CHAPTER 2 – THE START OF A NEW LIFE

Lily ran upstairs clutching her opened letter and giggling quietly.
"Finally!" she thought, "I finally belong somewhere!"

As she dressed, Lily thought about her schooling and how she had never really belonged to any groups and never really had any friends, other than Sev. Tuney was lucky, she was normal and had friends; she was nice enough to her at school, but didn't associate with her too much in case her friends thought she was strange too.

Lily smiled sadly. She would miss her parents, but this was a chance she couldn't miss out on! She was a witch! September 1st… that was a long time to wait, it was only January! She looked at her letter again, "students may wish to bring either an owl, cat or a toad". Lily supposed that she would prefer an owl, she wasn't very fond of toads and an owl could carry mail… Sev had told her so.

Folding the letter carefully and putting it into her jean pocket, Lily decided that it was time for her to go downstairs to enjoy a Milo and watch TV until everyone else had woken up. Loading her cup with two heaped teaspoons of Milo, she wondered if the Headmaster would allow her to enjoy her favourite muggle drink. She guessed she could ask the teacher who would come later to explain everything to her parents. Lily walked into the lounge room and plonked onto one of the comfortable lounge chairs and switched on the TV; she made sure that the volume was turned down low, so she wouldn't wake everyone up.

After about an hour of watching news, she heard light footsteps coming down the stairs. She turned to see her mother's face smiling at her.

"Happy birthday baby girl!" she exclaimed.
"Thanks mum." Lily smiled, she secretly disliked the nickname of "baby girl", but she didn't have the heart to tell her mother.
"Your father should be down with Petunia in a minute." She said. Lily pulled out the letter from her pocket. "What's that?"
"I'm a witch, mum!" Lily smiled, handing the letter over to her mother to read.
Kaye laughed. "Of course you are, darling." She read the letter, her brow furrowing. "It mentions that someone will be coming today to explain everything to us?"
Lily's smile grew wider, "Yep!"
"We shall see. It might be a prank of your sister's too, darling."
Her smile faltered. She hadn't considered that, except perhaps it was Sev pulling the prank.

Her father and Petunia came downstairs a few minutes later, Kaye handed the letter back to Lily and whispered that she would talk to her husband later about it.
"Happy birthday!" exclaimed Petunia and her father. They had brought gifts down for Lily, there were three small parcels.

Petunia handed over the present from her first; Lily ripped back the paper to find it was a book that she had wanted to read for a while, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. She hugged her sister, thanking her. Her father took one of the presents from Kaye and himself and handed it to her, it was a very small parcel and when she opened it, it was a beautiful pair of pearl earrings. Lily thanked her parents profusely and hugged them both. The final gift, handed to her by her mother, was marginally bigger than the previous; it was a small bottle of perfume that smelled like strawberries and vanilla. Lily thanked her parents and sister again and gave them all another hug; she took her gifts upstairs to her room while her mother and father made breakfast alone, presumably to talk about the letter Lily had received. Lily put her earrings in, loving how simple and sweet they were, she had only ever had plain silver studs before.

After breakfast, Lily helped her mother clean up while her father started the fire in the fireplace to warm the house. Petunia had gone back upstairs and was singing (terribly!) in the shower; they heard her from downstairs.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door; Lily answered at once and discovered a man with auburn hair and a matching beard, both greying.
"Hello, you must be miss Lily Evans?" the man said. Lily nodded, this man was dressed in peculiar clothing, all mismatched and with a long robe over it all. "My name is Professor Albus Dumbledore, from Hogwarts."
Lily understood, this was the teacher who would be explaining the situation to her parents. "Please, come in from the cold. My father is starting a fire in the lounge room."
Professor Dumbledore thanked her and walked in. Lily's mother came to the hallway and stopped in her tracks. A strange man was in her house and her daughter had let him in!
"Mum! This is Professor Dumbledore from Hogwarts, he's going to explain things to you and dad." Lily smiled.
Kaye nodded. "My name is Kaye. Please, come sit in the lounge room. My husband is in there starting a fire. Would you like a drink?"
Professor Dumbledore shook his head. "No, thank you, but I will help your husband start the fire."

They walked into the lounge room and explained who the strange man was to Harold and then Petunia, as she had come down after her bath, hearing voices from upstairs.
"Maybe it would be best to show you?" Professor Dumbledore said. He pulled his wand from the sleeve in his robe and pointed it at the (still) unlit fireplace; flames sprang instantly, warming over them.
Kaye shrugged. "Perhaps you could tell us more about this school and what subjects it offers? What do you teach?"
Professor Dumbledore smiled, "I used to teach Transfiguration, but more recently, I have been instated as the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." He then explained the subjects to Lily's parents, the school year, holidays, Diagon Alley and some basic rules.

"I guess if Lily wants to go, then we won't stop her, it sounds like a wonderful opportunity." Harold said. Smiling, he added, "We have a witch in the family! Isn't it wonderful?"
Lily's parents were genuinely happy for their youngest daughter, Petunia on the other hand, was jealous. She didn't have magic powers, it wasn't fair! She was turning 13 soon and decided that it was probably better she didn't have powers going into high school, she was perfectly normal, thank you very much. Petunia retreated upstairs to her room, she didn't need to be apart of this freak behaviour.
Lily smiled at her parents, "You really mean it? I can go?"
Kaye nodded. "But how do we get to that Diagon Alley place?"
Professor Dumbledore smiled kindly. "I have included that in the letter received by Miss Evans at midnight." Lily pulled out the letter from her jean pocket once more and showed her mum again, she must have missed it the first time. "So that's settled then. I will have our gamekeeper, Hagrid accompany you to Diagon Alley for your first visit on March 8th to show you around and take you to get your school supplies." The Evans' nodded.

Later that night before she went to bed, Lily went to Petunia's room; she hadn't seen much of her since Professor Dumbledore had arrived.
"Tuney!" Lily called, knocking on her door. "Can I come in?"
"NO!" Came Petunia's response. Lily was shocked, what had she done?
"Is everything ok Tuney?"
"Go away!"
Lily walked sadly to her room. She couldn't understand why Tuney suddenly hated her…

As she laid her head down on her pillow, she stared at the ceiling thinking of that day's events.

March 8th could not come soon enough.