Another summer day, another hot, pointless day. Lily sighed and used her legs to get in the air half-heartedly. The swing was uncomfortable but the breeze was cool on her face as she swung back and forth. Lily was in the forest. Not exactly the forest. The orphanage where she resided had built a 'playground', which consisted of a few swings, a miniature Quidditch field, and a small sandbox. Nearly completely surrounding it was a forest. Lily sighed again, feeling the minutes slipping by too slowly. She knew why though. The orphanage had a history class where, in one lesson, had taught Lily and the other orphans about a mad squib who, enraged by his lack of magic, had taken his mother's wand and attempted to change the world by turning all the houses in the world into trees. The result had been time passing slower when your life was dull and uninteresting.
Lily chewed on a strand of hair for lack of more interesting activity, and hated the squib. Stupid weak thing. The swing slowed to a stop and Lily looked into the forest, where it had looked as though something had flashed. Curiosity suddenly gripped her as she realized that she had never been in the forest. The orphanage had forbidden their residents to explore it but now Lily realized that she could not see a barrier keeping her from it.
Walking cautiously, Lily ran a few fingers through her tousled hair and stepped into the forest. It looked normal. Quiet, with only a few birds chirping. Lily was disappointed and figured that the only reason she had been restricted from this area was because there was always the chance that she would get lost. Lily sat against a tree and remembered how she had gotten here.
I'm cold, I'm hungry, I need it. That is all I want. I must look horrible. What is happening to me? What is this desire, what am I feeling? I want…to live. I must look horrible. But why does it matter? I just need…someone…something..
This is a clearing. Finally. That was a huge forest.
I suddenly am curious as to what I'm looking at. A huge stretch of something black. I squat down and touch it curiously. What is this for? A few yellow lines in the middle of the road. How odd.
I'm so dizzy…I can't..fight…maybe this is what my mother meant when she said I was a useless half-breed. What is a half-breed?
"Excuse me, are you alright?" Dizzy, dizzy. But I still look up. How startling. A middle aged human, with such a tight, stern face. Why am I such a monster? What am I?
And this..something is happening. Something..His neck. Why do I care about that? I leap up, a young ferocious animal, and I attempt to get to his neck. I hate myself. The woman gasps and pulls something out of the strange billowy dress she is wearing. She mumbles something and I fall over, motionless. I cannot move, cannot even twitch. I want to die, die from shame. And even after all these, I still want it. The blood. I am sick. The woman disappeared! Where is she? The world..is dimming.
Lily sighed. The next morning, she had been told that she was to live in this orphanage. Through careful explanations, she had been told that she was magical, that magic existed, and that she was a half vampire. Lily simply nodded through ever explanation and afterwards, she struggled to tell them who she was and where she had come from. All she had were distant memories of her mother, frail and hateful, clenching Lily's wrists at times to whisper how horrible she was. And although Lily eventually left her mother, the angry whispers stayed with her.
One thing Lily was grateful for was that, in growing older, she seemed able to control her vampire abilities and desires much more easily.
Lily was also counting down the days. Two more weeks and she would be attending a school by the name of Hogwarts, which was apparently most prestigious. However, she was still a little bit doubtful about it. Not nervous exactly, simply unsure of if she actually wanted to go.
Perhaps she was just being a normal pre-teenager. Or perhaps, the most distant corners of her mind, she already knew that Hogwarts wouldn't just give her an academic education. It would educate her in the ugly ways the world worked, the way the people's minds worked.
Or maybe she was just being paranoid.