That evening, after she had washed the dinner plates without the help of magic (as Petunia was watching her the entire time, but not bothering to help), Lily had pulled on her coat and snuck out of the house while Petunia watched television. Her parents were still working on the bedroom upstairs, and Lily began to feel lightheaded every time she breathed in the fumes.
The summer night air was cool, and Lily stared down at her pale toes, which felt comfortable in her open-toed sandals. The spot of yellow paint that had fallen on her toe earlier that afternoon was still there, despite her many attempts to scrub it off. Lily reached the corner of the sidewalk and kept walking, all the way down to the park where they had played earlier that morning.
The park was full of people, all children playing as the sun began to fade behind the hills in the distance. Lily smiled at all the toddlers playing in the sand, and saw a few friends of hers from school swinging on the swing set.
Lily continued to walk, even as they ran up to say hello.
"Lily!" they called, running in their shorts and sandals. "Hi!"
"Hi!" Lily called back as her friends caught up to her.
"Where's Petunia?" one of the girls asked.
"At home, watching television," Lily said, sticking her hands in her pockets.
"Want to play?" another girl asked Lily.
"No thanks," Lily told them as she reached the corner. Lily looked up and read the street names in the approaching dusk. Spinner's End, read one sign, and the one on top of it, the street she was walking on, said Thicket Lane. She went to turn onto Spinner's End, but one of the girls grabbed her shoulder.
"Where are you going?" she asked a little fearfully.
"Down here," Lily said, with a smile, and kept walking. Her friends hesitated for a moment, and then they both turned and ran back to the park. Lily began to walk down the long street, along a tiny river that wound around the development of houses.
Lily had never been this way before. She walked down the old cobblestone street cautiously. It became apparent that as she kept walking, she walked into another development of houses that was not her own. Crickets chirped from the small little river, and the bushes rustled with animals unknown to Lily. She began to shiver in the cool air, and pulled out her flashlight, clicking it on so she could see well in the oncoming dark.
After a few minutes, the lamplights flickered on and Lily found herself standing in the middle of a court of brick homes. She didn't know which house was his, but in the silent night she suddenly heard a voice screech, "Severus!" It was coming from the house directly behind her. Lily blushed a little, and then made her way to the door of the house.
The cement was cracked and the window broken, so that the tiny breeze outside fluttered the dark curtains a little. Tall brushes grew outside of the house, and Lily felt her heart rate speed up as she approached the door. She knocked, a little bit scared. She waited. There was no answer. She knocked again.
The door creaked open slowly, to reveal the Snape boy. He didn't realize it was Lily standing in front of him until she shone the flashlight upward so he could see her face in the dark.
"Oh," his harsh voice said, staring, shocked but pleased, at Lily. "Hello."
"Hello," she said with a smile. There was a crash inside the house, and Lily heard a man's voice scream Severus's name this time. Severus's face flushed deeply, as if he was remembering where he was. The two children stood in silence for a minute, until Lily said, "So…."
"So," Snape repeated, still embarrassed.
Lily decided jumping right into it would be best. "I want to know," she began slowly, "about magic."
At the word magic, Severus's face lit up, despite the lack of light coming from his home, and he stepped out of his house, despite his parents' calls for him. "Come on," he told her, grabbing her hand and towing her down the street.
"Where are we going?" she asked him as they raced out of the neighborhood.
"Somewhere safe," Severus told Lily. They continued to run, Severus never letting go of Lily's hand, until they reached the banks of the tiny river. Lily immediately sat down, panting a little and slapping at bugs that swarmed around the water.
"So, magic," she finally said, when Severus didn't do anything but stare at her. "Tell me."
Severus didn't know where to begin, there was so much. But he finally settled down beside Lily, and, picking up a stick, whirled it through the air. "Wands," he said, and felt a flipping sensation in his chest as a huge smile filled Lily's red hair-framed face. "When you do magic, you get a wand…"