Expectations.
For Lily Luna Potter, they were the hardest part of growing up. Everyone had an idea what they thought the youngest and only Potter girl would be like before they met her. For example, many people thought that she was going to be determined and brave like her parents, a talented Quidditch player like her brother James, intelligent like Albus. So, for a long time, Lily tried her hardest to live up to the expectations. The result was the bright, talented, and pretty young girl her family knew and loved. Really, it was hard for anyone not to like sweet little Lily Luna Potter.
Well, that was at first.
It took a while, but eventually something snapped within Lily. She was tired of being who she wasn't, and ready to be the girl she really was. It happened during her fifth year at Hogwarts, and if you asked her then what it felt like, she would have told you it was simply delicious.
The first time she hadn't lived up to the expectations was actually her first day at Hogwarts, during her Sorting. Everyone thought that when her name was called she would follow in the footsteps of her brothers. These types of things usually ran in families, you see.
But Lily Luna Potter wasn't a brave, chivalrous Gryffindor, no, she was a Slytherin.
It had been a nasty shock to everyone who knew her, but none were more hurt and wounded than Lily. She had long dreamed of being the well-liked, popular Gryffindor student that James was since the day she had seen him off when he first started Hogwarts. To her, there was no other option; you were a Gryffindor or worthless.
Lily remembered the stony silence that was met with her Sorting. Nobody clapped, not James, not Albus or Rose, none of her friends, not anybody.
But that was a long time ago, this was now.
It took five years before Lily was feed up with it all. She was tired of the questioning gazes, the awkward questions, and occasionally the mean comments. She was tired of being the girl everyone expected of her instead of the girl she actually was. She figured that if her family and friends couldn't love her for who she actually was, then they could sod off.
Because she was Lily Luna Potter, and it was high time to start acting like it.
For the first time, she began being the person she was always meant to be, and Lily was absolutely thrilled in being liberated from the chains that, for the longest time, had held her back. Most people were horrified at her change, but did Lily care?
Nope.
She ditched classes, failed assignments, pulled pranks, vandalized, received detentions, dueled, got notes home, Howlers from her mum, and talks from her professors, but to Lily, it was simply delicious.
You know, she rather fancied that phrase.
No matter what anybody said, Lily Luna Potter had a taste of freedom and she wasn't letting it go. It was going to take a lot more than petty little talks for her to give up her newfound independence.
Lily constantly received letters from her very disappointed parents. They tried everything they knew, gave her every punishment they could think of, but nobody kept Lily Luna Potter in line. Harry and Ginny figured that it was a phase she would go through, and tried to wait it out. But Lily didn't calm down a bit.
No, she was just getting started.
Lily changed her look that year too. She started wearing heavy makeup; she dyed her lovely red hair, and wore her school skirt three inches too short. Just about everyone hated her now, and even Professor Longbottom stopped inviting her to tea.
It just so happened that the school finally had enough of Lily. They called Ginny and Harry to the school for a lecture with the headmaster, because they were at their last straw. Lily was bordering on expulsion, and it was a matter of time before they actually kicked her out.
When Harry and Ginny arrived by Apparition, they wouldn't even look at their ruined daughter throughout the long talk. The parents were so disappointed with her that they had no words when the headmaster asked their opinion of what to do about her behavior.
Afterwards, Ginny had asked to take Lily on a walk, so she could talk to her daughter by herself. They left the stuffy little office and went out to the Hogwarts grounds while Harry continued the talk with the headmaster.
"Lily Luna Potter," whispered her mother when they had came to a rest by the Black Lake. "What have you done to yourself?"
Lily shrugged, picking at the grass by her feet so she didn't have to meet the gaze of her mother. Silence fell over the two. Ginny watched her daughter and saw in her a confused, lost little girl which tugged at her motherly heartstrings.
"Lily," she repeated, reaching for her hand. Lily, started, turned to face her mother. Ginny Potter had always been a strong woman, so when Lily saw the tears coursing down her face, she was shocked.
"Is this what you meant to became?" she asked, wiping the tears from her eyes, and taking a deep, composing breath. "Is this the person you want to be known as?"
Lily thought for a moment, all the way back to her decision she had made at the beginning of that year. In all her efforts and sacrifices, where had it all landed her?
And sitting by that lake, she realized her huge mistake, and for the first time, saw all the pain she had caused her mother, her whole family, her friends.
Because she was Lily Luna Potter, and she finally understood what she had done.