Lily Evans was a gifted child. She started talking at six months, and walking at eight – quite a bit remarkable. She was also a beautiful child, precocious and intelligent, with thick dark red hair, and her eyes turned green around her first birthday. Most of the neighbors asked Violet Evans why she wasn't in beauty pageants, but Violet didn't want to put her baby on a pedestal.
Mostly, Violet didn't want Lily's older sister Petunia to get any more jealous of the new baby. Four years older than Lily, Petunia was tall for her age, a bit spindly and clumsy, and her thin, wispy blonde hair just didn't compare to Lily's luxurious locks. Violet and her husband Mark desperately tried to treat their daughters equally, but not many other people made the same effort.
Violet was a housewife; her world was her two daughters. She noticed something "not quite normal" about Lily by the time she was six months old – she would, on occasion, get toys from her toy chest or shelves into her crib, and Violet couldn't explain why. But Violet and Mark learned for sure that Lily was far from normal one day when she was four years old.
Petunia, still jealous of the attention Lily kept receiving, liked to tease Lily about her hair – the fact that it was the only trace of red hair anywhere in the family was her favorite target. She'd tease Lily about her "awful" hair, even though she secretly wished hers was as thick.
When Petunia was eight and Lily was four, Petunia was invited to a slumber party. She talked nonstop about it during the days before, and Lily decided she wanted to go, like little sisters tend to do. For the most part, Petunia managed to ignore her pleading, but the matter came to a head the day of the party.
Petunia spent the entire day getting ready, with Lily at her heels all the while, crying "Tunie! Tunie! Take me with you!" Petunia had tried all the usual explanations, like "You're too young," and "You weren't invited," but Lily wouldn't give up. Finally, just outside Petunia's room, an hour before the party, Petunia whirled around to face her sister and shouted, "Well, you're not going because no one wants anyone with a gigantic red mop on her head like you!" Then she slammed the door to her room in Lily's face.
Lily wasn't one to take losing an argument very easily. Her face bloomed a bright crimson, and her eyes flashed, and she glared at the door she was staring at very intensely. Then a devilish grin slid across her face, and she screamed, "FINE!" and stomped off down the stairs to the parlor to play with her toys. Once she got halfway down the stairs, a blood-curdling scream came from Petunia's room. Lily kept going down the stairs.
When Violet got to Petunia's room, Petunia was still screaming but she was hiding under her blankets on her bed. Violet asked her what was wrong, but she just kept shrieking. Finally, Violet pulled the covers back, and their was Petunia, sitting on her bed, clutching her hair, which had just become incredibly thick, and fire-engine red.
After a few minutes more of screaming, Petunia calmed down enough to beg her mother to call her friend and give any excuse whatsoever that she wouldn't make it to the party. Violet politely refused; she would not lie for her children, not over something as trivial as hair color. But she would allow Petunia to call her friend and excuse herself in whatever way she saw fit.
Petunia trudged down the stairs to the telephone to make her apologies, and after she hung up the phone, she noticed Lily standing behind her, beaming.
"I made it so now Tunie can't go to the party either." And she giggled.