Chapter 3:

Lily and her mother got to Diagon Alley with no mishaps, following the instructions given to them by Moody. At first they had some trouble with the currency, something that Moody had conveniently forgotten to mention, but figured out the not so standard money system in due time. Lily had a lot of fun buying her supplies, which also included a chocolate colored owl with the same emerald eyes that Lily possessed. She had also bought her wand, something she was very keen on getting from the beginning.

The only wand shop in the entire village was called Ollivanders. The shop itself was narrow and kind of shabby; the kind of place that would have made Petunia wrinkle her nose as if suggesting that she were better, and Lily giggled to herself at the thought of Petunia being in Diagon Alley in the first place. The sign above the door read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C. in peeling gold letters. Stepping inside the shop, Lily realized that the place didn't look any tidier from the inside than it did from the outside. It was quite small, with just one humble chair in the corner in which Mrs. Evans sat quite uncomfortably on the edge. From all the dust Lily wouldn't have thought that anyone had been in this place for many years. There were shelves upon shelves of narrow boxes stacked neatly all the way up to the ceiling. For some reason, Lily felt apprehensive about being in the shop. Everything seemed to be radiating some sort of cryptic magic that Lily was only vaguely aware of. Seeing a small bell on the desk in front of her, Lily tapped it nervously. Still looking around the room, Lily didn't notice when a small man emerged from behind the shelves.

"Good afternoon," Lily jumped as the old man spoke in gentle voice. He had large and gleaming, silvery eyes that seemed to be curiously soaking in every detail of Lily's physical appearance.

"Hi," Lily replied, unnerved, "I need a wand, for school. It's on my list-"

"I should hope so," the man interrupted, eyes twinkling, "for if it wasn't I should be most surprised." Lily didn't know how to respond to this, so she just nodded her head calculatingly.

"My name is Ollivander, and I hope to be selling you a wand to which you please the most." Mr. Ollivander began, taking Lily's insecure stance into consideration, "It is the wand that chooses the wizard, you know."

"I see," Lily replied, a little confused.

"Now," Mr. Ollivander began, "Tell me. Which is your wand arm?" Lily considered this for a moment, not quite sure what he meant.

"I'm right handed," She began, "If that's what you mean."

"Alright then, please extend your right arm." Then a tape measurer, with a wave of Mr. Ollivanders wand, began to take Lily's measurements all over her. As Mr. Ollivander was searching through the seemingly endless boxes, he began to speak.

Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance," His speech sounded practiced, as though he'd said it about a million times already, "We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are exactly the same. Oh, and you will of course never receive such proper results with the wand of another witch or wizard." Pulling down a box, Mr. Ollivander waved his wand again causing the tape measurer to stop.

"Here," he said, offering Lily the wand inside the box, "Try this. Cherry wood, 12 ¾ inches, dragon heartstring core." Lily took the wand expectedly and stood still. "Give it a wave," He continued. Perplexed, Lily waved the wand a bit before Ollivander jerked it away almost immediately. "No, no that won't do.." He began to search through the boxes again.

"Try this one, willow, 10 ¼ inches, swishy. Great for charm work."

Lily took the wand. She felt suddenly warmth, as though the wand was emitting heat. She brought down the wand in front of her, leaving a trail of gold and green sparks behind, cutting through the dust of the shop. Mrs. Evans let out a gasp, as though she never would have believed it if she couldn't see it.

"Oh, fantastic! Simply splendid," He took the wand back from her and placed it back in its box. "That'll be seven galleons please." He began to wrap the box in a thin brown paper as Lily pulled out her purse and grabbed seven of the gold coins. She put the gold on the table and grabbed the box quickly. After thanking Mr. Ollivander, she and Mrs. Evans hurried out of the shop. Lily wasn't sure if she liked Mr. Ollivander very much.

After Mrs. Evans and Lily were clear out on the streets of Diagon Alley again, Lily was itching to explore on her own and exercise her independence. As though reading her daughter's mind, Mrs. Evans smiled and said,

"I'm going to go and open up an account for you at Gringotts; why don't you have a look around, see if you can make a friend or two, hm?" Lily grinned and kissed her mother on the cheek before dashing away back into the bookshop. Mrs. Evans smiled at her daughter and headed the opposite way to the bank.

Lily wasn't really going to buy anything; she was just browsing through the various titles becoming more and more excited to go to Hogwarts than ever.

"My God," A drawling voice sounded from over her shoulder, "Who let a mudblood in this shop? I thought that it was against the law to allow something so disgustingly foul into such an establishment." Lily turned around, not entirely realizing that this person was referring to her. The boy that spoke was about Petunia's age; with slicked back bleach blonde hair and a pointed nose. He had a look of utter disgust upon his face, sharp eyes crinkled with loathing. He leaned in closer to her.

"I seriously doubt that you want to be in this position," He voice was so subdued that Lily could barely hear what he was saying. She heard sounds from both sides of her; two other boys had shown up, looking savage. "Because you're a girl, I think we'll give you a running start."

Powerless, Lily couldn't think of anything else she could do. She was alone and against three vicious looking boys who were older and probably more experienced in magic than she was. She fled, her bag swinging dangerously in her wake outside the bookshop. She bolted towards Gringotts; she heard the bookshop door bells being swung forcibly off of their handles. She looked desperately around her, trying to find an escape when she felt a strong hand grab her arm and pull her into an alley to her right. Lily struggled fiercely but whoever had saved her pinned her arms down with ease and used the other hand to cover her mouth. She heard a shuffling outside the dark alley, and saw the three boys dart past them, pointing somewhere ahead of them. A few moments after they had passed and Lily had calmed down, her captor released her into the main street.

"Sorry," A pleasant, male voice said ruefully, "I just assumed that you would rather be my hostage than theirs." Lily was breathing heavily and brushed herself off.

"Thanks," She began, still short of breath from having her mouth covered for more than a minute, "I'm Lily Evans, by the way."

Out of the alley stepped the most handsome boy that Lily had ever seen. He had jet-black hair that was a complete mess, but gracefully so. He had on circular glasses that covered round, hazel eyes, which were twinkling with mischievousness that was a little intimidating for Lily. Not yet seeing what his captive looked like, the boy looked up and gave a roguish grin at what he saw. Lily's thick, auburn hair was pulled into a loose ponytail in the back of her head but had since given way to her desperate escape. Her almond shaped emerald eyes were gleaming in admiration and she had a pert, little ski jump nose that was lightly sprinkled with delicate freckles across the bridge. He was about a head taller than she was, so she had to arch her neck slightly as she gave him a smile.

"James Potter," James said loosely, eyes wide, "Are you a first year?"

Lily nodded, "Yes,"

"Me too," Lily stared. He looked at least twelve! Seeing the calculating look on her face James replied, "I had my growth spurt over the summer."

"Oh," The pair began to walk down the main street, James with his hands in his pockets and Lily's hands fiddling with her bag.

"So," James began, Lily looked up eagerly, "How did someone as pretty as you fall into such unpleasant company?"

Lily blushed, "I was ambushed, actually. In Flourish and Blotts."

"Gits. They should have more respect for such a beautiful girl."

Lily grinned; she wasn't used to this much flattery! She looked up at James who looked as though he had just commented on the weather or something such normal. He didn't seem at all perturbed or embarrassed on addressing Lily in such a respect.

"Lily, darling!" Mrs. Evans voice rang out some way ahead of them; Lily rolled her eyes and turned to James.

"Thanks again!" She said, still grinning, "I'll see you at Hogwarts!" and she ran off towards her mother.

"Yeah," James said softly after she'd gone, "I can't wait."

A few weeks later, it was the day before Lily would leave for school, and everyone except for Lily was quite tense. Mr. and Mrs. Evans were busy talking, trying to ready themselves to have their daughter leave for a long time. Petunia was on the phone with Vernon as usual, putting on a high, fake laugh and her beady eyes darting around whenever someone would walk through the kitchen. Lily, however, was in her room reading the many books that she had purchased at Diagon Alley. In the time between returning home and the present, Lily had already finished The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1), A History of Magic, Magical Drafts and Potions(One that she had found most interesting) and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. She had been obsessively reading anything magical that she could get her hands on, in hope that it would help her once she arrived at Hogwarts.

She had decided to name her owl Ceres after the Roman goddess of the Earth. She had bought several bags of owl treats while in the Magical Menagerie and had been having fun feeding the various shaped snacks to Ceres.

Most of the time that she had been home, however, Lily had thought of James and the bullies in Diagon Alley. No boy had ever been so nice to her before. Unless you counted that boy in grade school who had only kissed her on a dare and had immediately spit and rinsed profusely afterwards. Every time that James crossed her mind, Lily's heart fluttered and a dreamy look swept over her porcelain colored face. Unfortunately for her, this had happened once at dinnertime.

Mr. Evans had been discussing his upcoming cricket tournament with Mrs. Evans animatedly whilst Petunia had been too busy glaring at Lily as though she was going to explode to notice anything else that was going on. Lily was distracted with the thought of James' smile to keep her busy.

"So Lily, I was thinking that we would leave early on September 1, just to make sure that we get there on time," Mr. Evans said after he and Mrs. Evans had finished talking about the cricket tournament and were now onto the next subject, "Sound good?"

Unfortunately for Lily, she had a bemused expression upon her face and was staring dreamily out into the porch thinking of James's smile and how his teeth were perfectly straight and his gorgeous hair that he probably didn't even do anything to when-

"Lily!"

Lily's head jerked out of its daze. She looked down at her plate; her steak and kidney pie was swirled around in a circular array of mush. The side of her mouth was starting to tingle as it was coming back from being asleep under the pressure of Lily's hand while her elbow was aching after being on the table for such an extended period of time.

"Huh?" was her witty response.

"Does that plan sound good?"

"Sure, whatever you say." Lily was slightly put out at being interrupted in the middle of her fantasy. Petunia rolled her eyes and went back staring icily at her sister. Mrs. Evans cocked an eyebrow.

"You alright, Lils?"

"Hm? Yeah, fine."

But Mrs. Evans was not convinced. She gave Lily a calculating looked which was soon replaced by a dawning of comprehension.

"Oh, I know what's distracting her!" Mrs. Evans said, sounding triumphant.

"No, you don't," Lily replied, a little too quickly.

"What?" Mr. Evans inquired, taking another bite of food. Lily shot Mrs. Evans a glare of warning, silencing her to only Cheshire smile.

"What?" Mr. Evans repeated, concern in his tone.

"It's nothing, Dad." Lily said, casting another admonitory glance at her mother, causing her to only widen her grin.

Lily rolled her eyes at the mere memory of the incident. Stroking Ceres, she tried to imagine life at Hogwarts. Would she have any friends? What if it was all just a huge mistake? Will the classes be hard? Only time would tell.

Goodness knows she didn't have much of that.