Disclaimer: My name is not JKR, nor do I plan to change it. Therefore, these characters are obviously not mine.

Chapter Three - Floo to the Rescue!

The next two days passed relatively uneventfully. Lily tried to avoid her mother and Petunia as much as possible. When she awoke the third morning, she was surprised to find butterflies in her stomach.

Someone will come, they just have to! she thought, hoping the strange woman in her room hadn't been a figment of her imagination.

"Breakfast, Lily!" her mother called, forcing Lily to get out of her warm bed. Lily looked at the clothes in her closet and sighed. Nothing looked right. She didn't know what real witches and wizards wore, but she was willing to bet it wasn't jeans and a sweater. Angrily, she grabbed both off a hanger and changed for breakfast.

Lily went downstairs to breakfast, picking at invisible lint on her sweater. Lily sat down, listening to Petunia chattering about some boy who was the love of her life. Mum was also strangely preoccupied, as she kept stirring her oatmeal and staring straight ahead at the wall.

Lily sat at the kitchen table and watched the minutes on the clock tick by. Petunia seemed unaware of her sister's distraction, as she continued chattering merrily about boys in general.

"I SAID, how about you, Lily?"

"Huh?" Lily looked at her sister.

"Were you even listening to a word I was saying? It doesn't matter. Mum will answer me, right Mum?"

Mrs. Evans was still stirring her untouched oatmeal.

"MUM!" Mrs. Evans started, then looked around guilty.

"Yes, dear?" she said evasively, not exactly sure which of her daughters had addressed her.

"I said I thought you were listening to me, but obviously I was wrong. What's wrong with you both, anyway?"

Petunia wrinkled her brow in concentration. She really shouldn't do that, Lily thought, with her eyes stretched like that, she looks even more like a horse.

"Ohh, I know," Petunia finally said. "Today's the day the freaks come have their pic-nic!" she sang, making up her own words to the "Teddy Bear's Picnic."

"Petunia, you know how much I hate that song. Please dear, things are tense enough as they are.go to Clarissa's or something."

"But Mum, I want to be here for the freak show.that is, IF the freaks show."

"Petunia, please! This is a very stressful time for your sister and I. Just go away."

"I know," Petunia continued in a brightly false voice, as if she'd heard nothing her mother had said, "I'll go to Clarissa's. She was supposed to be out of town today, but maybe that changed. And if she is out of town, I can always go find some boy to snog."

"That's right dear, now run along," Mrs. Evans said.

Petunia's eyes widened, and she left her half-eaten bowl of oatmeal on the table. After all, her mother had just given her permission to go snog boys. Wait until Clarissa heard about this!

Lily and her mother finished their oatmeal. Mrs. Evans sat at the table, her hands clasped so tightly her knuckles were turning white. Lily didn't notice, as she was drumming her fingers on the table and glaring at the clock.

"Lily, dear," her mother spat, "please stop that infernal racket."

Lily looked down and realized she was drumming her fingers on the wooden table.

"Yes, Mum."

The two sat in silence for awhile. Mrs. Evans stared at the wall as Lily watched the hands on the clock go round and round. Finally, Lily broke the silence.

"This is RIDICULOUS! They could show up at 7 o'clock tonight, and we'd still be here, sitting with breakfast. I for one am not going to waste my day. I'm going to my room to get Alice in Wonderland, then I'll be back, okay Mum?"

"You're absolutely right, Lily dear. We've been sitting here for," she glanced at the clock...

"Forty-three minutes, seventeen seconds," Lily supplied.

"Exactly, dear. And what have we gotten done? Absolutely nothing. I'm going to wash these dishes, then I'll join you in the parlor and we'll wait for them to arrive."

"All right, Mum."

Both Lily and her mother left their empty bowls on the table, not thinking clearly enough to wash them. Lily took the stairs two at a time, racing to her desk to grab her book before someone came.

Lily sprinted down the stairs to the parlor, where she plopped into an easy chair near the fireplace with her fingers clenched around the book. Alice was talking to the Cheshire cat, which was quite interesting, but somehow it didn't seem real anymore. She stared vacantly at a patch of carpet and began to pick at a piece of yarn on her sweater.

The clock's chimes startled Lily. "Pop," it said, signaling the hour. Lily started, then looked up at the clock. Twelve thirty. But then how could the clock have signaled one o' clock? Unless she hadn't really heard a clock, it was impossible. But of course she had heard a clock. She was almost beginning to believe in this magic stuff. Lily looked down at her book, which had been opened to the same page for over four hours. Mrs. Evans was holding knitting needles and a half-completed blanket, but Lily knew she wasn't really knitting from the absence of the clicking sound of the needles.

"Mum?" Lily questioned. "There's a man standing right in front of our fireplace." The man was dressed in a sort of robe of all black, though it was slightly shabby. He had hair as red as Lily's own, with a slight bald spot beginning to show at the back of his head.

"Mrs. Evans, and Lily, I presume?" he said, oblivious to their looks of shock and confusion.

"Yes, we are," Lily said, managing to recover her manners. "And you might be.?"

"My name is Arthur Weasley. I'm a junior minister in the Ministry of Magic, Department of Muggle Affairs. I'm delighted to be here, with both of you. Now this house, it runs on ekletrcity? How does that work?"

"There's no electricity in the Wizarding World? But then how do you run your televisions, record players, and telephones?" Lily asked, perplexed.

"We don't have fellytones in the Wizarding World. There's no need. We have faster methods of communication. As for recurds, we have the WWN, or Wizards Wireless Network, which is something like your radio. But that's not that interesting. What I'm here to tell you about, is how our world works, and to perhaps get a glimpse into the Muggle world in return.

"It's real.it's actually real? You mean this wasn't just some elaborate joke?" Mrs. Evans finally said.

"No, ma'am. Witches and wizards have existed for centuries. You must have had some pretty powerful blood in your family at one point, for Lily to be like she is. But being a witch isn't a shameful thing, or a bad thing, despite the reputation we have with the Muggles. Being a witch or a wiz-"

"Excuse me, Mr. Weasel, did you say it was? But what exactly is a Muggle?"

"It's Weasley, ma'am. And a Muggle is what wizards call non-magic people like yourselves. But as I was saying. Being a witch or a wizard comes with a great deal of power. This can never be taken away. What Lily will do, if she chooses to come into our world, is to use the power she already has to work for good."

"Mr. Weasley, I hate to interrupt you, but I think you're mistaken. I don't have any power beyond that of any other human being. In fact, many would say I have less. I'm only eleven. I don't have any special abilities. I think you may have the wrong house, or the wrong girl."

"Lily," Mr. Weasley said with concern and compassion in his eyes, "of course you have power. There's a magical registry, it records a magical person the minute they are born. You, my dear, are on the list. You may not realize the capabilities of your power yet, but they do exist, I assure you."

"But what if I don't want to go to Hogwarts? I'm happy here. I have friends here. My life is fine just the way it is."

"Then that decision will ultimately rest with you, Lily. But I wouldn't want to wonder what could have been for the rest of my life. I don't think you understand. This is difficult for me because magic for me is as big of a part of my life as eklectricity is to you."

"It's ELECTRICITY, Mr. Weasel. E-L-E-C-T-R-I-C-I-T-Y! And I demand, no, I FORBID, you to speak to my daughter about all this magic nonsense. I'm not sending her to Hogwash School of Witches, or whatever it's called. You don't even understand the world my daughters and I live in. How can I expect you to know what's best for my daughter?" Mrs. Evans screamed.

"Now, get out of my house this instant," Mrs. Evans said in an even whisper.

"Yes, ma'am, but before I go, I'd like to let you know that an owl will be around in two weeks to await your response."

"It will be NO!" Mrs. Evans yelled.

"Lily," Mr. Weasley continued as if he had not heard, "if you have any questions, or are in need of any further assistance, please lean out your bedroom window and wiggle your nose three times. An owl will then arrive. If you address it to me, then I will respond to any concerns you may have. Now, I hope both of you have a pleasant day!"

Mr. Weasley reached into his robe pocket, threw some sparkling powder into the fire, and with a popping sound, he disappeared.

A/N: Thanks to Kat and anonymous for the reviews. Sorry this took so long, I was on spring break.