Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns all characters except for the ones that you don't recognize. Some aspects of this story is based off of a book called Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals.
A/N: I added a bit more on Petunia's part, if anybody remembers her. Lots of old stuff is in here, I just reworded everything to make it sound better. The real twist won't come up in the later chapters when Lily really gets beaten up at Hogwarts. I would also appreciate feedback on how I'm doing and it would be greatly appreciated.
Chapter 5:
It was only two days till she would leave for the train and Lily was already furiously packing her things in her trunks. Clothes, books, bags, socks, paper and other things were strewed all around her room as Lily desperately tried to organize her things and figure out what to bring for nearly a whole year. Amber hooted, giving her comment of the mess in her room. Lily looked at Amber set in a cage on her desk. "I know, I know it's a huge mess and I still haven't gotten one full trunk packed yet! I'm working on it Amber."
Lily sighed, sitting on the floor, brushing away a stray strand of hair. Her eyes fell upon one of her books for Hogwarts. "Charms…" Lily said to herself as she picked up the charm book. She began flipping through the pages, the context fascinating her as she went through.
"I can't wait." She breathed.
"I can't wait! Its only two days until that Christmas tree leaves the house!" Petunia yelled at her friend over the phone.
"Really? That's sad, you shouldn't be so…so glad." Her friend said over.
"What do you mean glad?! My sister is finally leaving the house! And I can now reign over as an only child!"
"Right. So, what school is she going to?"
"She's going to some different school that I totally don't know, but it's a boarding school." Petunia said.
A thought filled her mind. It was a memory about the night that her parents talked to her alone.
"Now Petunia, I don't want you to tell anyone where Lily is going. NO ONE. If you tell anyone the purebloods will find out and come after Lily with more thirstiness than ever. I don't want her to get hurt." Mark said.
"Its just like we asked you not to tell anyone that she's going to a magic school in the area." Rose said.
"Don't I want to hurtLily?" Petunia said with disgust.
"Petunia! I will not have that kind of attitude! Lily is your sister. And you are her sister. Now act like one!" Rose yelled.
"I am acting like one, its called sibling rivalry." Petunia shot back.
"Petunia!" Mark said, and shot a warning glance.
Petunia kept her mouth shut.
"I don't understand you, you and Lily used to be great sisters up till the time Lily was a witch." Rose said.
Petunia looked down at her feet. 'Maybe because you always paid attention to her. You were so proud of having her as a witch, you weren't even proud of me for the things I have done, things I have done for both you and my sister.' She thought bitterly. 'Maybe I'm just jealous. Maybe I'm just alone.'
Petunia glared at her shoe. "Times change." She said in a toneless voice, void of emotion.
Rose looked down at her hands and sighed.
"Or is it because you were jealous that your sister is a witch?" Mark asked quietly, careful on his voice.
Petunia flickered her eyes at her dad, a dangerous look set on her face.
"Maybe its because she and I started to change." She said. She could have told them the real reason. That she felt left out, less loved and less special. Jealous of the fact that she could never go into the same world her sister could go to.
"Its not easy being a sister of a witch." She whispered quietly, so that none of her parents would hear.
Jealousy and pain was all Petunia felt in her heart against her family ever since Lily turned into a witch. There was no way to let it out. No way except for the people at school. The very same people who thought lived in a great world, people who were oblivious. It very nearly disgusted her.
"Besides I can't tell anyways or that Ministry of Magic will have me hunted down for the rest of my life if ever got anybody to believe me. If not, then I will be labeled as a complete lunatic at school." Petunia said matter-of-factly.
"So you won't tell?" Rose asked.
"If people start calling me a magic-believer in the middle of the streets when we're shopping mom, then you'll know whether I told everyone or not." Petunia said, ending the conversation.
'I could tell everyone now that my sister is soon leaving.' Petunia thought. 'I could embarrass her, could make her feel humiliated to be so different.'
"Hello? Petunia? Are you there?"
"Huh? Oh sorry. Yeah I'm here." Petunia thought and snapped out of her head.
"Well anyways, I still think you should treat you sister much nicer, I mean, after all, she is your sister."
"What's the difference? She acts the same towards me!" Petunia said.
"Well maybe she's was trying to be nice before and then found out she couldn't and then got sick of your complaining and-"
"What are you saying?!" Petunia yelled.
"I-"
"You know what, if you want to be friends with me, then don't even say those things. Or you're out of the game." Petunia said, warningly.
"Sorry."
"Good."
"Okay, well anyways, you know today, Jeremy was all like, oh my god!"
Petunia didn't hear the rest of the conversation, instead her mind drifted off to the same subject before.
'But then again, If I tell, I bet no one would believe me.'
"LILY!" Rose called from the living room.
"YES?!" Lily yelled, running down the stairs. "Sorry mom but I'm packing so I need you to be fast."
Rose blinked for a second. "Well I just wanted you to ask Petunia to get off the phone. I need it to call your dad."
"Now?" Lily whined, horrified at the thought of asking Petunia anything. "Do I have to now? I mean now? Of all times?"
"I need the phone Lily."
"Fine." Lily said, exasperated and climbed the stairs to Petunia's room. She stopped right in front of the white as snow door, leaning her forehead on it. 'I don't wanna ask for the phone.' She thought miserably. She leaned her whole body on the door and lazily and unwillingly knocked on the door three times.
"What do you want?" Petunia said when she opened the door, causing Lily to almost fall face flat on the floor.
"Mom wants you to get off the phone so then she can call dad." Lily said, regaining her composure while Petunia was looking at her weirdly.
"What were you doing leaning on my door?"
"I was going to scare you." Lily lied. "But you opened it."
"Well duh." Petunia said, rolling her eyes. "What do you want anyways?"
"Mom needs the phone." Lily said bluntly.
"Ugh. Fine." Petunia said. "Look, I have to go now, my sister here is yelling at me to get off the phone. So, see ya!" Petunia hung up the phone. She yelled from her room, "MOM! YOU CAN USE THE DOWNSTAIRS PHONE NOW!"
"Thank you!" Her mom called from the bottom.
"You know Lily, I can't imagine you going to that Pigpharts school." Petunia started, purposely naming the school wrong. It was on instinct, after years of insulting Lily it became a habit, constant and an instinct.
"Hogwarts." Lily corrected, her defenses were on.
"Whatever." Petunia said and rolled her eyes. "Well anyways, since this project is so 'special' to the what do you call that magic government thing?"
Lily knew Petunia was up to her games. She had been in the game for all her life and she was quite good at it. Right now, she was at Lily's back. "Ministry of Magic." Lily tonelessly said a hard look set on her face. She crossed her arms. "What's it to you?"
"Nothing, but I mean, its special because it's the first time that they have ever brought a mudblood," she extended the word mudblood nice, long, and loud. " and a pureblood together."
"So?" Lily asked, raising an eyebrow at the statement. Where was this going?
"Well, I was just wondering, since that school is so bloodcist, don't you think you'll be abused over there?"
"I'm very aware of that situation Petunia. There is no need to mention it right now. You'll only dampen my spirits." Lily said.
"Well, that's what I was intending to do."
"I won't let your words sway me into tension and confusion and insecurity. I'm sure about my decision and I still want to go." Lily said.
Petunia snorted. That had never happened before, all the time whenever she had said something bad about the one thing Lily loved, she would have gone into hysterics and didn't do anything about it.
'Oh god, there she goes again. She's after me.' Lily thought uncomfortably.
"After all, don't you want me to go away? You can have the whole house and family, I won't be here to even bother you." Lily said matter-of-factly.
Petunia was slightly taken back. "Well, lets just say this torture is your good-bye present."
"Thanks Petunia. I llooovveee it so much."
"Oh it gets better."
Lily resolved to not continue this conversation. "I have better things to do." Lily said. "Then discuss anything with you." She added coldly.
"Careful Lily, we don't want liars in this house." Petunia said slyly.
"Then get out of the house." Lily shot back, green eyes burning.
Petunia smirked at her outbreak. "Well, I was just wondering, I don't know how you are going to survive in that school, with only 3 other mudbloods" (She again, extended the world mudblood.) "With the rest of the school hating for what your bloodline is. I mean, don't you think they'll torture you in other painful ways than I can do? Like humiliate you by reading your diary out loud when they have snatched it secretly or maybe causing you eternal pain with their wands and what about the girls? They'll mock you when you walk in corridors, bathrooms, dorms, hallways, lunch times, during class, make you look like a cheat. Make you're life like a living hell." She finished.
Her words chilled Lily's spine.
"And the worst thing that can happen to you is that when the protesters get out of hand, they might have to hang you at the spot just to make the crowd happy." Petunia said slowly in a low voice. Her lips curved into an evil smile at what she had just said.
Tears began to sting Lily's eyes as she thought. She walked towards her room, not looking back.
"Don't worry, I feel your pain!" Petunia yelled after her.
The words nipped at her heels like barking dogs.
'I hadn't thought of protestors.' Lily thought as she quietly shut her door. Things didn't seem like it was going to go well. 'Just two days Lily, just two days and you'll be in Hogwarts.' Lily thought to herself, leaning on the door and closing her eyes. Her mind wandered back to the daydream she had of Hogwarts.
It was the day. Lily jumped out of bed, got ready fast and dragged her belongings down the stairs and near the front door. Lily was jittery as she ate her bread with jam and her eyes kept straying to the clock. 'Oh where is she?' Lily thought impatiently as she drank the last of her orange juice.
Lily went over to the window to see if Ms. Aki had drove up her driveway ready to pick her up.
"Lily, I have asked Ms. Aki to give us some time alone." Mark said from the kitchen.
Lily immediately got tense. It was the last time she would see her family again until June. That was not good. She hated saying good-byes, it was all mushy and it felt uncomfortable. Lily whimpered silently.
"We wanted to have a proper farewell to you." Rose said.
It was mushy. Lily wasn't prepared for it, she had planned to leave tear-free, but she wasn't prepared for this. Lily mentally smacked herself on the head for not preparing the night before.
"Mom, Dad, I'm going to miss you a lot." Lily began.
"We're going to miss you too Petal." Mark said. "Come here." He opened his arms for a hug. Lily gladly went to him. "Now for the one most important rule is that-'
"Don't date boys." Lily said.
"Good."
"Hey flower, save a hug for me." Rose said and gave Lily a bear hug.
"I'm going to miss you a lot, even though I'll be coming home on the holidays and all, I don't think it will be enough." Lily said tearfully.
A car honked outside.
"You better go Lily. Go quickly, before I'm going to drag you back in here." Mark said.
"Don't forget to study hard." Rose said as she and her husband followed Lily to the front door.
"Yes mom."
"Eat well." Rose said.
"Yes mom."
"And always be nice." Mark said and handed her backpack.
"Yes dad."
"And your vitamins." Rose said.
"And don't let the others get to you!" Mark said and handed her jacket.
"Thanks dad. Thanks mom." Lily said and grabbed her suitcases and went down to Ms. Aki's car.
"Come on! We're almost late!" Ms. Aki said. Lily slammed the trunk shut and took one last look at her parents. She looked at Ms. Aki pleadingly and Ms. Aki nodded her head.
Lily gave one last hug to her parents before leaving. As the car door slammed and the car was pulling out of the driveway, upstairs in one of the smallest windows, Petunia was watching, tears streaming down her face and she waved her hand goodbye at her sister, even if she didn't see.
"Platform 9 and ¾ ." Ms. Aki said, pushing the cart of Lily's trunks. "Here it is, you will be meeting up with 3 other students. Okay, so now Lily you need to walk right through that brick wall."
Lily looked at her in disbelief. "You're not going to open it up like you did with Daigon Alley the other day?"
Ms. Aki laughed. "Sorry, this magic is different. Just walk right through you can even go slowly if you want but you'll end up walking through unharmed. I'm going with you so I'm a little nervous too. Maybe its best if we just run on the count of 3." Ms. Aki said, gripping the cart hard, getting ready to push it towards the wall.
Lily wanted to bonk her head on something as she too, gripped the cart hard.
"1…2…3!"
Lily shut her eyes as she felt the wall go through her, could feel the magic rippling inside her and outside, could smell and feel the magic. Suddenly, a loud whistle blasted through her ears and the sound of bells rung clearly. She opened her eyes. The great Hogwarts train. She gasped, jaw dropping.
"This. Is unbelievable." Lily whispered. Ms. Aki could only nod in agreement. Ms. Aki pushed the car to the luggage loading area and then pulled Lily to the side of the train where a door was open for her.
"Few things before you go," She said, handing Lily's ticket to the guy who was standing nearby them.
"At around 3 today you will meet Professor Dumbledore, he is a teacher at Hogwarts and he will escort you to Hogwarts. You need to be dressed in your uniform around the time Professor Dumbledore arrives. The other 3 students should be arriving now." Ms. Aki said. "I will see you take off."
Lily nodded, gripping her black backpack tight. She looked down at her black converse shoes. "When you go back, tell my parents that I love them." Lily said.
"I will."
Lily let out a small smile. A shout could be heard on the other end. Her head turned toward the direction of the sound, her eyes meeting a girl with blue hair yelling at a blonde-haired guy. "We're going to be late!" Lily could hear the girl yell.
"It looks like they have already arrived." Ms. Aki said. Suddenly the train gave out a huge whistle. "Time for you to leave. Good luck Lily!"
Lily got inside the train. "Bye!"
Lily looked at the empty hallway, adorned in dark cherry wood, lots of furnishes and a luxurious red carpet. Each door was plated beautifully in gold and the windows were so clean it felt like Lily could put her hand through and not touch the glass at all.
Lily sighed at the emptiness that grew in her stomach.
This was going to be a long ride.
Lily walked along the long hallway of the train looking through the windows at empty compartments. The trained moved slowly and Lily peered through one of the door windows into a compartment, looking through another window there. She caught sight of Ms. Aki. She snapped and ripped the compartment door open and furiously opened the window. She stuck her head out of the window, to get a glance at someone she probably would never see again. "I'll write to you Ms. Aki!" She yelled and waved, watching her teacher's figure grow smaller and smaller as the train picked up speed, carrying her away to a place that was her gift and her curse.
She sighed. She sat in the empty compartment, watching the scenery go by a settled sadness within the room. She felt so distant and was glad that there was a moments silent that she could get away for a while without confronting something she didn't want to do: meeting the others.
Her moment was disturbed when that same blue-haired girl opened the door of the compartment. "Oh, sorry, I didn't know you were here, is this seat taken?"
Lily looked at her surprised at her outburst. She found it hard to find her voice. "N-n-oo, no, I'm the only one here." Lily said shakily. The girl was dark-skinned, skinny and she had brown eyes. Her hair was dyed a dark blue and the girl was wearing jeans with pockets on the side, a light blue t-shirt with a sunflower printed on it and a gray short-sleeved blouse over it. She also had a cowboy's hat on for fun. Lily could only stare at her eccentricity.
"Oh good." The girl said, flopping down on the seat across from Lily. "I'm sorry if I scared you silly. I have a tendency to do that." She said and smiled, her brown eyes twinkling mischievously. "You're Lily right? You're from around England huh? Nice to meet you!" She said.
Lily was surprised. "How did you know?"
The girl smiled. "It was the Minister of Magic who told me when I had asked who else was going." She shrugged the idea off. "I'm Tijana." She said. (A/N: Pronounced Tijauna."
Their quiet introduction was rudely disrupted by the sound of laughter bursting through the door.
"We found you!" The blonde haired boy said, smiling, his blue eyes sparkling. His voice had a heavy Australian accent.
"And we found someone else too." The boy behind him said. He had dark skin and eyes. His hair was such a dark brown it was almost black.
Tijana grinned. She stood up and said, "Lily this is Michael from Australia."
Michael grinned his welcome. "The pleasure is all mine."
Lily smiled. "And this is Tony, from Egypt." Tijana said. "Michael, Tony this is Lily from England."
"You're really from Egypt? What's it like over there?" Lily asked amazed as all three of her new friends sat down, Tijana sitting next to her and the two boys sitting across from them.
Tony grinned. "Only one word: HOT."
All of them laughed.
"And you haven't told me where you're from." Lily turned to Tijana.
"I'm from America. And I had to stop in two other places to pick up these two dingbats before I could meet you." She glared at the boys, who grinned mischievously.
"So, do you know what houses you're in?" Lily asked them all. "I'm in Gryffindor."
"Ravenclaw. Hence my blue hair." Tijana giggled, pointing to her hair. "Michael is in Hufflefpuff and Tony's in Slytherin."
Tony scowled. "I could have said which house I belong thank you very much."
Tijana stuck her tongue out at him childishly. "Maybe if you had a voice I wouldn't have to say it for you."
Lily laughed at them. It was nice, to have 3 other people just like you coming along for something horrible in their lives.
The train ride was indeed very long, but the time was plentiful for the 4 of them to get to know each other. They talked and laughed the whole time and it felt like they were a family together with goofballs like Tijana and Michael. Tony was a bit too serious for all of them.
"I think our escort should be arriving soon." Tijana said, looking at her watch. "Its 10 till 2."
"I bet he'll be late." Michael said, lounging on his seat, strands of blonde hair falling into his eyes.
"No I'm actually on time." A booming voice said over Michael. Michael yelped and jumped from his seat. "Ahh!"
Professor Dumbledore stood there tall, smiling at Michael. "Welcome Michael it is nice to meet you. Welcome to Hogwarts. I am your escort or your tour guide if you want it that way." He turned around to meet the others. "Welcome Lily, a fellow native! It is a pleasure to meet you. Awww, the jumpy blue-haired girl should be Tijana. How is America by the way?"
"Fine." Tijana said, smiling cheerfully.
"And yes, Tony is from Egypt. Have you ever considered raiding tombs as a job?" Dumbledore asked.
Tony grinned. "I would have to study history for that."
Dumbledore chuckled. "Don't need to. We also have tomb raiders in our world. Deals with Egyptian curses too. Quite fascinating I might add." Dumbledore smiled. "Anyways, everyone, I am Professor Dumbledore and I am a professor at Hogwarts. I have been assigned as your tour guide and escort to Hogwarts. Now is the best time to change into your uniforms and get ready. We are going to reach Hogwarts in about a half and hour. If anybody needs me I'll be in the refreshments area." Professor Dumbledore was about to leave when he turned again to speak to them. "Welcome to Hogwarts." He said and left.
'Welcome to Hogwarts.' Lily thought to herself. 'I have been wanting to hear those words.'
A/N: Meh, chapters are getting harder to rewrite now as the story continues. Again, not much changes here and it doesn't really have anything to do with the plot, the big changes will occur in the later chapters. Chapter 6 and 7 won't be replaced soon enough because I have lots of things to do with my life. Next weekend I'm booked too as it is my birthday. Keep up with my profile for more replacements!
Chrissy