Disclaimer: I don't own any characters you recognize or the basic storyline. I know that and you know that, so let's move on.
"Do you believe in magic?" Lily Evans asked her best friend Sylvia Sutcliff as she sat beside her on a park swing, swinging softly, her long red hair alternating between blowing behind her and blowing in her face. After a competition designed to determine who could swing higher, Lily was now the proud owner of Sylvia's left sandal, which she held loosely in her left hand.
"Define magic. I believe in the magic between two people in love. I believe in the magic of accomplishing something you've worked really hard for. I believe in the magic of doing something you really love. Do I believe in the kind of magic that turns mice into horses and renders people immobile and fixes things all with the flick of a wand and a few foreign words? I'm not so sure. I believe that people make their own magic, Lily."
"I just can't help believing that somewhere in the world, someone can do magic. I read all these books and see all these movies about sorcerers and enchantresses and witches and wizards and I just can't fathom how all of these things can just come out of our heads. There has to be some basis for it. I figure that there must have been a time when all people lived together whether they had magic or not, but the people who didn't began to envy those who did because all of the good things happened to the magical people. The magical people had to hide from the non-magical people to protect themselves, and to this day live among us, hiding who they are. I just wish that I could meet them. I wish that I could experience their magic. I wish that I could be magical."
"It's a nice notion, Lily, but you don't even know that there really are magical people."
Lily glanced at her watch before speaking, "If I showed you something, would you promise never to tell a single soul what I've told you and what you've seen?"
"Of course. I may be a bit of a skeptic, but I'll always be your best friend, and I'll always keep your secrets. I still haven't told anyone about your secret crush on the clown at the circus we went to when we were eight, have I?"
"Shut up," Lily replied, playfully hitting her friend on the shoulder. "I think that secret's just a little bit expired.
"Oh, thank goodness. I just can't hold it in any longer. If I don't tell someone, I'm going to blow up."
Once her laughter had died down, Lily looked at her watch and let out a squeal. "Hurry, Sylvia! We're going to be late!" she cried, jumping off the swing and grabbing her friend's arm with her free hand. She started to run off, but didn't get very far before a force pulled her back to her starting point. "What?"
"I'm not going anywhere without two shoes."
"Lily glanced down at the sandal in her hand, up in the direction she wanted to go, and back down at the shoe. Finally she held out the shoe to Sylvia, looking into her friend's brown eyes with a twinkle in her own green ones. "Take it," she said in mock pain, turning her head and closing her eyes, "before I change my mind. Oh, wait!" she exclaimed, turning her gaze on the shoe. "I promise that I'm not abandoning you. Sylvia's just going to borrow you for a while. I'll miss you!" She then turned back to Sylvia and put a bright smile on her face. "Here you go!" she cried, handing the shoe to her friend.
"You're nuts," Sylvia said, putting on her sandal, "you know that?"
"Of course, thanks. Now let's go!" On that note, she grabbed her friend's arm again and started running.
"Lily, just out of curiosity, what could we possibly be late for at –" Here she looked at her watch. "– 10:30 in the morning? Because it better be good if you're willing to pull my arm off for it. I must say that I'm rather attached to my arm. Ha, ha, get it? Attached – I crack myself up."
"We have to be there before 11:00. I'm sure that that's when the train leaves. Or at least"
"Whoa, hold it. Are you out of your mind? I am so not taking a train anywhere. In case you've forgotten, we have a little problem of parents who just might have a fit if we aren't home by dark. You of all people should realize that we can't just run off. You're the daughter of the Prime Minister. Your dad is going to think you've been kidnapped for ransom money. Hell, if anyone recognizes you, you probably will be kidnapped for ransom money!"
"We aren't taking the train you dingbat! And it's not even noon yet. No one is going to kidnap me in the middle of the day. Now, hurry up or we'll miss it."
"Miss what, exactly?"
"What I want to show you." Lily didn't slow down until they had reached King's Cross Station. Once they were inside the building, she led Sylvia to the area near platforms 9 and 10. She then pulled her friend down to the ground so that they were hiding behind a garbage bin."
"I say! It's garbage!" Sylvia squealed in fake excitement. "I can totally see why you would be so excited to show me this."
"We're not here to look at garbage. If we wanted to see that, we wouldn't have to look far. Your room is covered in it."
"Hey! That's –"
"SHH!"
"Seriously, Lily, what is with you? You're acting really strange. I think you have a fever. Never fear! It's Doctor Sylvia to the rescue! Now," she continued, altering her tone to be more serious, "I prescribe some ice cream, lots of chocolate, and plenty of bed rest, and you should feel better in, oh about a decade or two."
"Look!" Lily exclaimed suddenly, pointing at something on the platform.
"What?" Sylvia inquired while craning her neck to see above the garbage bin.
"Look at that person over there, the one with the owl in the cage on top of his suitcase."
"What about him?"
"Don't you find it odd that he's got an owl in a cage?"
"Well yes, but I also find it odd that you care. Is this what you wanted to show me, Lily? 'Cause if it is, don't you think it's a little anticlimactic? I mean, really –"
"Look! There are two more people with owls!"
"Okay, so it's a club for owl fanatics and they're taking a trip with their owls. Can we go now?"
"Listen, Sylvia, just watch one of the people with owls, okay? But don't let them see you watching. I just have a feeling that something important is going to happen." The two girls watched a small dark haired boy as he started crying, and then they watched another boy, this one a little older, kneel down in front of him. They strained their ears to hear what he was saying.
"Don't worry, buddy. I promise I won't forget you while I'm away at school. I'll write you letters so much you'll get sick of me."
"I don't want you to go, Chris."
"I have to buddy. How about I tell you one more time how I got into Diagon Ally. Will that make you feel better?" The little boy sniffed and nodded. "Well, first we had to go through the Leaky Cauldron, which we never would have noticed if we hadn't been looking for it. It's on John Lennon Road, between a book shop and a record shop. Then we headed out the other side towards the big brick wall. Then Dad tapped the wall with his wand in a certain, secret, sequence, and the wall moved apart to let us through. You got that? You need to remember it for when you start Hogwarts."
"Shh, dear, don't speak about Hogwarts until you're on the platform," admonished a woman who had to be their mother. What if a muggle heard you?"
"What's a muggle?" Sylvia pondered out loud, not really expecting a reply, and not getting one.
Sylvia and Lily watched as the older boy hugged his parents and his little brother, finally stopping at the post between platforms 9 and 10. Sylvia's eyes widened as the he began to run at the wall with his trolley and opted to close her eyes, not wanting to see him crash. After a minute, she hadn't heard anything, so she opened her eyes through her hand only to move her hand away upon realizing that the boy was gone, leaving his brother crying and his parents comforting him."
"Did you see?" Lily asked excitedly.
"Where did he go?"
Lily turned toward her friend. "Weren't you watching?"
"I covered my eyes. I couldn't bear to watch a little kid crash into a wall."
"Here comes a girl with a toad in her hand. Watch her. And keep your eyes open this time."
Sylvia did as instructed and was surprised to see the girl disappear through the wall. "Did she… am I…"
"Come on," Lily said, dragging her friend out from their hiding spot. She basically had to drag Sylvia all the way back to her house while listening to her friend's nonsensical mumblings. The only word she could make out was impossible. Finally they reached Lily's house, and seeing that her father and sister were out, Lily thanked God for small miracles before dragging Sylvia up to her room.
When Sylvia was finally able to gather her bearings, she looked at Lily with wide eyes.
"How did they – how did you know?"
"You mean how did I know that they would go through the wall?" Sylvia nodded. "I didn't. Two years ago, on September 1st, I took the train from Kings Cross Platform 10 to visit my cousin. I was there at 10:30 but my train didn't leave until 11:30, so, with nothing to do, I observed the people around me. I noticed that there were quite a few people with owls or in cages or carrying around toads. I found it really odd, but even odder was the fact that all of them were gone by 11:00. I forgot about it later, but last year on September 1st, the exact same thing happened when I was going for another visit to my cousin's. By then it was too weird, so I decided that I would come back this year to see where they were all going. I didn't really expect them to disappear, but I did expect something weird to happen."
"Lily."
"Yes?"
"It's impossible for people to walk through walls."
"I wouldn't say impossible. It isn't probable though. It's really unbelievable. Kind of like magic, don't you think?"
"You don't really think –"
"What else could it be? Listen, you heard that boy tell his brother how to get into that place called Diagon Alley. I think that it could be the barrier between this world and the world of magic."
"Lily, you are crazy. I really think that you need to calm down. Let's get something to eat. Maybe it'll –"
"Oh, no!" Lily's eyes widened. "I was supposed to go to Parliament this morning to have brunch with all the most important contributors to the government! My father's going to kill me!"
"Lily, I just heard a car door slam."
"They're home! Quick! There's still time. Save yourself!"
"Are you nuts? How am I supposed to get out of here now? They'll be in the house any minute."
"Go out the window."
Sylvia looked at her apprehensively, but hearing the front door open downstairs left her with limited options: go out the window or witness the Prime Minister's temper. She opted for the window, giving Lily a quick hug goodbye.
"Lily Evans, get down here this instant!"
Sylvia gave her friend a sympathetic look before climbing out the window onto the lower level of the roof and then jumping off. Lily turned toward the door to her room and anxiously trudged downstairs, putting on her best puppy dog face just as she reached the bottom step and walked straight into her father's chest.
"Hi, Daddy."
"Don't you dare 'Hi, Daddy' me. You had better have a very good reason for missing brunch this morning. Everyone was asking where you were, and I kept telling them that you were just running late. It looked really stupid when you never showed up! What do you have to say for yourself?"
"Umm, I'm sorry?"
"Where on earth were you? When I woke up this morning to find you gone I thought that you had gone to Parliament early. But it became clear that that was not the case when Petunia and I arrived and you were nowhere in sight."
"I really am sorry, Daddy. I just lost track of time."
"I want to know where you were."
"I was just with Sylvia. We were hanging out at the park."
"You were at the park all morning?"
"No," Lily sighed, continuing in a defeated voice, "we went to the train station."
"You went to see those weird people with the owls and toads again, didn't you? Didn't you?" Lily winced. "I don't know how many times I've told you, Lily, witches and wizards don't exist. Magic doesn't exist."
"But Daddy –"
"No buts. You need to get these frivolous ideas out of your head. You are 18 years old now and out of high school. You need to grow up some time. I do not want to hear any more about magic being real, or I'll take away all your books and movies. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, Daddy," she replied dejectedly, looking down at the ground.
"Now go apologize to your sister, please."
"Yes, Daddy."
Believe it or not, John Lennon Road is a real road. Now, I realize that it is in Liverpool and that it is most definitely not where the Leaky Cauldron is, but Jo doesn't give us a street name, so at least I used a real one. What can I say? Ihave an obsession with the Beatles. If you're wondering, yes I did use Stuart Sutcliff's last name for Sylvia. Now, I'd like to thank my reviewers for last chapter, dreamergirl86, apotterlover, Pair of Dice, Helen, and tea. You guys made my day. I hope you liked this chapter.