Disclaimer: Bumblebee bumblebee bumblebee bumblebee be a bumble be a bumble
be a bumble bumblebee! Hee hee, that's one of our warm-ups for choir! Rose,
Rose, Rose, Rose, will I ever see thee wed? I will marry at thy will, sire
at thy will! Another warm-up! Round and round we go, we hold each other's
hands and weave our lives in a circle our love is strong the dance goes
on...and that's a round. Buh bye.
"Mom, I still don't see how going through a pub is going to get us into this...Diagon Alley place," Lily said, a confused look on her face.
"Don't worry about it, sweetie," Rose said over her shoulder. She turned to her husband, who was driving. "I just hope that the entrance hasn't changed," she said softly, so only he heard.
"I don't think it has," he said just as quietly. "Don't worry about it. We'll figure it out, even if it has."
"I hope Petunia's all right," Rose said anxiously. "Do you think she's all right? She just seemed to be taking all this so...negatively."
"I think she'll get used to the idea after a while," Andrew said reassuringly. "Here we are!" He parked the car in front of a building with a huge "FOR RENT" sign hanging in the window. "Come on, let's go!"
They all got out of the car. Lily stared apprehensively around.
"Do you have your letter, Lily Rose?" Andrew asked cheerfully.
"Yes," Lily said, holding up the slightly wrinkled parchment.
"Good," Rose said. She took Lily's hand. "Lead the way, Andrew."
Andrew walked down the sidewalk, examining the buildings closely.
"What's he looking for, Mum?" Lily whispered.
"He's looking for the pub," Rose told her.
"Found it!" Andrew said jubilantly. He pointed to a small building, sandwiched in between two huge buildings.
Lily raised one eyebrow skeptically. "That's it?"
"This is it. Come on, let's go inside."
Inside, the pub was dimly lit and quiet. Lily gazed around, her eyes wide and nervous.
"What can I get for you?" A young man came out a door behind the counter, wiping his hands on an apron.
"We're just going through to Diagon Alley," Andrew said. "Thank you anyway."
"Can't say I've seen you here before. Is it your daughter's first year at Hogwarts, then?" the bartender asked. "Muggle-born, is she?"
"Yes, it's Lily's first year, and no, she's a pureblood," Rose answered defensively.
"Well, I've been working here the past five years, and I haven't seen you folks that whole time." He shrugged. "Entrance is out back."
"Thank you, sir," Andrew said hurriedly.
"Name's Tom," the bartender called after them.
"Andrew," he replied. "Nice to meet you."
"Same to you."
Once they were outside again, Andrew relaxed a little bit. He pulled something out of his pocket - a long piece of wood with a handle on it.
"Here goes. Let's see if I remember this." He started tapping bricks with the stick.
Lily stared at the stick, trying hard to grasp the thin memory in the back of her mind.
"Lily, are you all right?" Rose demanded, seeing Lily simply staring.
"I'm fine, Mum," Lily replied. She finally figured it out. "That's a wand!"
"Yes, it's my wand," Andrew said, putting it back into his pocket. "It's been a long time since I've used it."
"I need one," Lily said, consulting her letter. "And I need robes, and books, and a cauldron, and potions supplies..." she trailed off. "How are we going to pay for all this? You said last night that the wizarding world used different sorts of money, and all we have is regular money."
"Muggle money," Rose corrected her. "When we found out that Petunia was a Squib, we couldn't give up the hope that maybe, one day, you both would be witches, so we kept our vault at the bank."
Lily's head was spinning. It was all so much to take in!
They were coming out of the robe shop when Lily saw the boy - or rather, boys. Standing a few feet away from her were two boys that looked quite a bit alike. Both were tall, skinny, had black hair, and were both watching her interestedly. One had messier hair, glasses, and brown eyes, while the other had no glasses and blue eyes. There was a girl standing behind them, with green eyes and brown hair. She was tugging on the sleeve of a woman with black hair who looked like she was the mother of the boys.
"Mum, James and Sirius are staring at girls," the girl was saying.
"Don't worry about it, Michelle," the woman said.
Lily stifled a giggled and turned away, following her parents down the street.
By the end of the day, she had bought a wand, a cauldron, her schoolbooks, potions supplies, a telescope, and many other things that her parents had said she would need.
"How about some ice cream?" Andrew suggested as they neared a sundae shop.
"Sounds good to me," Lily said.
"All right. I'll go in and get our ice cream," Andrew said. "You want vanilla, right, Lily?"
Lily nodded. "Please."
"And I know what Rose wants." Andrew hurried inside after setting all the packages down on a table.
"Dear, would you mind sitting here by yourself while I run to the ladies room?" Rose asked. "There's nothing that can happen to you. You're in plain view of your father," she added, seeing Lily's apprehensive look.
"Okay, Mum," Lily said. She sat in a chair and gazed around. A sudden movement in the corner of her eye caught her attention, and she turned to see the same two boys watching her again. She bit back a smile. Some boys are such idiots, she thought.
"Just go say something to her," Sirius hissed in James' ear.
"I'll look like an idiot!" James hissed back.
"Well, you both look like idiots, actually," Michelle commented. She looked around, to be sure that her mother was still talking with her friends. "That girl that you're staring at is watching you now."
James and Sirius both turned to stare at the pretty redheaded girl that was sitting all by herself. Sure enough, she turned away quickly, as soon as she saw them looking at her. James was positive she was laughing at them.
"Great," he said miserably. "Now she's laughing at us."
"Just go say hi!" Sirius urged. "What's she going to do, curse you? No way! She can't be any older than us, which means that she won't know any curses, and even if she is older than us and knows curses, she can't use them because she's a student!"
"Well, why don't you go talk to her then?" James retorted.
"Because he wasn't the one walking around the whole day going 'Oh my God, that girl's sooo beautiful! I wish she'd talk to me!'" Michelle interrupted, doing a very good impression of her older brother.
"She's got you there, man," Sirius said, laughing. "Just go!"
Shaking her head in disgust, Michelle walked a ways away from them.
"You can do it, James! You're James Potter, the most popular and athletic boy at your school!" Sirius encouraged him.
"Yeah! I can do this!" James said, standing up straight. "I'll go talk to her!"
He started walking toward her. He'd got close enough to call out to her and stopped, then turned around to look at Sirius, a nervous expression on his face.
"Go!" Sirius mouthed.
James nodded, and turned around again. He glanced up at the girl quickly. She was watching him, an amused expression on her face. He grinned at her and started walking again, not seeing Michelle's foot stuck right where he would trip over it. And trip he did, landing flat on his face in a mud puddle.
"MICHELLE!" he yelled, standing up and wiping his glasses off.
Michelle was doubled over, clutching her stomach and laughing her head off. James turned around to see Sirius cracking up as well, but trying to hold it in for the sake of his friend. He whirled around again, and saw that the pretty redhead had a disgusted look on her face.
"Just like a jock," she said, loud enough for him to hear. Then, she turned away and wouldn't look back.
"Michelle, I'm going to kill you!" James said.
Michelle saw how furious her brother looked and immediately stopped laughing. She'd never seen him this angry before. "Gee, I'm sorry, Jimmy," she said, backing up. "It was only a joke."
"Yeah, but it was a joke that made me look like the biggest prick ever in front of a girl I wanted to talk to!" James said, still madder than ever.
"Look, James, I said I was sorry, all right?" Michelle said, backing up even farther.
"Dude, James, cool it, all right?" Sirius said, standing in front of Michelle, who sighed with relief. "She was just kidding. Lay off on her!"
James covered his face with his hands. "Just never, ever, EVER do that again, okay, Michelle?" he said through his hands.
"I won't," Michelle promised.
"All right. Is everyone calm now?" Sirius asked, not moving from in front of Michelle.
"Yes," James replied, still with his hands on his face.
"All right. Michelle, if James ever gets crazy like that, you just owl me, okay?" Sirius instructed. "Don't let him hurt you. You got that?"
"Yes," Michelle said.
"You think I'd hurt my sister?" James asked indignantly. "I never would!"
"Yeah, but we don't want you turning into your father," Sirius said gently.
"Yeah," Michelle said. "Here, James, you have mud all over you."
She started wiping the mud off of James' shirt with a sisterly air. Lily, from her seat at the table, watched out of the corner of her eye with a smile. As much as she hated jocks, it was nice to see one of them not treating siblings like dirt.
"Here you go, sweetie," Andrew said, appearing with the ice cream. Rose was right behind him.
"Are you ready to go?" she asked Lily.
"Yeah," Lily said, standing. She started picking up packages.
They went through the pub again, then out onto the street and back home.
"I suppose you bought all the things you need for your freak school?" Petunia sniffed angrily once their parents were out of sight.
"It's not a freak school, Petunia," Lily said, sighing.
"Oh, sure, it's not a freak school. It's only for people that are crazy, like you," Petunia said bitterly.
"It is NOT," Lily said, finally giving in and getting mad. "You're just jealous and you know it!" she snapped. As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she regretted it.
Petunia reeled back as though she'd been slapped. "You...you..." she sputtered. She reached out and did slap Lily then, right across the face.
Lily stumbled back, surprised and hurt.
"What's going on in here?" Rose came running in, having heard the slap.
"Petunia hit me," Lily said, feeling like she could cry.
"Petunia?" Rose turned to her older daughter.
Petunia simply stood there, tears in her eyes and a devastated expression on her face.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. She turned, ran up the stairs to her room, slammed her door, and flung herself onto her bed, sobbing. "It isn't fair," she said between sobs. "I'm...the one that's the freak! And Lily gets to go to a special school, and be a witch, and I'm just a stupid, nonmagic freak!" She sobbed even harder.
Downstairs, Lily was crying as well.
"Why does everything have to be so messed up?" she asked her mother through her tears. "I don't want Petty to hate me!"
"I don't know, sweetie," Rose said, hugging her daughter. "When Petty comes down again, I'm sure she'll apologize and then everything will be all right."
But when Petunia came back downstairs, she refused to apologize. She had decided that if she had to live the rest of her life as a freak, she was going to be a tough freak that didn't take sh*t from anyone. After that afternoon, the two sisters slowly started to grow apart, insulting each other more and more, confiding in the other less and less. Petunia forced herself to believe that instead of being the freak herself, her family was the freaks. Lily made herself think that Petunia would never want to be best friends with her younger sister ever again. And slowly, they grew to hate even the sight of each other.
A/N: ooo, Lily and Petunia are having some problems...James is having trouble impressing Lily...and Sirius is protecting Michelle! WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?? Sorry, just thought I'd say that. And before I get a review that says something about this, NO, I am NOT planning on having James turn abusive. It just worked out that I needed some way to show that Sirius is protective of Michelle Potter. Anyway, thank you for reading, please review!!!
"Mom, I still don't see how going through a pub is going to get us into this...Diagon Alley place," Lily said, a confused look on her face.
"Don't worry about it, sweetie," Rose said over her shoulder. She turned to her husband, who was driving. "I just hope that the entrance hasn't changed," she said softly, so only he heard.
"I don't think it has," he said just as quietly. "Don't worry about it. We'll figure it out, even if it has."
"I hope Petunia's all right," Rose said anxiously. "Do you think she's all right? She just seemed to be taking all this so...negatively."
"I think she'll get used to the idea after a while," Andrew said reassuringly. "Here we are!" He parked the car in front of a building with a huge "FOR RENT" sign hanging in the window. "Come on, let's go!"
They all got out of the car. Lily stared apprehensively around.
"Do you have your letter, Lily Rose?" Andrew asked cheerfully.
"Yes," Lily said, holding up the slightly wrinkled parchment.
"Good," Rose said. She took Lily's hand. "Lead the way, Andrew."
Andrew walked down the sidewalk, examining the buildings closely.
"What's he looking for, Mum?" Lily whispered.
"He's looking for the pub," Rose told her.
"Found it!" Andrew said jubilantly. He pointed to a small building, sandwiched in between two huge buildings.
Lily raised one eyebrow skeptically. "That's it?"
"This is it. Come on, let's go inside."
Inside, the pub was dimly lit and quiet. Lily gazed around, her eyes wide and nervous.
"What can I get for you?" A young man came out a door behind the counter, wiping his hands on an apron.
"We're just going through to Diagon Alley," Andrew said. "Thank you anyway."
"Can't say I've seen you here before. Is it your daughter's first year at Hogwarts, then?" the bartender asked. "Muggle-born, is she?"
"Yes, it's Lily's first year, and no, she's a pureblood," Rose answered defensively.
"Well, I've been working here the past five years, and I haven't seen you folks that whole time." He shrugged. "Entrance is out back."
"Thank you, sir," Andrew said hurriedly.
"Name's Tom," the bartender called after them.
"Andrew," he replied. "Nice to meet you."
"Same to you."
Once they were outside again, Andrew relaxed a little bit. He pulled something out of his pocket - a long piece of wood with a handle on it.
"Here goes. Let's see if I remember this." He started tapping bricks with the stick.
Lily stared at the stick, trying hard to grasp the thin memory in the back of her mind.
"Lily, are you all right?" Rose demanded, seeing Lily simply staring.
"I'm fine, Mum," Lily replied. She finally figured it out. "That's a wand!"
"Yes, it's my wand," Andrew said, putting it back into his pocket. "It's been a long time since I've used it."
"I need one," Lily said, consulting her letter. "And I need robes, and books, and a cauldron, and potions supplies..." she trailed off. "How are we going to pay for all this? You said last night that the wizarding world used different sorts of money, and all we have is regular money."
"Muggle money," Rose corrected her. "When we found out that Petunia was a Squib, we couldn't give up the hope that maybe, one day, you both would be witches, so we kept our vault at the bank."
Lily's head was spinning. It was all so much to take in!
They were coming out of the robe shop when Lily saw the boy - or rather, boys. Standing a few feet away from her were two boys that looked quite a bit alike. Both were tall, skinny, had black hair, and were both watching her interestedly. One had messier hair, glasses, and brown eyes, while the other had no glasses and blue eyes. There was a girl standing behind them, with green eyes and brown hair. She was tugging on the sleeve of a woman with black hair who looked like she was the mother of the boys.
"Mum, James and Sirius are staring at girls," the girl was saying.
"Don't worry about it, Michelle," the woman said.
Lily stifled a giggled and turned away, following her parents down the street.
By the end of the day, she had bought a wand, a cauldron, her schoolbooks, potions supplies, a telescope, and many other things that her parents had said she would need.
"How about some ice cream?" Andrew suggested as they neared a sundae shop.
"Sounds good to me," Lily said.
"All right. I'll go in and get our ice cream," Andrew said. "You want vanilla, right, Lily?"
Lily nodded. "Please."
"And I know what Rose wants." Andrew hurried inside after setting all the packages down on a table.
"Dear, would you mind sitting here by yourself while I run to the ladies room?" Rose asked. "There's nothing that can happen to you. You're in plain view of your father," she added, seeing Lily's apprehensive look.
"Okay, Mum," Lily said. She sat in a chair and gazed around. A sudden movement in the corner of her eye caught her attention, and she turned to see the same two boys watching her again. She bit back a smile. Some boys are such idiots, she thought.
"Just go say something to her," Sirius hissed in James' ear.
"I'll look like an idiot!" James hissed back.
"Well, you both look like idiots, actually," Michelle commented. She looked around, to be sure that her mother was still talking with her friends. "That girl that you're staring at is watching you now."
James and Sirius both turned to stare at the pretty redheaded girl that was sitting all by herself. Sure enough, she turned away quickly, as soon as she saw them looking at her. James was positive she was laughing at them.
"Great," he said miserably. "Now she's laughing at us."
"Just go say hi!" Sirius urged. "What's she going to do, curse you? No way! She can't be any older than us, which means that she won't know any curses, and even if she is older than us and knows curses, she can't use them because she's a student!"
"Well, why don't you go talk to her then?" James retorted.
"Because he wasn't the one walking around the whole day going 'Oh my God, that girl's sooo beautiful! I wish she'd talk to me!'" Michelle interrupted, doing a very good impression of her older brother.
"She's got you there, man," Sirius said, laughing. "Just go!"
Shaking her head in disgust, Michelle walked a ways away from them.
"You can do it, James! You're James Potter, the most popular and athletic boy at your school!" Sirius encouraged him.
"Yeah! I can do this!" James said, standing up straight. "I'll go talk to her!"
He started walking toward her. He'd got close enough to call out to her and stopped, then turned around to look at Sirius, a nervous expression on his face.
"Go!" Sirius mouthed.
James nodded, and turned around again. He glanced up at the girl quickly. She was watching him, an amused expression on her face. He grinned at her and started walking again, not seeing Michelle's foot stuck right where he would trip over it. And trip he did, landing flat on his face in a mud puddle.
"MICHELLE!" he yelled, standing up and wiping his glasses off.
Michelle was doubled over, clutching her stomach and laughing her head off. James turned around to see Sirius cracking up as well, but trying to hold it in for the sake of his friend. He whirled around again, and saw that the pretty redhead had a disgusted look on her face.
"Just like a jock," she said, loud enough for him to hear. Then, she turned away and wouldn't look back.
"Michelle, I'm going to kill you!" James said.
Michelle saw how furious her brother looked and immediately stopped laughing. She'd never seen him this angry before. "Gee, I'm sorry, Jimmy," she said, backing up. "It was only a joke."
"Yeah, but it was a joke that made me look like the biggest prick ever in front of a girl I wanted to talk to!" James said, still madder than ever.
"Look, James, I said I was sorry, all right?" Michelle said, backing up even farther.
"Dude, James, cool it, all right?" Sirius said, standing in front of Michelle, who sighed with relief. "She was just kidding. Lay off on her!"
James covered his face with his hands. "Just never, ever, EVER do that again, okay, Michelle?" he said through his hands.
"I won't," Michelle promised.
"All right. Is everyone calm now?" Sirius asked, not moving from in front of Michelle.
"Yes," James replied, still with his hands on his face.
"All right. Michelle, if James ever gets crazy like that, you just owl me, okay?" Sirius instructed. "Don't let him hurt you. You got that?"
"Yes," Michelle said.
"You think I'd hurt my sister?" James asked indignantly. "I never would!"
"Yeah, but we don't want you turning into your father," Sirius said gently.
"Yeah," Michelle said. "Here, James, you have mud all over you."
She started wiping the mud off of James' shirt with a sisterly air. Lily, from her seat at the table, watched out of the corner of her eye with a smile. As much as she hated jocks, it was nice to see one of them not treating siblings like dirt.
"Here you go, sweetie," Andrew said, appearing with the ice cream. Rose was right behind him.
"Are you ready to go?" she asked Lily.
"Yeah," Lily said, standing. She started picking up packages.
They went through the pub again, then out onto the street and back home.
"I suppose you bought all the things you need for your freak school?" Petunia sniffed angrily once their parents were out of sight.
"It's not a freak school, Petunia," Lily said, sighing.
"Oh, sure, it's not a freak school. It's only for people that are crazy, like you," Petunia said bitterly.
"It is NOT," Lily said, finally giving in and getting mad. "You're just jealous and you know it!" she snapped. As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she regretted it.
Petunia reeled back as though she'd been slapped. "You...you..." she sputtered. She reached out and did slap Lily then, right across the face.
Lily stumbled back, surprised and hurt.
"What's going on in here?" Rose came running in, having heard the slap.
"Petunia hit me," Lily said, feeling like she could cry.
"Petunia?" Rose turned to her older daughter.
Petunia simply stood there, tears in her eyes and a devastated expression on her face.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. She turned, ran up the stairs to her room, slammed her door, and flung herself onto her bed, sobbing. "It isn't fair," she said between sobs. "I'm...the one that's the freak! And Lily gets to go to a special school, and be a witch, and I'm just a stupid, nonmagic freak!" She sobbed even harder.
Downstairs, Lily was crying as well.
"Why does everything have to be so messed up?" she asked her mother through her tears. "I don't want Petty to hate me!"
"I don't know, sweetie," Rose said, hugging her daughter. "When Petty comes down again, I'm sure she'll apologize and then everything will be all right."
But when Petunia came back downstairs, she refused to apologize. She had decided that if she had to live the rest of her life as a freak, she was going to be a tough freak that didn't take sh*t from anyone. After that afternoon, the two sisters slowly started to grow apart, insulting each other more and more, confiding in the other less and less. Petunia forced herself to believe that instead of being the freak herself, her family was the freaks. Lily made herself think that Petunia would never want to be best friends with her younger sister ever again. And slowly, they grew to hate even the sight of each other.
A/N: ooo, Lily and Petunia are having some problems...James is having trouble impressing Lily...and Sirius is protecting Michelle! WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?? Sorry, just thought I'd say that. And before I get a review that says something about this, NO, I am NOT planning on having James turn abusive. It just worked out that I needed some way to show that Sirius is protective of Michelle Potter. Anyway, thank you for reading, please review!!!