November 1st, 1977

Lily was sitting with Marlene, Dorcas, Alice and the Marauders in the great hall. They were having their lunch, discussing about the ball yesterday. During this, Lily saw some owls come inside the hall. However, the letter they were carrying where black in color. They landed in front of some students. The expression she saw on the faces of her friends were not good. And they had every reason for that, for black letters meant someone you knew had died. It was letter of condolence from the ministry. To Lily's horror, she saw an owl land in front of her. With shaking hands, Lily removed the letters from the owl, for there were 2 letters.

She opened the black letter first. Fear had completely taken over her body. She slowly opened the letter and started reading the letter. It read, "

Miss Lily Marie Evans,

This is with a heavy heart that Ministry of Magic has to tell you that your parents, Mr. and Mrs. Evan were victims of a death eaters raid yesterday at 7 PM. The aurors on investigation have found that the killing curse was used on them. Your sister has been informed of this occurrence as well. She has asked the ministry to not interfere further and to initiate any communication with her in future.

The ministry offers its heartfelt condolences to you and your sister.

Hoping for brighter future,

Ministry of Magic."

It was the second letter that completely crushed Lily. It was from her sister Petunia.

"Lily,

I don't know if you know, nor do I care if you know or not. But our parents are dead, killed by your own freak kind. Not only them, but the entire street has been destroyed, countless others killed. Other freaks like you are now starting to kill normal people like us, as if killing their own kind wasn't enough for them.

It because of you we lost our parents. It is because of your freakish nature that we lost the house we grew up in. If you hadn't been a freak, our parents would have never been attacked. If you hadn't met your freak friend, you would have never gone to that freak school and would have been a normal girl like me. We could have been a normal happy family. We could have been the loving sisters we were when we were young. Our parents wouldn't have been targeted by that fanatical group. If you had been a normal girl like me, we would have been living in that house, with our parents, like normal people. But we can't, because you had to be abnormal, you had to be a freak.

It is magic that caused our parents death. I will always blame it for our parents' death. And you were the one who brought magic in our life. I will always blame you for our parents' death. I hate you. I hate the freakish magic you have. Never contact me again Lily. As far as I am concerned, my normal sister is dead. The sister whom I loved died when you turned into a freak.

Patricia"

Lily started feeling overwhelmed. Grief was starting to set inside her, filling her up. She needed to leave the hall. She needed someplace where she could be alone and mourn and grieve. She needed to let all the anger and grief out. She quickly got up and ran away, leaving the hall, not even feeling the tears that were flowing out of her eyes, not feeling anything except grief, anger and indescribable pain.

Her friends knew what the letter meant as soon as they saw the black covering. Nearly everyone knew about the infamous "Black Letters". They didn't go after Lily, letting her be alone for a while. Giving her the space to mourn and grieve on her own for a while.

Harry didn't know what the black color of the letter meant. But seeing the expressions on the faces of other, seeing how his mother reacted to the letter, he had an idea of what it meant. It suddenly made him understand something about his aunt he had never understood completely before. And that was why she hated magic, and by extension him, so much. She blamed magic for the death of her parents. She blamed magic for the distance that came between the two sisters. And she blamed magic for the death of her sister. And he was magical, making it easier for her to blame him rather than blame magic. That was why his mother was a freak, that was why he was a freak and that was why anyone who could do magic was a freak to her.

Ginny could see what Harry was feeling and thinking. She laced her finger through his, trying to give him some comfort, letting him know that she was there to help him, to support him and comfort him. Harry squeezed her hand, which was all Ginny needed to know that he would be ok.