Chapter 7

Stories and letters

The next day Lily went back to the park; she sat down on the swing, slowly pushing herself back and forth as she waited. It was a bright sunny day, but the air was still holding on to its wintery chill and Lily was glad that she had her hat, coat and gloves on.

'Fine, you win.' Said a sudden voice from beside her. Turning Lily smiled in surprise; Severus Snape appeared sitting on the swing beside her, his usual baggy old coat buttoned up against the cold. He looked as if he was trying very hard to be annoyed, but Lily could see that he was quite glad to see her again.

'You said in your note that you had another story to tell me.' Severus continued.

'Yeah,' replied Lily slowly, 'Only…this story isn't about our friendship…and this isn't about a lesson like the stories grownups tell us. I'm telling you a story because two Saturdays ago you told me a wizard story and I didn't get to tell you a muggle one back.'

'Ok,' Severus said grinning at her, 'I promise.'

'Good. Righty then.

'Once upon a time there was a merchant who had three daughters. He was very rich and his daughters were very beautiful, but only the youngest daughter, Belle, was pure of heart. Her sisters were wicked and selfish. The two elder sisters were always wanting things and buying expensive dresses and jewelry. Eventually, their father's money ran out. They had to sell their rich clothes and the beautiful big house in the city and bought a small farm house in the middle of the countryside where they had to work for their living. After seven years, they had made enough money that when their father travelled to the market in the city, he asked his daughters what presents they would like him to bring back for them. The eldest daughter asked for the most beautiful dress that he could find. The second daughter asked for the most beautiful necklace that he saw. But Belle simply asked for a red rose, because no roses grew in that part of the country. But as the merchant came close to the city he was robbed by some thieves and he could not buy any of the gifts for his daughters.

'Very upset the merchant turned for home, but because he was so miserable he lost his way in the forest-'

'He should have taken a compass.'

'Sev! I'm not done yet—erhmm… where was I…Oh yes! Suddenly, he found himself standing in front of tables filled with food and drink. Being very hungry and tired the merchant ate the food and spent the night there. The next morning, as he was about to leave, he saw a rose garden and remembered that Belle had asked for a rose. The merchant picked the most beautiful rose he could find and suddenly a great beast appeared! It was very angry and told the merchant that for taking his most precious possession, after the beast had been so hospitable, the merchant must die. The merchant begged to be set free saying that he had picked the rose as a gift for his youngest daughter. The beast agreed to let the merchant go and give his gift, but only if the merchant would return.

'What!? It was only a flower!'

'SEVERUS! Do you want to hear the story or not?!'

'Yes but-'

'NO BUTS!….Very upset, but accepting this condition the merchant went on his way with many jewels and fine cloths for his daughters and asking the beast to keep this a secret from Belle. When the merchant got home he tried to keep the secret but Belle managed to persuade her father. As she was so compassionate Belle took her father's place and went to the beasts castle herself. The beast received her graciously telling her that she was mistress of the castle and he was her servant. Belle was given beautiful cloths and lavish food. Every night the beast asked Belle to marry him but each time she refused saying that she loved him as a friend. Every night Belle dreamed of a handsome prince who pleaded with her to marry the beast. Belle became convinced that the beast was holding the prince of her dreams somewhere in the castle, she searched through many rooms but never found the prince.

'For many months, Belle lived in the beast's palace, having every whim catered to by the servants. Eventually she became homesick and begged the beast to allow her to go and see her family. The beast allowed her to as long as she promised to return in exactly one week. Belle agreed and set off for home with an enchanted mirror and ring. The mirror showed her what was happening at the beast's castle, and the ring, after three turns around her finger, would return her to the castle. Belle's sisters were surprised to find her so well and beautifully dressed an soon became envious of her life in the castle. They begged her to stay an extra day as soon as they heard that Belle had to return to the castle, even using onions to make themselves cry and Belle agreed to stay. The sisters hoped that the beast would be so angry with Belle for breaking her promise he would eat her alive.'

'A bit drastic don't you think Lily?' Sev interrupted, an unbelieving smile on his face.

'SEV!'

'Come on Lily, can't you see it's hilarious?' He continued to talk. Lily swiveled round, turning her back to him. 'Ok, ok, I'll stop talking now!' he sighed exasperated

'Fine.

'Soon Belle, feeling guilty about breaking her promise to the beast, used the mirror to see him back at the castle. She was horrified to see that the beast was lying, half dead, near the rose bushes and she immediately used the ring to return to the beast.

'Belle hurried to the beast's side and wept over him saying that she loved him. When her tears touched him the beast was transformed into the handsome prince from Belle's dreams. The beast told her that a fairy had turned him into a horrible beast because of his wicked behavior and only true love would break the spell. Belle and the handsome prince were married and they lived together happily ever after.'

Finishing her story Lily looked at Sev who rolled his eyes.

'That was such a muggle story.' He groaned, 'of course everyone 'lived happily ever after'! Like you said it's just a story and no one real lives like that. Muggle stories are never real like wizarding ones are.'

'Some people might…' Lily replied, biting her lip and trying not to feel hurt, ' And I don't like it when you say that a muggle are a bad thing to be.'

'But they're not wizards.' Severus replied confused. This time Lily rolled her eyes and groaned.

'You just don't get it do you?'

'I've got a story for you as well.' He replied suddenly changing the subject. Severus was clearly feeling blamed in some way and was wanting to move on.

'But Sev, I haven't learnt another one for you so you'll be one story up again.' Lily complained.

'Please Lily, I think you'll like this one, it's a bit like your muggle ones with three girls and a handsome knight and everything.' Severus persuaded.

'Oh, alright then,' Lily said pushing herself higher into the air on her swing.

Severus grinned at her and started his story,

'Once there was an enchanted fountain enclosed in a garden full of strong magic. Every year a poor unfortunate witch or wizard was chosen to climb up the hill and bath in the water to gain fair fortune forevermore. On that day, every year, lots of witches and wizards gathered around the gates to the enchanted fountain. In the huge crowd there were three witches, Asha, Altheda and Amata. Asha was so sick that no healer could heal her, Altheda had been robbed by an evil sorcerer who had also broken her wand so she would ever do magic again, and Amata had been deserted by her lover.

'Can you really?'

'Lily!'

'You interrupted me! Can you really not do magic if you're wand is broken?' She persisted grounding her swing, dragging her legs on the tarmac beneath her.

Sev thought for a moment and then replied 'Well, you would have to buy a new wand and maybe she couldn't afford one as she couldn't do any magic to get any money. Anyway,' He said looking at Lily pointedly. 'The three witches decided that if any of them was to be chosen to reach the fountain, then the other two would help. As the first light touched the gate the next sunrise, there it opened just a crack, and long winding creepers from the magical garden reached through and wrapped themselves around the first witch, Asha. Asha grabbed hold of Altheda's wrist tightly and Altheda grabbed hold of the corner of Amata's robes. And Amata became caught up in the armour of a handsome knight who had also been waiting in the crowd. The creepers pulled all four of them into the garden and the gates slammed closed behind them.

'Asha and Altheda became angry with Amata as she had brought the knight and it would have been difficult enough for the witches to decide amongst themselves who would be the one to bathe in the fountains waters and Amata had brought in another contender. The knight however, told them his story that he was a squib and hoped that the fountain's waters would be able to give him magical powers, however, he was so noble he promised he would help the witches to reach the fountain and so the witches allowed him to join them in their quest, so together the four of them travelled up the steep hill towards the fountain all now set on their task ahead.

'Soon they reached a monstrous, heaving, cold, white worm that was blind and terrible to look at. The worm cried out 'Pay me the proof of your pain' as they approach it.' As he spoke Severus gave the worm a high pitched drawn out voice which sent shivers down Lily's spine.

'Uhrg Sev!' she complained but he carried on regardless.

'The knight drew his sword but he could not come to within three footfalls of the beast and the three witches could not destroy the worm or attack it by any other magical means. Eventually Asha began to cry great tears, afraid that they would never pass the worm and reach the fountain. The worm bent its blind, disfigured head towards her and drank her tears. Then it moved off to a different part of the enchanted garden.

'At noon as the sun reached its peak in the sky the three witches and the knight reached a steep slope with the words 'Pay me the fruit of your labour' engraved in the earth. The knight took out a coin and placed it on the ground but the words remained sketched in the soil and the coin rolled away down the slope and could not be found again. Again the witches could find no spell to remove the words and however fast they walked up the slope they did not move as much as a whole inch forwards. Altheda was the most determined and she worked the hardest to pass the words, as the sun moved lower in the sky sweat from her forehead fell on the ground and the words disappeared and they could move forwards up the hill once more.'

'Her sweat! Of course!' cried Lily, but again Sev ploughed on with the story ignoring her.

'As the clouds grew pink in the sky the four of them reached the top of the hill. However, they could not reach the fountain as a stream circled the summit. Stones along the bottom of the stream formed the words 'Pay me the treasure of your past' none of the travellers could jump across the stream and the knight tried to float across on his shield but he could not cross either. Amata sat down on the grass and tried to work out the meaning of the words. As the sun began to set Amata drew all the memories of her lover from her mind and they were washed away in the water. Immediately the stones formed stepping stones and they were able to pass across to the fountain.'

'Can you do that?' Lily jumped in again.

'Lily!' Sev complained, but this time he answered her question. 'Yeah, there's a spell you can do that takes memories out of your head so you can keep them somewhere different. So you can look at them later.'

'So you can take out your own memories? But you wouldn't be able to remember them!'

'Come on Lily, I already told you about the ministry wiping people's memories. Can I please finish the story?'

'I suppose.' Lily answered sticking out her tongue at him and beginning to lightly swing again.

'Suddenly Asha collapsed on the ground, close to death as she was so ill. The others tried to lift her to carry her to the fountain, but she cried that she was not to be moved. Altheda hurried to collect some of the herbs and magical plants that grew around the fountain and created a potion. Because of this amazing work Asha was cured of her illness and no longer needed to bathe in the fountain. Altheda busily collecting more of the plants called that 'if I can cure Asha then I could become a healer and won't need to bathe in the fountain.' The knight turned to Amata but she didn't want to bathe as the stream had washed away all of the memories of her lover and she now saw how cruel and faithless he had been to her. But the knight on his journey had realized how magic had not helped the witches solve the problems during their quest and he no longer wanted to bathe. He knelt down in front of Amata and asked for her hand and her heart, and Amata realizing that here was a man who was worthy of her, agreed. The four of them set off arm in arm and lived long happy lives, and none of them ever realized that the fountains waters carried no enchantment at all.'

Lily laughed at the ending.

'You were right, Sev, I really did like that one.' She told him. 'But it did have a bit of a 'happily ever after' ending didn't it.' she said grinning cheekily at him.
'That's why I chose that one for you!' He replied annoyed. 'You like all the boring girly muggle stories!'

'I was joking!' she bounced back, grinning from ear to ear.

They swung together in silence for a while, both enjoying the silent company of the other, until Lily pointed out the time and that she was nearly frozen to her swing and they both left, having agreed to meet again in two days' time.

It wasn't until she had nearly reached the road and Severus was nearly out of sight before Lily suddenly remembered what her mother had asked.

'Sev, did you ask your mum?' she called back to him. Having not heard her properly Severus ran back towards her and had her repeat the question. Sev's cheeks turned a little red as he nodded in answer

'Yeah, she said I could … if …' his voice trailed off but Lily's enthusiasm erupted

'Excellent! Would you be able to make this Saturday?' her eyes brightening at the thought. Severus blushed deeper but nodded in response. Then they both said goodbye again and set off for their separate homes.

Saturday came quickly to Lily, and by six o'clock she was bouncing around the kitchen in anticipation.

'Sev's really shy and he doesn't like talking about his home that much, but he really loves talking about Hogwarts and magic.' She was rapidly explaining to her bemused looking father. 'And he says that I have lots of magic because I can do lots of things with it, and control my magic really well for not being trained yet, and Sev says that not having magical parents doesn't matter and that…'

'Calm down Lily,' her father said chuckling at her, but just then the doorbell rang and Lily ran off to open the door.

Severus stood there wearing his usual overlarge cloths and looking decidedly pale. He smiled nervously at Lily, she grinned back and ushered him into the house.

'Mum! Dad! Sev's here!' she called, but it was not her parents who came down the stairs.

'What are you doing here?' Petunia asked venomously standing on the bottom step.

'Petunia, this is Lily's friend, he's come for tea.' Their father warned from behind Petunia. Petunia slipped of the step and turned her back on Lily and Severus, her chin in the air and eyes raised she half marched into the dining room to set the table. Lily rolled her eyes and giggled quietly at her sister's behaviour, but Severus simply looked more scared and nervous than he had before.

'Don't worry Sev, she's always like that now.' Lily said and Severus could detect the sadness in her voice, but as he was so nervous he didn't comment on it, expecting Lily to be almost as nervous as he was about him coming to her house.

The dinner went really well for Lily. Although Petunia tried her hardest to embarrass Severus, bringing up things such as where he lived and making his parents seem unkind, their parents seemed to take it all in their stride and not make a fuss about anything at all. This helped to relax Severus and soon he seemed comfortable enough in his surroundings for Lily to bring up the subject of magic. Her parents seemed to take the situation alright although Lily was certain that they were almost as ill at ease as Petunia. They seemed to hold their confusion in and were very polite towards Severus, regardless of his incessant talk of magic. And the way that he seemed to look down on them more and more as the evening stretched on. Every time they mentioned that they didn't understand a concept, such as apparating or the Ministry of Magic, Severus looked at them appalled before bursting into a new train of thought to explain this new view of the world.

At the end of the evening, Sev had gone home and Lily was currently tucked up in bed as her father came in to say goodnight.

'Lily, do you really believe Severus, when he talks about magic and this 'Hogwarts?' he asked cautiously. Lily looked back at him, her head on one side.

'I know what you think.' She said 'But it's the only thing that makes sense. Look, watch' as she got out of bed and picked up her pencil case. Placing it carefully in the palm of her hand and concentrated hard on it. Slowly the pencil case began to rise, slowly and jaggedly at first but then much more smoothly. Lily held it there at about four feet above her hand and then carefully lowered it back onto her desk. 'What else could explain that?'

His face paled in response to his daughters sudden burst of magic. Staring at the pencil case and back to his daughter, he was rendered speechless.

'I can do things like that all the time … it's not a trick' she said, looking up at her stricken father's forehead crumpled. Her father's worry making her feel sick inside.

'Don't worry Lily-Pad' he mumbled rubbing her head, as he slowly turned and walked, zombie-like to the door, his eyes still fixed on the pencil case.

The next morning, as Lily shuffled down the stairs, she heard her parents talking in the kitchen.

'… up above her head and then it went down onto the desk again. She said that it was real and not a trick. But, well …' her father's voice trailed off.

'You think it's real? I thought that Hogwarts was just a story, Lily has always played imaginatively with her friends. Remember when they nearly had us all convinced they had actually found a dinosaur skeleton down by the river? Or all those stories about playing in the caves, when there are no caves near here? Maybe it was just a dream after listening to Severus for all that time.' Lily's mother replied.

Freezing on the spot, Lily realized that they were talking about her. Crouching low on the stairs she listened harder.

'A very vivid dream.' Her father countered, 'But you're right Hogwarts just sounds like a story. It isn't real.'

Lily screwed up her eyes in frustration. How could they not believe her! She had shown her father magic and he was just passing it off! How could she make them believe her?

The answer came, as it usually does, in a way that Lily was least expecting it. Two weeks later, curled up on the sofa in the front room, her knees were tucked up, almost under her chin, reading Third Year at Malory Towers by Enid Blyton. Lily heard a sudden, yet polite, knock at the door. Keeping the book in place, but no longer reading the words, Lily listened as her mother came down the stairs and opened the door.

'Good day,' came the cheery male voice that Lily did not recognize.

'I believe you are Calla Evans. I am here to talk about your daughter Lilian' Lily froze stiff, eyes wide, listening hard. She could hear her mother's confusion.

'I am Horace Slughorn,' the man went on as if this explained everything,

'Of course come in,' Lily's mother said, Lily heard the door close and then her mother entered into the sitting room.

'Oh, Lily, would you go and fetch your father,' her mother said and as Lily stood up a rather short fat man entered into the room. Lily thought he was wearing a rather strange mustard yellow suite, the waist coat of which was struggling to stay buttoned up. He smiled widely at Lily in a way she found almost too friendly, but she returned the jester as she left the room to go and find her father.

When Lily re-entered the sitting room behind her father, Horace Slughorn and her mother were talking. Horace Slughorn was chatting away amicably, as if he had been invited to tea all the time, but her mother seemed less sure of the whole situation.

'This is Horace Slughorn,' Lily's mother told her father, 'He's come to talk about Lily's schooling. He says that she has been accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.' She said with a knowing look on her face that she often gave her father when she knew something was off.

Lily's eyes lit up. 'Really?' she whispered, 'I'm really going to go?' a huge grin began creeping onto her face.

'Of course you are,' replied Horace Slughorn, smiling warmly at her as her parents continued their silent conversation. 'I assume you are Lilian, then,'

'Yes, Lily ' she replied

'I'm Professor Slughorn,' he said, 'I teach potions at Hogwarts and am head of Slytherin house.'

'Sev wants to be in Slytherin too and potions is the one with the caldrons, isn't it?' Lily said excitedly, moving to sit down next to Professor Slughorn.

'Yes it is. Who's Sev?' Professor Slughorn asked politely,

'Severus Snape, he lives down by the river, near the old mill.'

'Snape… Snape… hmmm I don't recognize the name, what year is he in?' Professor Slughorn pondered.

'Oh, he's not at Hogwarts yet, he's my age.'

'I see,' said Professor Slughorn smiling, 'that is quite unusual, I am assuming his parents are wizards then.'

'I think his mum is, his dad is a muggle I think,' Lily answered,

'Of course, that would explain it…' Slughorn mused, almost to himself, as if he knew all the names of the students who had ever been to Hogwarts. Lily thought this to be improbable, however she didn't want to contradict someone that she had only just met, so she smiled and nodded.

'The thing is,' Lily's father said out loud turning to Professor Slughorn, 'that we have never heard of this school apart through Lily and her friend. And you can imagine that we don't really want to send our daughter to this unknown place for her education. It's not that we don't trust you, however our daughter's future is important and we have no idea what this school stands for or where it even is!'

'You are completely correct.' Professor Slughorn answered, smiling up at her father, 'This is the problem that our muggle parents have to face. There is no way of me being able to prove to you that Hogwarts actually exists by taking you there, as the castle is guarded against muggles for safety of the students. But I can demonstrate to you as much of the curriculum as I can in this room for you.

'Lily will have several different subjects to learn, as she would in any school, at Hogwarts the compulsory classes are Potions, Charms, Transfiguration, Herbology, Astronomy, Defence Against the Dark Arts, History of Magic and Flying class which is also available for first years.

'Potions is a very practical subject and I would find it difficult to brew something here, I doubt you have a cupboard full of boomslang skin.' Professor Slughorn chuckled to himself, as if boomslang skin was something you would have a cupboard full of.

'I'm sorry,' Lily's mother said 'what is boomslang skin?'

'Oh, don't be sorry, a boomslang is a snake that is generally found in sub-Saharan Africa. The skin is used in several magical potions.' He smiled, as if this was a normal kind of explanation.

'I digress,' he continued, 'In Transfiguration class students learn how to transfigure objects into different things. For example, with transfiguration, I could turn that teacup into a mouse.'

'Really?' Lily breathed.

'Of course,' Professor Slughorn answered taking out his wand from his pocket and pointed it at a cup and saucer that had been left on the coffee table. With a wave of his wand, the cup suddenly became a bemused looking mouse sitting on the saucer. A sudden scream came from the doorway, and as Lily turned she saw her sister run from the room, her hands clamped over her mouth.

'Petunia!' her mother called and left the room after her. Professor Slughorn proceeded to turn the mouse back into a teacup; he then looked at her father who gave a small nod for Professor Slughorn to continue, though the colour of his face reminded Lily of when she had made her pencil case hover for him.

'In Herbology students learn about the care of and magical properties of several magical and mundane plants and fungi, such as devil's snare, mandrakes and leaping toadstools.

'Astronomy is the study of the night sky, I believe muggles know some astrology.'

'Well, I am a Physicist so some of my colleagues are astronomers.' Lily's father said, Professor Slughorn smiled and nodded, Lily wasn't convinced that he knew what a physicist was. This it seemed was something her father could understand and he latched onto it as a base point.

'So is it astronomy or astrology that she would be studying?' he asked in a controlled, measured voice.

'I believe astrology, as it focuses on the meaning of the position of the planets and stars. Yet there is plenty of astronomy in there. How can you know the meaning of a planet if you don't know which one it is?' the professor chortled to himself, appearing confident that he had answered the question correctly. But Lily's father did not look satisfied.

'So my daughter would be being taught a subject which has proved to be wrong and is inaccurate, but with a little science thrown in there so that it is almost impossible to decipher the fact from the fiction? And called the name of the science?' He asked in the same voice.

'Ah, right, you see,' said Professor Slughorn, 'For witches and wizards the two are almost indistinguishable. The magic inside them allows them to predict the future much more accurately and to understand the meaning of the planets in a much more profound way than a muggle would be able to do. That is where the confusion comes in. And the subject does come with a warning that predicting the future is a tricky and delicate subject, reporting anything more than the facts seen in the skies will almost certainly lead to an incorrect prediction which many a time has caused havoc on the world below.

Also, though these may be the subjects covered in first year as a basic introduction to magic, your daughter will be able to choose her subjects as she moves up in the school, and this may be one that she may discontinue late down the line.'

This seemed to placate Lily's father for the moment and after a brief pause Professor Slughorn resumed his speech.

'Defence Against the Dark Arts, 'he continued, 'is pretty self-explanatory, students learn how to defend themselves against other magical entities, whether they are human or some kind of magical creature. Students learn to tackle creatures from gnomes to boggarts.

'History of Magic is a very theoretical class where students learn about the goblin wars and the Tudor witch burnings, that sought of thing.

'In Charms students learn how to concentrate their magical power and perform the branch of magic we call charms. Often these consist of taking an inanimate object and causing it to move without touching it. For example I can make this teacup fly around the room.' Professor Slughorn then lifted up his wand again, pointing it at the cup he caused it to lift itself into the air.

'I can do that,' Lily said, as if it was a simple, everyday thing that Professor Slughorn was performing in front of them.

'Really?' Professor Slughorn was so shocked the cup fell from the air and broke on the floor. 'Yes, I'll show you.' Lily answered. With a wave of professor Slughorn's wand the pieces joined themselves back together and the cup jumped itself into Lily's outstretched hand. Concentrating hard, Lily lifted it slowly of her hand and into the air. When it reached about six feet up Lily caused the cup to move around the room, gaining confidence and speed as it went, until it had done a full lap of the room and then she lowered it back down neatly onto the saucer.

'Bravo! Well done! That was one of the best pieces of wand-less magic I've seen done in a long time.' Professor Slughorn applauded her. 'And a muggle-born too, all the more impressive! Yes, well, very advanced indeed…' he carried on muttering to himself, eyes fixed on Lily in almost adoration. 'In fact, I would like to invite you to be part of a little group I run. It's for helping students make good connections with fellow successful students and old boys and girls I still have a few connections with. Yes I think you'd fit in quite well there.' Professor Slughorn said patting Lilly on the shoulder. Her parents were looking quite impressed and pleased with Lily. She had never completely fitted in at school and now here was a teacher saying that she could become a part of an elitist group in this new school. The magic that both the professor and Lily had performed in front of them seemed to be persuading them, at least for the moment, that Hogwarts was a real school.

This was the reaction that Lily had been expecting from her parents from the start, and now looking up at their smiling faces Lily remembered what Severus had said about her letter.

'Excuse me Sir,' Lily started hesitantly, 'but my friend Severus said something about a letter from Hogwarts.'

'Of cause, of cause,' I nearly forgot it, here you go.' Professor Slughorn said handing Lily a large envelope addressed in green ink.

"Lily Evans

The room on the right

17 Dartmouth Rd.

Cokeworth, England, CW8 3GE"

Lily barely dared to open her letter, and so for the next few days it sat on her desk sealed shut. It was now Christmas Eve, and Lily lay on her bed looking at the think heavy parchment deciding that Severus ought to be with her when she opened it. He was the one to tell her that she was a witch, and he had said that he wouldn't be getting his until the summer holidays, when Lily's parents needed to have responded by.

This chapter owes at least part of its existence to:

Harry Potter by J K Rowling

Beauty and the Beast first published version by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, published in La jeune américaine, et les contes marins in 1740.

The Tales of Beadle the Bard (The Fountain of Fair Fortune) by J K Rowling

Third Year at Malory Towers by Enid Blyton

I Can Do That – A Corus Line