WARNING! This chapter contains some graphic depictions of child abuse.
As she walked through the chain link fence surrounding the park Lily heaved a sigh. She had no idea how she was going to go about telling her best friend that she had just gotten a very strange letter. Just how strange, she hadn't even found out yet. She looked quickly to the clock tower to check the time and headed across the grass.
Her pitch black, wavy hair shined beautifully in the sun as she finally saw her friend standing over by the swings. She waved wildly as she approached and smiled wide. Charlotte smiled back and walked toward her confidently. "Hey, how are you? Is everything okay?" A slight crease made its way onto Charlotte's brow as she looked at her friend for any sign of pain, or scarring. "I told you on the phone, I'm fine" Lily assured her. Charlotte sighed, "I'm so relieved. I thought you might be hurt, you sounded upset." She looked into Lily's green eyes for any sign that she might be lying. "I was kind of upset. But everything's fine now, I just need to talk."
She walked towards the swings and sat down on the one closest to the pole. Charlotte took the swing next to her and started kicking her feet. "So, what did you want to talk about?" she said, continuing to kick her feet as she began to go higher. Lily took a deep breath and focused her eyes on the ground. "I got a letter today" she stated simply. Charlotte laughed loudly, "And..." "And I wanted to tell you about it. Would you mind stopping to listen for a second" Lily shouted abruptly. Charlotte dragged her feet on the ground and stopped swinging. A light cloud of dirt billowed up from the ground and seemed to pause in the air as well. "What's wrong?" Lily looked up into her friend's blue eyes and opened her mouth to speak. Instead though, she closed her mouth in silence and pulled the letter from her pocket. "What is this?" she said quietly, handing the envelope to her right and into her friend's waiting hand. At most Lily expected her to reply that she didn't know, or ask her why she was so worried. Instead, her friend looked at her quietly and then back down at the envelope. She turned sideways on the seat and looked directly into Lily's eyes. "Is this a joke?" Charlotte asked lightly. For a moment Lily just looked at her with utter confusion written all over her face. "What do you mean?" Charlotte's eyes seemed to be boring into her skull. "I mean, is this a joke. You can't go to Hogwarts. We were supposed to go to Beauxbatons together." Charlotte's face clearly showed disappointment, where Lily was still confused. "Beauxba what?" she asked stupidly. "Beauxbatons, you idiot." Lily shook her head and looked at the ground. "What is that? What is Hogwarts? What are you talking about!" she had stood up quickly without even realizing she had done it. All she could register at the moment was her friend smiling slightly at her. Charlotte stood up as well and put her hand lightly on her arm in, what she hoped, was a comforting gesture.
Lily took a step back and stood with her mouth open, simply gaping. "I was hoping I'd be the one to tell you. I wasn't sure if you had already told Eric and Diane." Lily shook her head again and said, "why would I tell them? What would they know? What do you know?" she glared suspiciously through the narrow slits that were her eyes. "Don't be angry Lily. I... maybe you should sit down." "No, I'm fine. Tell me. Am I dying or something?" she finished lamely. Charlotte laughed. "No, you're not dying. Lily, your a wizard. Well, actually, a witch, but let's not get into the details right now." Lily looked blankly back as she tried to absorb what had just been said to her. She quickly fell onto her butt and into the dirt. A small cloud came up around her from all sides. Then, suddenly, she started to laugh hysterically. "Y-You're joking" she choked out between gulps of air. "I can't be a witch! Where's the proof?!" she continued to laugh without halt for 5 minutes until Charlotte finally bent down beside her.
"Lily, breath. Okay, I'm not lying, you really are a witch or else you wouldn't have gotten this letter. And like I said, I'm surprised you did, I thought for sure you would be going to Beauxbatons, like me." Charlotte frowned again while looking at Lily with a serious expression. Lily looked back at her with a comical and disbelieving face. "Charlie, how can I be a witch if I don't even know what Beauxbatons is, or even what Hogwarts is." She raised her eyebrow as if to deny everything she just said. Charlie sighed and stood up again. "Look, do you want me to explain or are you going to keep laughing at me." Lily looked up at her and smiled. "Sure, explain away."
Charlie began pacing left and right. After a few minutes she stopped and looked at Lily sideways. She smiled wide before she started talking. "Alright, here are the facts. Beauxbatons is a wizarding school, just like Hogwarts. Young witches and wizards go there to learn how to use and control their magic. I know this because I am a witch. Well, at least on my mother's side. My father is a muggle." Lily raised her eyebrow again to indicate she didn't understand. "A muggle is non-magic person." Charlie said waving her hand as if to brush away the question. "Anyways, I've known you're a witch for awhile, adn so have my parents. Why do you think they like you so much?" "I don't know, I just thought they liked my personallity." Lily replied quietly. "Oh they do! Really!" Charlie laughed lightly. "Lily, you have to understand. You're really lucky. My mother usually doesn't like any of my friends. That's how we knew you were different, because my mother could sense your power. She knew you were a witch the moment she laid eyes on you. Didn't you know? You have a really strong presence." Lily stood up and wiped herself of the dust that was clinging to her shorts. "Wait a second, so you're saying that your mother knew I was a witch and didn't bother to tell me?" Charlie smiled and nodded. Lily's mouth dropped open again. She closed it quickly though and put her hands on her hips. "Why didn't she tell me?" Charlie looked sideways and took a breath. "Well...I guess because she thought you would feel better about it if I told you." Lily snorted loudly. "Really? She thought I would feel good about this!" She had thrown up her hands and turned her back to Charlie. She crossed her arms over her chest and let her chin drop. "I didn't say she said you would feel good about it, just better. Anyways, do you want to know anything else?"
Lily lifted her head and looked out ahead of her. She saw children playing and laughing, and the sun shining brightly across the ground weaving its way through the tree leaves. She closed her eyes and turned around again. "Yeah, why exactly was I supposed to be going to Beauxbatons?" Charlie laughed lightly, but when she caught sight of Lily's aggressive stare she stopped immediately. "Well, I thought that would be kind of obvious. But, since you don't really know much about magic..." Charlotte sighed, "I'm from a french family, and you're from a french family, and since Beauxbatons usually excepts all future witches and wizards from french families I thought for sure that you would be going there." Lily let this sink in for a minute before she replied.
"Charlie, I'm not from a french family. Only my godparents have a french ancestry." "Yeah, but surely your parents..." Charlie trailed off as she saw the look of pain cross her friend's face. "I'm sorry Lily, I didn't mean too..." "No, it's fine." Lily cut in. "Really it is, I just wasn't expecting them to come up that's all." She took an unnecessary breath and looked Charlie straight in the eyes. "So, should I open the letter?" Charlie opened her mouth to speak, but closed it instead. She opened it for a second time and said, "That's really up to you Lily." She held the letter out to her and encouraged her to take it. Lily grasped it loosely in her right hand and brought it closer to her to look at it. It was now covered it dust and the ink seemed to have smudged a little. She shook it lightly and felt whatever it was that was inside move slightly. "What do you think is in here?" she asked more to herself than anyone else. "I don't know Lily. If you end up opening it you can tell me." Lily smiled slightly while continuing to look at the yellowish parchment in her hand. It had caused her so much anxiety already and she hadn't even broken the wax seal yet. She lifted her left hand up to grasp the other side of it and simply stared.
"Hey Charlie, how do you know I'm really a witch? How do I know?" "That's easy" Charlie answered. "Haven't you ever, you know, made stuff happen. Even if you couldn't explain it at the time? Anything weird ever happen to you?" Lily smiled wider as she remembered the time that she had exploded her peas when she had refused to eat them. Then she remembered what had happened afterwards. The smile faded off her lips as the memory came back to her. Eric had been so angry that he had smacked her hard enough to knock her out of her chair. She hadn't understood why he was so angry, and she still didn't understand to this day.
Then, she remembered the time she had come home from school after having been beat up and she had gone up to her room to look at the damage, when, right before her eyes, the swelling on her cheek had gone down. She had been so surprised though that she had screamed. She was young then, only 8, but she knew that in the Fontaine's house you never scream. She had that message permenantely engraved in her mind now because of what had happened when Eric had heard.
She could still remember the sound of his footsteps coming up the stairs and the weight he put on his feet to make it sound as if he were some giant walking across glass plates. She remembered the look of fury on his face when he saw her in the bathroom looking in the mirror. He had called her vain, and spit at her feet, and when she tried to protest he smacked her and told her that she knew she wasn't supposed to scream in his house. She had pleaded with him but in the end it hadn't mattered. He had grabbed her arm and dragged her down the stairs.
Diane had been in the kitchen cooking when they entered. She had looked mildy alarmed when he picked up her pot and threw it across the room. It hit the door and gravy had started to run down the windowpanes. She remembered the way he had grabbed her shoulders and shook her, yelling at her to listen to him. She had started crying the minute he had grabbed her upstairs and now her tears were full blown, making streams down her face and puddles on her shirt. Her godmother had just stood there hugging herself in the corner, afraid to look at them. Lily had pleaded with her to help but he just hit her again.
When he had stopped shaking her she looked up at him through bleary eyes. He looked at the stovetop and Lily followed his gaze. What she saw made her heart jump in her throat. She remembered looking at him to make sure he wasn't about to do what she thought he was. He had just smiled that malicious smile of his before he brabbed her left hand tightly in his grasp and turned her towards the stove. Lily struggled with him, clawing at his arm to make him let go. The image of the burner coil bright in her mind. She tried so hard to get away that she had stopped crying and drew all of her energy into escaping. She wasn't strong enough though and inevitably he had pressed the back of her hand onto the coil.
The memory of the seering pain jolted Lily back into the moment. She had unconsciously brought her right hand over and was rubbing the scar on the back of her left hand. She pulled it away quickly when she realized what she was doing, and knew she was blushing. Charlie was waving her hand in front of Lily's face and when Lily looked up at her Charlie saw the fear in her eyes. "Are you okay, you look like you've just seen a ghost or something." Lily didn't say anything. Instead, her eyes were focused behind Charlie, and her eyes had widened significantly. Charlie turned around and gasped. The clock tower now read, 1:20. When Charlie had turned around to tell Lily she was too late. Lily was running in the direction of the gates at a full sprint. Charlie bit her lip as she thought of what would happen if Lily got home late. She knew some of what was going on at Lily's godparent's house, but not enough to make her tell her parents. After all, Lily had made her swear she wouldn't.
Lily's form quickly disappeared down the street as she ran as fast as she could manage back to her house. She was gasping when she reached her front door and grabbed for the handle. She turned the doorknob and bolted inside. As she closed the door she slid down it and put her head in her hands. She was so tired that she realized how many emotions she had been bottling since she first started talking with Charlie. A knot came up in Lily's throat and she almost started to cry, but the sound of a car door opening, and closing quickly brought her to her senses and she stood up. She backed away from the door carefully, acting as though whatever was about to come through the door was the devil itself. She wasn't far off.
Far off, in Little Whinging, a young boy named Harry Potter was sitting on the grass outside his Aunt and Uncle's house when he had a sudden feeling of panic, and fear. He looked around wildly for any sign of danger, but when he found none he went back to staring at the bugs that were crawling along the tar in front of him. Every so often though, he would look over his shoulder suspiciously and shake his head slightly, smiling. After all, there was nothing to worry about, no one was around, and not even a breeze was blowing.