Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. Nor anything else you may recognize. The great J.K. Rowling does! Plus, if I did, would I really be sitting here in this tiny little house instead of a nice big mansion?

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Silver Linings

:Chapter One:

In the middle of the night, I awoke to the sound of thunder rumbling in the distance. All right, so it wasn't thunder as I soon found out. It was my parents fighting downstairs. It wasn't the middle of the night either; it was early morning, but it was still sort of dark out.

There's not very much of a difference between my parents fighting and a thunderstorm, though. There's always the sound of a dish breaking, hence the resemblance to thunder, or my mother, hosing my father down with the sink hose, hence the resemblance to rain. Really, when she's mad, she does that. And just like a storm is not uncommon, fighting between my parents isn't uncommon either.

Let me start at the beginning. My name is Lily Evans. I have no middle name, which just goes to show how imaginative people my parents really are. Just nine letters. How unique is that?

I have one mother, one father, one sister, and one grandmother. Everyone else in my family is dead. What a joyous life.

I guess when I said I wasn't unique is not entirely true. Let's just say I'm an entirely ordinary witch. Yes, you read that correctly; witch. The only witch in my family. In fact, today is the day I leave for my seventh and final year at my school, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. And I'll be leaving for my true home in about five hours.

I like Hogwarts much better than I like it here. Not that I don't like my family, they're all right. They just don't understand me. Or pay much attention to me either. But that's entirely different at Hogwarts. People actually talk to me. I may even go as far to say I'm popular. And even better, I was made Head Girl. I can't wait to see who was made Head Boy, and see who I'll be working with the whole year. I hope it's not some stupid Slytherin. The majority of them really don't seem to like me.

As I was saying, the shouts of my parents woke me up, and I knew right then I was not going to be able to fall back asleep. So I got up, pulled on some clothes, and made my way downstairs.

My sister, Petunia, had also seemed to be woken by our parent's bickering. I smiled cheerfully at her as we made our way down the steps. "Good morning, Petunia!" I said grinning like a lunatic. Petunia scoffed at me and looked the other way. Well you can't say I didn't try.

Let me explain a bit; my sister doesn't like me much. All right, let me rephrase that, she HATES me. Ever since I got my Hogwarts acceptance letter, she has never accepted me. We used to be great friends, Petunia and me, but that has totally changed. To Petunia, I am a freak, and so is my school, and all my friends. I don't know what her problem is. I doubt she's jealous, like my mother would probably say if she still talked to me. Mostly, my mother's been feuding with Dad, so she's always in a bad mood when I see her. It's basically the same with my father. Have I already said what a joyous life I have?

As I sat myself down at the breakfast table, neither of my parents looked up. At least they had stopped fighting. They were each reading a different section of the newspaper at opposite ends of the table.

Once again, I tried to be cheerful. "Morning Mum, Dad!" I said with my big grin. My father looked up from his newspaper but only nodded. My mother smiled and greeted me, but she kept her eyes glued to the article she was reading.

I guess I can't really blame them. My father goes to work all day, everyday, and comes home to fights. My mother does her homemaking duties each day, and then gets into some fight with my father. Their fights are stupid and insignificant. They just don't seem to like each other much anymore, I'm guessing. Actually, come to think of it, I can blame them. I'm their daughter for Merlin's sake!

It was scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast. I trotted over to the frying pan to get it, and tried not to get the piece of toast that was burnt the most. My family ate in silence. Sometimes I can't believe how boring we are. Do they even know I'm going back to school today? I decided to break the silence and see.

"Today is the day I go back to school." I said cautiously. "My last year, you know." My mother looked up from her paper with a fake grin plastered on her face. "Oh honey, that's great! I'll take you when you need to go."

That was more or less the start of my parents' next fight. They always loved to outdo each other.

"That is great, Lily dear. Of course, I'll take you to King's Cross." My father said evenly.

"Jarod, I am taking Lily to the train station." My mother cooed in a sickly sugary voice.

"Really Crys, that's not necessary." My father said just as disgustingly back.

Can you imagine how a simple conversation like that could turn into a brawl of who was going to take me to King's Cross, which basically meant they were fighting for my fondness. Yeah, right, like I'm fond of them.

Petunia was sitting on the couch engrossed in the television set. She hadn't had breakfast. She was trying to lose weight. Really, if she lost any more weight, when she turned sideways she'd be invisible.

Right then, I did not want to intrude on Petunia, even though I was pretty sure she was sitting on my Transfiguration book. I sneakily crept upstairs, away from my feuding parents and cranky sister to finish the little packing I had left.

My room had been hit my Hurricane Lily, and sadly, probably was never going to be fit to walk in again. I loved my room in all its mess. My parents hated it. My sister couldn't care less, but I figure I live better in unorganization.

There was one corner of my room that was a bit tidy, where my school trunk was. I had tried to pack neatly, so I wouldn't forget anything. I picked up a dark crimson scarf off the floor and tossed it into my open mahogany trunk. I actually thought my trunk was quite pretty, with my initials engraved in gold on the front. I had taken good care of it. There wasn't a scratch in sight on the shiny wood.

My trunk was pretty full so far. As I glanced around my room, I was fully sure I was finished packing. I had only needed an excuse to get away from the cold, unwelcoming bunch downstairs.

I glanced up at the clock hung on my bright green wall, happily noting I had only three more hours to go until I left this place forever.

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(A/N: This is my first fic ever, so I hope you like it! I have a lot of plans for this story, so please hit that button down there and review to motivate me! Thank ya! D