Disclaimer: It's JKR's. Really.

Chapter One - Of Letters and Witches

~7 years later~

Lily sat at the table, lost in thought, picking at the pancakes that were smeared in the syrup that covered her plate.

"More pancakes, Lily?" Mrs. Evans asked, interrupting Lily's thoughts.

"No Mum, I think I'm full, thank you."

"How about you, Petunia dear? Would you like more pancakes?"

"Mum!" Petunia said, horrified, "Don't you know what pancakes do to a woman's figure?"

"I do, Petunia," here Mrs Evans smiled, and patted her plump belly, "but growing girls need nutrition."

"Not this growing girl," Petunia grumbled, pushing her plate of half-eaten pancakes away.

"Now Petunia, there's really no need to carry on this way. You know that for many generations, people didn't have enough to eat at all. Granted, there's no need to waste food, but I don't believe a person can ever have too much food, do you?"

Lily didn't wait to hear her sister's answer. "May I be excused, Mum? I think I heard the post."

"Of course, dear heart," Mrs. Evans said, absentmindedly picking up Lily's plate and listening to Petunia rant.

Lily cut through the parlor to the front door. She picked up the letters that had fallen through the shiny mail slot onto the rug and began looking through them as she carried them back to the kitchen for Mum.

Then a letter in a very old envelope with shimmering green ink caught her eye. To her surprise, it had her name and address, right down to her bedroom, written on it. With shaking hands, Lily opened the letter.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore (Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chief Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. Of Wizards)

Dear Miss 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 1st. We await your owl by no later than July 31.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress

We await your owl? A school of witchcraft? Was this one of Petunia's elaborate jokes? She HAD been calling Lily a witch an awful lot lately. Deciding just to ignore the letter, Lily slowly pulled herself out of the slumping position she had been in on the floor and stuffed it under a couch cushion. She then carried the post into her mother as if everything was normal.

"Here's the post, Mum," Lily said, handing her mother the usual stack of letters and bills.

"Thank you dear," Mrs. Evans said, taking the pile from Lily and leaving Petunia an opportunity to escape.

"I'm going to Clarissa's, I'll be back for dinner!" Petunia called, running out of the room.

Mrs. Evans shook her head as she sank her ample frame into the kitchen chair.

"I don't know what I'd do if you weren't here, Lily. Honestly, the way Petunia acts, you'd think this house was cursed or something." She laughed, a high, tinny sound, and Lily forced herself to smile. The letter had unnerved her a bit.

"Mum, is there such a thing as magic?" Lily asked, hoping to hear the answer she had heard all of her life.

"Well, dear, there are unexplainable things, things that we humans don't understand how they happen, like snow in July. I suppose that could be called magic, yes. But is there a school where people go and wave wands and say 'abracadabra' and turn people into ferrets? It's impossible, dear. We'd know if magic was real. The only magic that exists is the magic that lives in the human heart."

"Why do you ask, dear?"

"Nevermind, it's nothing, just another practical joke."

"All right, dear. Do I want to know?"

"It's not a BAD joke, this time. Petunia just pretended I'd gotten accepted to this school of witchcraft, that's all."

"That wasn't a very nice thing to do. When she gets home from Clarissa's, I'm going to give her a talking to."

"Mum, please don't. You know she's worse if she's been yelled at. Please, just let it be, and I'll just pretend I never got the letter. Okay?"

"Darling, you know as well as I do that these practical jokes have got to stop. How are we going to make Petunia listen if we never reprimand her?"

"If YOU never reprimand her, mother. Not I. And if you'd stop, just once, then maybe she wouldn't be so awful to both of us!" Lily pushed her chair back, letting it clatter to the wooden floor, as she ran up the stairs for her room in a fit of tears.

Lily buried her face in her pillow and sobbed. A few moments later, she heard a soft rapping at her bedroom door.

"Go away, Mum!" she said through her tears.

"Lily, please, I'm sorry, I won't reprimand Petunia, please, just let me in."

"NO! It's MY room. You leave it alone!"

"Lily, please, I'm your mother. I have the key to unlock the door."

"Fine, go get it. Ruin my life some more, see if I care."

Mrs. Evans couldn't think of a proper response to that, so she sighed and went to fetch the key to the door.

When she got back, she tried to put the key in the lock. To her surprise, the lock was too small for the key.

"Maybe I've got the wrong key," Mrs. Evans thought as she went to get the rest of the keys. To her amazement, none of the keys she tried worked in the lock.

"Lily, sweetheart, please come out of there. You might catch a cold."

"In bed? Under quilts? Are you insane?"

"Aren't you hungry, dear? I fixed you some chocolate ice cream."

Lily bit her lower lip. Chocolate ice cream was her all-time favorite food.

"I'm not hungry!" she screamed, using all her willpower. "Go away!"

"All right, dear, but I'm putting the ice cream in the freezer for you to eat later."

With that, Mrs. Evans went down the hall to her bedroom and pondered how to make her children behave. "If only Frank was still here," she thought, "he'd know what to do." With that thought, both Lily and Mrs. Evans fell into a deep sleep.

***

Lily was dressed in all black, a pointed hat on her head. She looked down at her fingers, and they were a bright green, as was the rest of her skin. She was clutching a broom, which was soaring across the night sky towards a top-secret witch meeting location.

"I'll get you my pretty," Lily heard herself cackle to no one in particular. Suddenly, she lost her grip, and began falling, falling, falling through the sky, where there was only the sound of tapping to break her fall.

Wait a minute, Lily thought, sitting straight up in bed. Tapping? In a falling dream?

Something was definitely not right. Then Lily looked over to the window and saw a cat with odd markings around its eyes, tapping its tail on the windowpane.

A/N: Ooo, a cliffie! Who is the cat and what is it doing at Lily's house? Will Lily make up with her Mum? Go to Hogwarts? Get Petunia in trouble? Only time will tell! The letter was taken verbatim from SS/PS.