill her mother had offered and began to write her letter confirming her arrival that September.
Dear Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore,
My name is Lily Tayfor. My mother already sent you a letter confirming that I will be attending your school this September. I'm just writing so you are sure that I am. Even though I have friends here, I've decided I want to make friends there also. My friends here don't seem to believe in magic, but I do.
I will be delighted to meet you this year, and hope to, maybe, hear from you soon. If you've the time. Well, I must be going, thank you for your time.
Sincerely, Lily Tayfor
She set down the quill and reread the letter. "How do I send it?"
"Come here!" Violet said energetically, as though she'd just been given a huge present. She led her out front.
"Apparcio!" This time, a snowy owl came flying from the rooftop.
"An owl?" Lily asked, the same note of disbelief again surfacing.
"I've been raising a lot of them for when one of my children went to Hogwarts. You can have one."
"Have one? Mum, who needs an owl?"
So Violet explained the entire mail system to her. Soon her letter was flying to Hogwarts. "She's my fastest one. Her name's Cassandra. She's yours." Violet was glowing with pride. Lily smiled.
"Thanks, mum." She hugged her.
"Well, I've been very rude to Petunia tonight. I feel terrible! I need to go and, er, try to make her feel better. I'm so very glad you've, well, you know. Off to bed now," Violet said, pushing Lily back inside.
As Lily tried to sleep, she heard the voices right through her wall.
"You've told me about some school where you went when you were little, and you told me no one in my family would go! Why does she get to?" Petunia's whining voice nagged.
"She's a witch! She can't help it! She didn't even want to go, but decided to only because her friends here are no good!" Violet retorted.
"I hate Marjory! And I dislike Mary, Sarah, and Caroline! Why can't I be a witch too?"
"Because your father's a Muggle! There, I said it!" Violet sounded hurt.
"I'm sorry Petunia, I wish I could have given you the chance, but Lily got lucky."
From that day forward, Petunia and Lily never got along. Not that they did much before, but they began going out of their way to get eachother into trouble. Petunia hated Lily for being "the lucky one" in the family, and never forgave her for it.