Lily's head shot up from the letter, darting around wildly attempting to locate the voice. When she found it, however, she wished that she hadn't.
The man approaching Lily and Mrs. Evans was quite a sight. He was tall, but not extraordinarily so, and had short, dark grizzled hair that was cut just above the lobe of his ear. He was limping, clearly having some sort of injury on his knee and his uneven steps gave an unpleasant clunk on the patio as he advanced. His face, however, caused Lily's eyes to widen considerably. His face looked as though it was completely broken; every inch of it was covered in thick scars that had been clumsily repaired and his nose had clearly been broken at least once. His eye was normal, brown, small and solitary. His other eye was large and startlingly electric blue, swiveling as though independent from the rest of his face. Currently it was focused on Lily, who stumbled backwards under his gaze.
"The name's Moody, Alastor Moody," His voice was a low growl that caused a terrified Lily to grab onto the table for support. "But mostly people call me Mad-Eye, and if you can't guess why then I probably shouldn't be here in the first place." Lily was trembling slightly, mouth hung open and eyes wide.
"Why i are you here," Mrs. Evans said unexpectedly, voice shaky, "What do you want from us?"
"I see you got your letter already, that's good." Moody ignored Mrs. Evans completely, and observed the letter still clutched in Lily's hand, sitting down in the chair that Petunia had just been sitting in. "I s'pose you're wondering what it is that letter means, why you got it. Heard you from behind the hedge there, and I see I have a lot to explain.
"You see," Moody continued, not letting Lily or Mrs. Evans intervene, "I am a wizard. I work for the Ministry of Magic as an Auror, or a defense wizard against dark arts. I'm here to introduce you to the wizarding world and answer any questions that you might have 'bout anything in that letter." He repositioned himself in the chair and studied Lily intently with both eyes.
"Erm, I, uh," Lily stammered, unable to comprehend what this man had just told her, "I'm Lily Evans."
"That part I do know." He growled, as though expecting somewhat of a wittier, more constructed response, "I'm here to answer your questions, not have mine answered."
"Okay," Lily was utterly confused. Did that man just say that he was a wizard? "What d'you mean, you're a wizard."
"I mean that I'm a wizard," He began, "That I can perform both basic and advanced forms of magic with and without the assistance of my wand."
"What do you mean, your wand?"
"I mean this."
From somewhere within his brown cloak, Moody pulled out a mahogany colored wooden stick that was about a foot long.
"But you ca-"
"Wingardium Leviosa " He muttered, pointing the 'wand' at a glass of lemonade still on the table. Following the point of his wand, the glass began to fly through the air around the yard. Lily's eyes followed the glass carefully; intent to find some sort of device that was suspending the glass in the air. Moody's normal eye was following the glass as well, but the blue eye was fixed upon Lily, watching her reaction to the display with great interest.
Lily stared, unable to think of anything else to do. Questions exploded in her mind like fireworks, questions she never thought she'd ever have to ask.
"What's Hogwarts?" Lily inquired rather quickly, only able to discern one question at a time.
"Hogwarts is a school of magic," Moody began, blue eye darting to where Mrs. Evans stood examining the glass of lemonade, wide-eyed. "One school to which you have been accepted to attend."
"Where is it?" Lily asked immediately.
"Unplottable. No one really knows where it is," Moody said gruffly, still watching Mrs. Evans with either a look of mild amusement or of very deep annoyance. "'Reckon it's somewhere in Scotland, though."
"Well if no one knows where it is," Lily began, looking somewhat concerned, "Then how does one get there?"
"Take the Hogwarts Express on September first," Mrs. Evans was now listening to every word that Moody was saying, as though finally convinced. "At Kings Cross Station, from platform 9 ¾." Lily furrowed her brows in concentration.
Is this some sort of joke? Platform 9 ¾
As though reading her thoughts, Moody said, "It's in between platforms nine and ten."
"Oh," Lily said, completely nonplussed, "What does it mean, 'We expect your owl no later than July 31'?"
"Owls are the way that wizards communicate," Moody said, as though Lily were stupid, "I'm sure you saw the Hogwarts owl that delivered what you're holding now?" Lily nodded, trying still to understand what was going on.
"So this is some sort of boarding school?" Lily was startled to hear her mother speak, whom she had forgotten was there. Moody nodded.
"Correct. That is, should you choose to allow her to attend," Moody bowed his head a touch before continuing, "Let me be the first to tell you, and I'm sure I won't be the last, that having a fully trained witch or wizard in the family has proven to be quite an advantage, not only to the person in question, but to the family as well. I mean, think about it. Everything could be done using magic. The possibilities are almost limitless."
"But where can I get these supplies?" Lily had been leafing through the various sheets of parchment during Moody's response, "Not in London?"
"Yes, and no," Moody's eye had gone back to swiveling around his head, causing Lily to jump slightly, "Physically, yes, it is in London. However, it is not visible to the muggle eye."
"Muggle?" Lily and Mrs. Evans asked simultaneously.
"A non-magical person. Not a drop of magic in their entire body," Moody adjusted himself in his seat again, electric blue eye still twisting wildly, "Anyway, this place is called Diagon Alley. I'll write the directions on the back of your parchment," Lily handed over the parchment and watched as Moody conjured a feather quill out of thin air and began to scribble instructions onto the back of it.
Meanwhile, Lily was too busy trying to decide if this was just a huge joke or if she was actually going to go to a school where they taught magic.
"Hold on," Lily said, causing Moody's normal eye to look up at her, "I don't think you're at the right place. I mean, I don't think that I'm a witch. I think that you've made an awful mistake." Moody cocked an eyebrow suspiciously, eye still spinning uncontrollably.
"Do you?" Mrs. Evans watched intently as Moody continued, "Let me ask you something. Have you ever done anything that you can't explain when you were angry or frustrated?"
Lily considered this for a moment. When Lily was eight years old, she had gotten angry at Petunia for tattling on her when she drawn on the walls with Mrs. Evan's lipstick. So in response, Lily had ripped all of the heads off of Petunia's dolls and thrown them out her bedroom window into the front garden. After Petunia had predictably tattled on Lily, Lily had tried to run from her father into her bedroom. Fearing the worst, Lily thought it'd be best for her not to hide and just sit on her bed and wait. When Mr. Evans had come storming up the stairs into her bedroom, however, it seemed that he couldn't see her in the least. Lily was confused; she was sitting right there on the bed! Mr. Evans just looked right through her, shook his head and left the room. A bewildered Lily had just assumed that Mr. Evans needed to get a new pair of glasses, even though he didn't wear any.
"So," Lily began, becoming excited, "I'm really going to learn at a school of magic?"
Moody nodded, "And you won't need to reply by owl, I'm to report back to Dumbledore myself."
"Dumbledore, the headmaster?"
"The very same." Moody stood up and pulled out his wand again, "You'll meet him in due time. I'd better be off though; remember that your train ticket is in the envelope: Platform 9 ¾ at Kings Cross Station. The train leaves at exactly eleven, so don't be late."
Moody then smoothed out his cloak and held out his wand.
"Good luck,"
With a faint popping noise, he was gone.