Chapter Two – Lily
"Lily Evans! Get your butt
down here right now! If you're not down here in ten
seconds mum, dad, and I are leaving without you!"
"Don't be
daft, Petunia! Mum and Dad wouldn't leave without me. They
are making a special trip to London just to bring me to platform nine and
three-quarters, so they wouldn't very well leave without me.
Plus, we aren't planning on leaving until 10:20," Lily yelled down the
stairs at her older sister, Petunia.
Petunia could be such an
idiot sometimes. She was just jealous that Lily was getting so much attention
about being a witch. Which was funny. Petunia had called Lily a witch (or
something along the lines of 'witch')
millions of times before and it had never bothered Petunia. But now that it was
true, and everyone was calling her one, Petunia was having a fit.
Lily heard Petunia groan at
the bottom of the stairs and then stomp off. Lily smiled slightly to herself
and then walked back into her room, checking to make sure she had everything
packed.
After checking she had
everything in her trunk…four times…Lily
looked at herself in the mirror, her bright green eyes were shinning because
she was so happy. Lily was very
excited. Because today was Wednesday, the day she was going to leave for
Hogwarts today. She was trying to decide
whether she should wear her robes or not. Deciding that she would look a little
strange to the muggles if she were wearing her black school robes, she changed
from her sweat pants and tank top that were her pajamas into Levies and a red
shirt that had the Nike sign on it.
Lily had long dark red hair
about down to her waist. It was very shiny and straight. She was a little short
for her age, but not a lot. She figured that she would catch up to everyone
else this year. Her eyes were a bright green. She was always told that her eyes
were her prettiest feature, and was never sure whether or not that was to be
considered a complement or not. She was a model student, always having the top
grades in all of her classes. The only class that she wasn't in
the top of was physical fitness. She wasn't very athletic. It wasn't
that she hadn't tried hard; it's just that no matter how
many books you read; it won't get you into better
shape.
Pulling her hair into a
loose ponytail, Lily grabbed three of her favorite books off of the blue
bookshelf and stuffed them into her already full trunk. Lily then picked up the
heavy trunk (although she could only just lift it) and made her way to the top
of the stairs. She then successfully toppled down the stairs, hitting her head
on her trunk and the wall several times, as well and hitting her knee on the hard
wood floor at the bottom of the stairs.
Hearing the noise her
family (all of whom had been sitting in the kitchen munching on crackers) ran
to the stairs. Her mum and dad were both on their knees, gathering up her
things and making sure that she was all right, in seconds. It took Petunia a
moment for the scene to sink into her thick skull, but when it did, she burst
into hysterical laughter, nearly going into tears of delight. She earned a
stern look from both Greg and Merion Evans. She tried to stop laughing, but
ended up running into the other room, saying something that sounded like "klutz".
After Lily was back on her
feet and her parents were assured that she was fine, she walked into the
kitchen and they followed her. She sat down on a stool next to the counter and
set her head down on the cool surface. She asked a little shakily, "You
all ready to go?"
"Well,
yes we are, but it's only ten. Maybe we will all just sit and talk. Want a cracker?"
Greg Evans asked, holding a cracker to his youngest daughter, sounding as if he
were talking to a bird instead of Lily.
"Nah.
I'm
not real hungry. Okay. What shall we talk about?"
"Hogwarts,"
Merion Evans, a pretty lady with green eyes to match her daughter, said.
Petunia groaned and stomped
out of the kitchen. But then walked back in and sat down, not facing them,
still eating the crackers. Petunia didn't actually believe in any
of this magic nonsense. She didn't see how it could be true.
Back when she and Lily were friends (obviously a long, long time
ago) they had pretended that they were witches and they would run around on
broomsticks, waving their fingers or branches at each other, mumbling nonsense
words under their breath. Petunia had only been five, but she still felt that
she was foolish to have been playing such a thing. After all, how could there
really be such a thing as magic? It just was impossible.
She thought that her parent's
must be insane to believe that Lily was really going to Hogwarts. There
surely was no such place as that. Some gang clan had most likely sent that
letter around to stupid families (yes, her family was stupid!) trying to kidnap
their children. It would have taken some work to train the owls, but it could
be done. And her parent's thought it was true! How
could they be so blind! Everyone thought that Petunia was jealous, but she wasn't.
It was just that she couldn't see how they could
possibly believe any of this.
She thought that she wasn't
jealous at first, but after she had thought it through for a minute she decided
that maybe she was. I'm not jealous that
everyone thinks she is a witch, thought Petunia, I'm just jealous that she is getting all the attention. I should be
used to it by now though. Petunia sighed. Lily was always taking the attention away from
Petunia.
When Petunia was nine and
Lily was seven, Petunia won second place in the story contest at school she had
been praised like no other. But then, the next day, Lily announced that she had
'accidentally'
finished the 300-page book that her teacher had given her to read that day. The
teacher had expected the students whom she had given the book to (only the best
readers in the class) to take all year and maybe still not be finished, and so
when Lily said she was done with it, Miss Hayfields called Greg and Marion
Evans in and told them. They of course forgot all about Petunia and only
remembered dear, sweet, innocent, smart Lily. That was when Petunia
really decided that she hated Lily. She had suspected before that she hated
Lily, but had thought it was only a phase. But at that moment, she knew that it
wasn't,
and that she really did hate her. From that day she had done her best to always
disagree with whatever Lily said, even if she agreed, and to take every chance
she had to make fun of Lily.
She thinks that she is just
oh so special
since she is a witch and going to Hogwarts, but I know what she really is. A
freak. She is nothing other than a freak. Someday my parents will see that and
they will be sorry that they ignored me for so long. But I won't forgive them. No, I will always remember that they thought Lily
was the best. Sweet and beautiful Lily. She is so much prettier than I am. If I
were as pretty as she is, then I would have all the boys, Petunia thought, smirking. But
no, perfect little Lily can't go on dates. She isn't old enough. She doesn't realize just how pretty
she is.
Petunia was pretty too, in
her own way. She had sleek blonde hair that was down to her shoulders. She was
tall and thin, and had a very long neck. Petunia hated her neck. She hated Lily
for having a nice, normal neck. Everything about Lily was wrong. Even if it
were right, Petunia thought it was wrong. Lily was just all wrong! But no one
else saw her that way. To everyone else, she was all right.
"Okay,
Hogwarts. What about it? Anything in particular?" asked Lily. Petunia was
snapped from her own thoughts back to the conversation.
Marion looked at her
husband and then shifted her gaze to the floor and then again to Greg. Finally
she looked at Lily. Right in to Lily's eyes. "Lily.
Sweetheart. I know that you are all excited about going to Hogwarts and all…but
what if none of this is true? We don't really have any proof."
Petunia swerved around in
her chair. Finally! Someone was seeing the light. They were finally seeing just
how stupid they were being for even thinking that there really was such a thing
as magic.
"Marion
and I have been talking, and we aren't so sure whether we really
want you going to Hogwarts after all. I mean, it might just be some gang clan
trying to take our little girl away from us," Greg said sadly.
That's what I've been saying for the past
few months. But no one listens to Petunia. And when they figure I am right, I
don't get the credit.
"Mum,
Dad! How can you be serious? You were there in Diagon Alley with me! You saw
all of the magic stuff! I can't believe that we are even
having this argument! Or discussion, or whatever this is! You saw all the old
witches fighting over that last dragon liver, same as I did! Dragon liver! Don't
you see? There is such a thing as dragons! And you never knew that before you
went to Diagon Alley. Think of all things I could learn if I were to go
Hogwarts. Don't you want me to learn all kinds of new things? Don't
you want me to me smart? Don't you love me?"
Lily wiped away a fake tear. She was just playing the guilt trip. She knew that
if she tried hard enough, she could get her parents to do anything.
"No
honey that's not it! We love you!" Marion exclaimed.
"Lily,
sweetie, it's not that we don't want you to be smart, it's
just that we love you too much to lose you. Honest,"
Greg said swishing his fingers over his heart.
"So
you'll
let me go?"
"Well,
I don't
know about that…"
"Oh thank you! Thank you! You are the best
parents in the whole world!" Lily yelled, throwing herself at them in a big
hug. After that what could they say other than yes? Greg and Marion looked at
each other and sighed. Greg patted Lily's back and Marion stroked her hair.