A/N: I make a reference to the Great Houdini in this chapter, and before anyone makes any comment about how that's not the TV show Dudley likes to watch, I know. I'm not trying to make a reference to that.

Disclaimer: JK Rowling is English. I'm American. The End.

Chapter 3: It's Better to Be a Witch

POV Harry

The floor of a small, cold shack in the middle of the sea on a stormy night is never an advisable place to sleep, and is definitely even more uncomfortable on the eve of your birthday. Unfortunately for Harry Potter, there wasn't much say in the matter, and he watched his sister curled in a ball as he counted down the minutes until he… they would be eleven.

It was weird. Ever since the snake incident at the zoo, Lily Ann had seemed rather distant, as if she knew that he had talked to the snake shortly before the glass had mysteriously vanished. Maybe she blamed him like the rest of the family did and resented him for it. But that didn't explain why she no longer spent time with Dudley or why she seemed to have lost all her confidence. Some days, she even seemed ashamed of... of what? Of him? Of herself? Harry wasn't sure, but couldn't help but blame it a bit on himself. Though he had no idea why the glass had disappeared at the zoo, he had been talking to the snake before it had escaped. Maybe he had convinced it to escape and flee to Brazil and it had done something worthy of the great Houdini and done so.

Harry glanced over at his cousin, who's glowing wrist watch revealed that in five minutes it would be their birthday. Maybe he should wake Lily Ann so they could celebrate together. Remembering her last reaction to being awoken in the middle of the night, Harry thought better of it.

What was that outside?

Looking again at Dudley's watch, Harry saw the last few seconds before his birthday tick away when the door quite suddenly was blown off its hinges with three loud, consecutive BOOMs.

POV Lily Ann

Lily Ann bit her lip and watched her feet as Hagrid, this giant, hairy creature of a man explained to them that they both had magic and were going to be attending a school of magic. Unlike Harry, she had no difficulty whatsoever in believing that she was… a witch. Contrary to what Harry obviously thought, she didn't find this at all comforting. This seemed to confirm every fear Lily Ann had about her gift – curse – and she wanted nothing to do with it. She remembered from history lessons that there had been many witch hunts worldwide in the fourteen and fifteen hundreds; those convicted were burned at the stake. If witches were a good thing, why were all the stories of them bad? History definitely didn't paint a pretty picture.

"It's the only place for folks like us."

She heard the words, but couldn't place the speaker. For all she knew, she had simply thought them herself.

It's the only place for a freak like me.


The trip through London was an uncomfortable one; at least, it was for Lily Ann. Everywhere she turned, people were staring, pointing, whispering about the witch and wizards in their midst. Every glance was judging, every rushed footstep was fleeing in fear and every word was spreading her secret.

Finally, when Lily Ann thought she couldn't take it anymore, the crowd seemed to thin and an old creaking sign baring a dark iron cauldron over a very old oak door seemed to appear from out of nowhere.

Hagrid ushered them inside. Looking at her brother, Lily Ann saw excitement in his eyes, though he had an overall aura of jumpy nervousness. Hagrid had called this place famous, and if this was what classified as famous in the wizarding world, then it was exactly what she had expected it to be. The small pub was dark and had the appearance of grubbiness. The chatter almost appeared hushed, and it completely died when the three of them entered the pub.

After Hagrid exchanged a few words with the bartender, it appeared as if the entire pub were surrounding her and Harry. Hagrid stood off to the side, beaming at the pair of them. The witches and wizards excitedly chattered in pure celebration, and Lily Ann couldn't help but think of the story of Hansel and Gretel as she hoped they weren't hungry.

"Oh my Merlin!"

"Lily Ann Potter! You look just like your mother! She was a fantastic witch!"

"Welcome back, Mr. Potter, welcome back."

"Dedalus, Dedalus! It's the Potters, Dedalus! The Potters are back!"

After talking to many, many people, including a stuttering man who smelled strongly of garlic and who was introduced himself as Professor Quirrell, a teacher who taught something to do with Dark Arts (here Lily Ann shuddered), they finally were able to escape into the back of the shop to a small, walled in courtyard. Lily Ann warily watched Hagrid as he tapped a brick in the wall. The moment it opened up, Lily Ann could tell that Harry was lost. She however looked at everything with a much more critical eye.

She first noticed the apothecary, in which she saw cauldrons and hot fires, live rats and snakes, crawling bugs, and something that looked eerily like blood. Across the street she saw a cage of bats, and somewhere down the road Lily Ann heard a boy crying that he had lost his toad. Even the most normal looking store, the bookstore, had books flying around in every direction, some screaming bloody murder.

As the three of them approached a white marble building that Hagrid informed them was the wizarding bank, Gringotts, which was run by goblins, Lily Ann had to beg herself out, claiming culture shock. In reality however, Lily Ann was beginning to doubt the wisdom in her choice to go to Hogwarts and was trying to avoid anything particularly magical. Sitting down on the white marble steps (which glowed faintly and didn't appear to have any shadow), she put her face in her hands, remembering the little bit of magic she had showed Dudley with lily flowers, and began to cry. That is, until she felt the staring eyes of pale, blond boy who was leaning up against one of the tall stone columns of the building.

"What do you want?" she muttered, sniffing away her tears.

Smirking slightly, the boy, who looked to be Lily Ann's own age drawled in a bored tone, "Nothing much. I was just waiting here for my parents. You know, it takes so long to reach our vaults because they're just so deep. And the security is a nightmare. Honestly, I wish my father could just use his own enchantments. It would be so much easier than going through those goblins. So I'm out here waiting for them and decided to come over to see why you were crying. Was that oaf of a giant you were with yelling at you or something? I swear I could hear him from up the street."

"Why is it your business?" Lily Ann demanded rudely, but then quickly apologized. "I'm sorry. It's just my parents are dead and I was raised by a bunch of… what are they called? Oh yes… Muggles… who were perfectly wonderful to me until I got my letter… they all hate me now. Apparently when they took me in, they already knew I was a witch and swore they would beat the magic out of me. Magic is supposed to be a bad thing. All the stories say so, and there were witch hunts and everything. I don't want to be a witch."

The blond boy looked far from sympathetic, but there was something in his eyes that caught her attention. It wasn't quite passion… it was something more…fervent and flaming. He walked over to her.

"First off," he said, looking down at her, "Muggles don't know anything. I've heard they've come up with this stupid theory that says that creatures exist because nature chose them because they were better suited for living. If that were true, there would be no Muggles. All those stories you've heard were made up by Muggles trying to frighten their children and convince them that magic is bad. Because of Muggles, we have to hide from them, as if they were better than us! But they're not. If we really wanted to, we could rule the world, but we don't. We let them live, believing that they're the only ones out there. We once tried living with them, but they kicked us out! Can you believe it, they kicked us out? And the Ministry of Magic made this stupid Secrecy Decree that we all have to live by so the Muggles can live in their ignorance."

Lily Ann was shocked. Could it be true that the wizard world was just hiding because Muggles didn't want anything to do with them? It did seem to fit with the Dursley's way of thinking. "That hardly seems fair." She said after thinking over his words.

"It's not. And that's why I hate Muggles. If we tell them the truth, they'd just hate us and try and kill us. They wouldn't win, but the Ministry is too weak to do anything useful against them. We shouldn't have to live in hiding, but because of the Ministry and the hatred of Muggles, we have to. If I were you, I would renounce any affiliation to Muggles before you're branded a Muggle lover." Looking over his shoulder, the pale boy said. "I've got to go. See you at school."

And with that, the boy was gone, leaving Lily Ann alone with her thoughts. She looked down at her feet to see a lily flower. She picked it up and for the first time in weeks, used her magic to open and close the petals.

Glaring at the flower in her hand, she felt a new resolve harden inside of her as she declared fiercely, "I'm a witch. Dudley you better well believe it."