Disclaimer: JKR is an old man who lives at the school, and I am a rich and famous author. Or not. (Sorry to all the non-Simpsons fans out there who totally didn't understand that.)

Chapter 5 - A Return and an Explanation

"Lillikins! How has my little girl been?" Mr. Evans said, scooping his slightly shocked daughter up and embracing her in a hug.

"I'm okay, Dad. But I thought you weren't getting home 'til Sunday."

"Well, I wasn't. But then the drills I was supposed to deliver, from a new firm called Groanings, or something like that, all fell apart and had to be completely rebuilt. So as there were no drills to truck across the country, there was obviously no need for me to keep driving my truck."

"I'm just glad you're home," Lily said, burying her face into his neck.

"And how have you been, Lily? You didn't cause any trouble for your mother, did you?"

"Well, not exactly." Lily began.

"Frank!" Mrs. Evans squealed as she came up the stairs to wake the girls for breakfast.

"Huh? What's goin'on?" A sleepy Petunia opened her bedroom door, frantically trying to smooth her sleep-tousled hair. Her expression of puzzlement quickly turned to annoyance as she saw Lily wrapped up in Mr. Evans's arms.

"Daddy!" Petunia squealed, pushing past her mother and running towards him.

Mr. Evans set Lily gently back on the ground. "And how's the favorite Petunia in my family garden?"

Petunia rolled her eyes. "Daaad, you know I'm not a little kid anymore."

"That's right, Petunia, I'm sorry. You're growing like a weed, er, flower."

"That joke was old when I was two," Petunia said icily.

There was an uncomfortable pause. "Well, dears, shall we go down to breakfast? I made your favorite, Frank, scrambled eggs," Mrs. Evans said, a little too brightly.

"I can always depend on my women," he said, giving his wife a quick peck on the cheek.

Lily followed her parents down the stairs as Petunia's door slammed shut. "I'll be down in a second, I'm changing into something gorgeous!" "As long as you're as beautiful as a flower, I don't care what you wear," Mr. Evans called up the stairs, eliciting a groan from Lily.

A few minutes later, seated around scrambled eggs, Mr. Evans cleared his throat. "I know I haven't seen you for weeks, and all you probably want to do is tell me everything that happened. I know I want to know exactly what occurred. But before you do, I have an announcement to make. Todd is merging the company with another trucking company, Ted's, so he needs someone to supervise all the truckers. He chose me. That means that I'll get to stay here, in Little Whinging, instead of going out on the road all the time."

"That's absolutely wonderful, dear!" Mrs. Evans squealed, reaching across the table to hug him.

"I'm really happy for you, Dad. Does it come with a bigger salary?" Petunia asked.

"Yes, dear, it does, which means more presents for everyone!"

"Ooh, I need a whole new wardrobe! My clothes are too small already. I really must be growing fast."

Lily snorted. Petunia's clothes fit absolutely perfectly.

"What's the matter, dear?" Mrs. Evans asked Lily, who was stabbing her eggs with her fork.

"Nothing, I'm fine."

"Don't you want to congratulate your father?" Mrs. Evans prompted again.

"Congratulations, Dad. It's really great," Lily said in a voice completely devoid of emotion.

"Lilyyyyy," Mr. Evans said, in a mock-warning tone. "You should tell us what's wrong, before I let Mr. Tickle out of his cage. He's gonna getcha, gonna getcha," Mr. Evans teased, curling his hands and tickling the air.

"It's nothing. I'm really glad you got the promotion, Dad. May I be excused?" Lily asked, putting her fork down with a clatter and scrapping her chair back against the linoleum.

"I see how much you love your father, Lily. You can't even have a civil meal with him. Maybe you should just go run away to that freak school. Nobody here would miss you," Petunia hissed.

Tears began to pool in Lily's eyes. This was exactly what she was afraid was going to happen. Mr. Weasley was wrong. If she left, she'd lose her family. She couldn't go. She couldn't.

"Excuse me," Lily choked out, running to her bedroom and slamming the door.

"Freak school? What is going on here? And I thought I told you not to call your sister a freak," Mr. Evans said sternly.

"I'm sorry, Daddy, but she can't help what she is. The next thing you know, that witch will come home, her pockets full of frogspawn."

"Petunia! That's a horrible thing to say. Don't call your sister a witch."

"I'm sorry, Daddy," Petunia said, dropping her head and pretending to be sorry.

"Anyway, Petunia, we've already discussed this. Lily isn't leaving home for some weird world that doesn't even use electricity. She's staying here, with us."

"Would someone stop and tell me what the heck is going on?" Mr. Evans yelled, his temper finally getting the better of him.

"Petunia, darling, why don't you run along to Clarissa's. Your father and I have some boring grown up things we need to discuss alone."

"Of course, mother. Why would I want to be here in a room where you were discussing boring grown up things?" Petunia said, completely sarcastic. "After all, it's not as if I'm nearly one myself!"

"Petunia, darling, we didn't mean it that way," Mrs. Evans soothed.

"Of course you didn't, mother." Petunia spat. "And if you need me to leave so you can discuss precious LILY, by all means, just say so."

Petunia turned to her father. "And of course you wouldn't say a word in my defense, you're too worried about what trouble your precious Lily could have gotten into. Well, don't mind me, I'm going to Clarissa's," Petunia got up from the table, and went to the door, slamming it on her way out.

"Oh dear," Mrs. Evans sighed.

"Oh dear indeed, dear. But as long as it doesn't look like rain, dear, everything is fine."

"FRANK!" Mrs. Evans chided, throwing a balled up napkin at him. "This isn't the time to be punny, er, funny."

Mr. Evans sighed. "All right, so what happened? Did Lily get expelled? Is that why Petty called it a freak school?"

"No dear, it's much stranger than that. You see, about a week ago, Lily brought in the post. When she got it, there was an envelope, addressed to her in with the bills. She opened it, and it was a letter to a magic school. She and I both thought it was one of Petunia's tricks at first, so we just ignored it, and I yelled at Petunia.

"But then a man came out of the fireplace, and said that magic was real. I was shocked, and a bit stunned, so I yelled at him to go away and leave Lily alone. But apparently magic is real. And now I don't know what to do. Lily's simply furious with me because I won't let her go to that magic school. And she wants to go. But how can we send our eleven-year-old daughter, our youngest daughter, out into a world we didn't even know existed?"

"You mean a world you didn't know existed, dear. What was the name of this magic school, again?"

"Oh-Hogwarts, dear."

"Lily got accepted to Hogwarts? And you don't want her to go? Are you mad?" Mr. Evans pushed his chair back from the table and began and impromptu dance around it.

"Frank, is there something you're not telling me?" Mrs. Evans asked.

Mr. Evans stopped dancing and sat back down. "Well, you see, dear, when I was a little boy, my grandmother could do the most unnatural things. Like I'd ask for tea, and not a minute later, a full pot would come zooming through the air into Grammy's hands. One day, I asked her about it, and she finally admitted to me that she was a witch."

Mrs. Evans gasped.

"Not a witch like you're thinking of, dear, but a person who could do good and kind things simply by thinking about them. And if Lily has this talent, we can't deny her the opportunity of going to school just because we're afraid for her."

"So-so witches don't go around and eat children? They don't turn on our communities and steal things, then ride their broomsticks off into the night? The gentleman who came to talk to us kept saying things about Lily's power. I thought he was going to turn her into his minion of evil or something."

"No, dear," Mr. Evans said, laughing. "Witches are very powerful, but most of them do really good things, for their community and for ours. There are, of course, evil witches and wizards, but that happens in any society."

"Oh. This makes so much more sense than that other gentleman." Mrs. Evans said. "Could you repeat that again, please?" Mr. Evans asked, a hint of mischief in his eyes.

"Which part?"

"The part where you admitted I actually made sense!"

"Oh, dear. Why do I put up with you?" Mrs. Evans asked affectionately.

"Because you love me, silly."

"Oh, bother. I forgot."

"You forgot? You forgot that you loved me?"

"Of course not, dear. I could never forget you."

"I missed you, darling."

"I missed you, too."

The two sat in silence for a moment, simply glad to be with their spouse again.

"Well, my beautiful wife," Mrs. Evans beamed at her husband's compliment, "what are we sitting around here for? Shall we go talk to Lily? Tell her she can go?"

"We probably should, dear."

"Okay, then, let's go."

A/N: Thanks for reviewing, Kat. You inspired me to get this out so quickly.

So Mr. Evans came to save the day. Is the story moving too slowly? Or is it good to actually see Lily's life pre-Hogwarts for once? Bearing any unforeseen mishaps, she'll be on the Hogwarts Express in a few chapters. Is there anyone you'd like to see more of? Less of? If anyone wants to be put on an email list to be notified when this is updated, let me know in a review or email. Thanks so much to all my readers!