A Busy Year Full of Surprises

Chapter One

Two Letters

Lily Evans moved a little in her sleep. The seventeen-year-old girl was a beautiful young woman, and at her school, almost all of the boys thought she was good-looking. Many of them seemed to be in love with her. Lily's parents told her she had always been sweet. As a baby, she had been loved by the neighbourhood. Her sister, Petunia, had not. If Lily was the colour black, Petunia was white. In almost every thing they could think of, they were different.

Lily loved school. Petunia hated it. Lily had already done half of her summer homework, and now, it was the morning of ... Which date and what time was it? Lily sat up and reached after her calendar and her alarm clock. Studying the calendar, she saw that it was the morning of July the twenty-fourth. She looked at the white dot with a black border around it. That means the full moon was last night. Her thoughts immediately went to Remus and what he had had to endure during the night. She sighed. She felt sorry for her best friend.

Remus had been caught by Fenrir Greyback twelve years ago when Remus was five years old. Remus himself had kept his condition quiet from everyone at Hogwarts. Every full moon he used to tell people that he felt sick and needed to visit the hospital wing or that his mother was sick and he needed to visit her. Remus' best and eldest friends, James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew, discovered in their third year that Remus was a werewolf. Two years later, Remus had confided to Lily that Potter, Black and Pettigrew were unregistered Animaguses. Lily smiled. Maybe James was not really stupid after all, although he certainly seemed stupid when he bullied other people. To herself, Lily hoped that he would stop bullying people and that he had grown up during the summer ...

Wait a moment! she thought to herself. Why would I hope that James has grown up during the summer? Why would I feel sympathy? Oh, God, please, what's happening to me? Why do I all of a sudden think of James Potter? Why can't I stop thinking about him now?

A brown owl appeared and delivered the day's edition of the Daily Prophet. Lily got out of her bed and went to her white desk in the right corner. She opened the first drawer and took out her purse. She counted up five bronze knuts and put them into the leather bag that was attached to the owl's leg. The owl hooted as Lily took the paper, and then flew away.

Well, Lily thought, I'm going to reserve the newspaper for the breakfast. Then Dad will see how hard and irritating it is to try to talk with people that have their noses in a paper all the time. Oh yes! Lily looked at her alarm clock again as she remembered that she had not paid attention to the time when she first had thought about checking it. The thoughts about Remus and his friends had made her forget what she was actually doing.

Remus and Lily had become good friends during the last two years. Those two years ... That reminded Lily about her terrible O.W.L. year. She studied 'all the time,' according to Lily's friends. Or friend, actually, the only friend she seemed to have at Hogwarts, the school she attended. She had gone to Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry for five years now, and she was about to begin her sixth year in September this year.

She thought about last year's Hogwarts' letter, which had been thicker than normal. When she opened it, a badge with the letter 'P' fell out. Oh, how lucky Lily felt then. She actually screamed with joy. Her parents - and sister - fully understood what it meant and that felt great. Even though Lily had thought her sister would not care, she was only half right. Petunia did not care about Lily's successes; but she really did care about Lily's misfortunes. Petunia cared about Lily's adversities because that was the part she could tease Lily with. Yet, such adversities were not ordinary, but rather the opposite. Academically, Lily almost never failed, but it was possible that Petunia might soon fail, and Lily was pretty sure about it. Petunia was a lazy cow, according to Lily, but Lily had never dared saying that out loud.

Lily sat her O.W.L. year. She remembered that time very well. She had been on the verge of a collapse the whole fifth year, worrying about all her tests, homework and even lessons. She just could not calm down! She always thought about studying methods, the charm to get rid of a Boggart - Riddikulus - and how many feet and inches all her homework needed to be... As a matter of practice, Lily had written her essays at least a foot longer than the teacher had told them, and it was often more. Lily's friends and family always told her she had performance anxiety, but Lily just dismissed it with a wave of her hand. She just wanted to do her best, and saw an 'Exceeds Expectations' as a failure. She could not bring herself to even consider getting an 'Acceptable' or ... She shuddered, she did not want to think of getting a failing grade, such as 'Poor,' 'Dreadful' or 'Troll' ... Ugh, she did not like thinking about this. To fail in school was one of her biggest fears.

She remembered the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher from her second year. She had always been very interested in Defence Against the Dark Arts, especially then. It was important to protect oneself now that 'You-Know-Who' held the United Kingdom in terror. Lily normally used his real name, Lord Voldemort. Her classmates at Hogwarts, almost every wizard or witch she knew, had always told her to say 'You-Know-Who,' and when Lily said 'Voldemort' by accident, her friends seemed to become petrified with fear. Lily remembered she had overheard a conversation between Professor Dumbledore, her Headmaster, and Professor McGonagall, Transfiguration teacher, two years ago. Professor McGonagall said something about Voldemort - Lily could not exactly remember what, but that was not important. Dumbledore had said that the 'fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself.' Lily tried to convince everybody she knew about the fact, but most people she told did not seem to care, nor believe that Albus Dumbledore had originally said it.

Well, she thought, maybe in this day and age people don't think their great defender is a nut - Maybe they think saying 'Voldemort' is a way of inviting trouble...

'Breakfast, my princesses! Get up; porridge on the table!' Lily heard her dad's shout. 'You can't sleep all day! Where are my beautiful daughters? Breakfast!'

Lily got up from the white Gustavian chair she sat in, and went to her door and opened it, just to see her father preparing to shout again. Her dad was quite tall and had green eyes, just like the ones Lily had. He was black-haired though; her red hair came from her mother. Lily's father, named Christopher Evans, had the same mouth as Lily.

'Good morning yourself, father,' Lily smiled. 'You don't have to scream outside my room. You know that, don't you?'

'Well, honey, I suppose I haven't got to do that. You're as lively in the morning as I am. I actually should know that by now.'

'Yes, I think you should. Why don't you stand outside Petunia's room and shout instead? I don't believe a normal person could sleep so much.'

'Lily, you know what I think about the word "normal". There is no such thing as a "normal" person. Every person is unique. There is only one single person in this world that is exactly like you, and that's yourself. So, you shouldn't call anyone "normal" or "abnormal". Haven't I told both you and your sister that every day since the day you were born? And, I've told you this lots of times, haven't I?

'Yes, dad, you've told me this twice a day for a little more than sixteen years now. I'm aware that "normal" is a matter of perception and every human is unique and created by God.'

'You've gotten it right, sweetheart. I love you, my little baby girl. You have grown too fast. 'You're of age now, aren't you?'

'Yeah Yes - I'm sure of age on our seventeenth birthday ...'

'Where are you going after you graduate?'

'Dunno ... We'll have to see that in about a year.'

- - - - -

Lily sat down at the breakfast table with her father, Christopher, on her right, and Petunia on her left. Her mother, Marion, sat opposite her. Lily's mother was a beautiful woman. She had the same red hair as Lily had, and Lily had her mother's brow and ears. Actually the only thing that was different between then was that Lily had green eyes. Her mother's were blue. Lily thought they were very beautiful, and as a child, she had always been jealous of her mother's eyes. But now that she had grown up, she knew that you could not get everything you wanted, and that you should be happy with what you had. And so Lily was. She knew that she was lucky to have gotten so much from her mother and couldn't complain about not getting her mother's eyes. And that was a lot compared to Petunia, who had grey eyes. Nobody knew were she had gotten them from. She had also blonde hair, and nobody knew where that had come from, either.

Lily sat down on a chair, took a roll and buttered it, while saying, 'Good morning!'

'Good morning, dear,' said her mother. 'How did you sleep?'

'Good.' As Lily had predicted, her father sat with his paper. So, Lily took out her copy of the Daily Prophet and looked at the front page. Oh, thank God, no attacks today.

'Why do you look so relieved?' her mother asked.

'No attacks today,' Lily answered. She had opened her paper now, so her side of the table was totally covered with it. She thought about Lord Voldemort's other attacks during the summer; the most recent one was just three days ago in north Scotland. It was terrible. A whole family had been killed just because a 'pure-blood' witch had married a 'half-blood' wizard - they and their three children: five, ten and fifteen years old were dead. Lily had a vague memory of the eldest boy; he had been in Ravenclaw a year below her. If Lily remembered correctly, the girl was blonde and quite tall like Petunia. When she first met her, Lily had decided that she did not like her, only because of the girl's looks ... How mean and judging can you be?

Lily, she thought, there is no point burying yourself in guilty and grief for that. You know, 'shit happens, but you have to go on.' And, the girl didn't knew what you thought about her; she wasn't sad because of it ... Wait ... Am I sure of that? Am I sure she didn't know? Lily felt even guiltier now. You will never know, plus, she did not know! I told you we didn't know each other ... Well, I didn't know her, but that's not an excuse for not blaming ... She sighed at her thoughts and continued to read.

But now, she could only think about Voldemort's attacks. Another attack came into her mind; it had been on the second day home after school. Lily then read about a sixty-five-year-old squib who had been a widow; her husband had been three years older than she was and he had - according to the Daily Prophet - died five years earlier from a heart attack. And then she remembered the Death Eaters that had attacked a Muggle Family and disappeared.

The Ministry of Magic didn't seem to have much success in their search for Voldemort. They did not report anything in the Daily Prophet, so Lily assumed that it had not gone well. The Prophet only reported things that were good for the Ministry. Lily snorted. She did not like the fact that her only source for news was ruled by the authorities. Brilliant. She put the paper on the table and rolled her eyes up toward their ceiling.

'What?' her sister Petunia asked. 'Is it because one and one makes three, but you think it's wrong, 'cause you say it's four?'

'Ha ha, very funny,' said Lily with a touch of sarcasm.

'Isn't that what you think?'

'Dad, tell her to stop!'

'Petunia, honey, stop teasing your sister.'

'You always do as she says, don't you?'

'No, I do not and -'

Lily didn't hear what her father was going to add, because Petunia became furious.

'DON'T TELL ME YOU AREN'T ALWAYS DOING AS SHE SAYS! DON'T TELL ME THAT YOU LOVE US BOTH, AND THAT YOU LOVE ME AS MUCH AS YOU LOVE HER, OR THAT YOU LOVE HER AS MUCH AS YOU LOVE ME, BECAUSE THAT'S NOT TRUE! YOU HAVE NEVER LOVED ME AS MUCH AS YOU LOVE THAT,' she pointed at Lily, 'BECAUSE THEN, SOMETIMES YOU WOULD TAKE MY PART! AND YOU DON'T DO THAT! NONE OF YOU HAVE EVER LOVED ME, AND YOU NEVER WILL, EITHER! WHAT HAVE I DONE? WHAT DOES SHE HAVE THAT I DON'T HAVE? IS IT BECAUSE SHE IS A WITCH? IT IS, ISN'T IT? ANSWER ME!'

Lily's father's face was white. 'Petunia, dear−'

'NO! DON'T YOU CALL ME "DEAR"! YOU DON'T LOVE ME! AND DON'T YOU DARE LIE TO ME! YOU'RE ALWAYS KEEPING UP APPEARANCES TO ME, AREN'T YOU? I −'

'Petunia,' her mother said calmly but firmly. 'We do love you both very much, and we actually do take your part -'

'OH, DON'T PRETEND WITH ME!

'SHUT UP!' Lily roared. This was too much for her. 'Thanks Mum,' she added as she took her dishes to the sink, quickly rinsed them, and got out of the room as fast as possible.

-----

Lily thought back to the previous summer. It had been just like this one. Petunia had erupted in a similar outburst and Lily had gone to her room for some peace and quiet, which could not be found anywhere else. In fact, while it was not exactly quiet in her room, it was the quietest place in the house..

Lily had closed her door carefully. Suddenly, an owl came into view outside the window.

Oh no, Lily thought. She went to the window and opened it, and the owl came in. The owl was grey and white and had a letter attached to the leg. Oh, no, she thought again. She lifted her shaking hands and freed the owl from the yellow parchment envelope. The owl hooted and flew away. She watched it until she could not see it anymore.

Should she open the letter now, alone, in her room upstairs? Or should she open it downstairs with her mum and dad? Petunia might be there - the same angry Petunia who would probably be happy if Lily didn't do well. Deciding that it was only right for her parents to see her grades, she ran down the stairs, crying: 'Mum ... Dad ...'

'Yes, honey?'

'My O.W.L. grades are here.'

'Oh ... Exciting ... Do they have different grades than we do?'

'Yes. There is O, Outstanding, the highest grade; then comes E, Exceeds Expectations; then A for Acceptable. They are the passing grades.'

'And the failing ones?' her dad asked anxiously.

'There is P for Poor; then D for Dreadful; and, at last, T for Troll.'

'OK ... Well ... Open it, open it!'

'I will, I will ...' Lily took the parchment envelope in her hands. She studied the emerald green writing on the front page: 'Lily Evans'.

'The O.W.L.s are the most important tests,' she said.

'Yes, yes, open it quickly now!'

'I will, I will.' And so, with shaking hands, she folded up the parchment in the envelope.

ORDINARY WIZARDING LEVEL RESULTS

Passing Grades:

Outstanding (O)

Exceeds Expectations (E)

Acceptable (A)

Failing Grades:

Poor (P)

Dreadful (D)

Troll (T)

LILY MARION EVANS HAS ACHIEVED

Astronomy: O
Care of Magical Creatures: O
Charms: O
Herbology: O
History of Magic: O
Muggle Studies: O
Potions: O
Arithmancy: O
Ancient Runes: O
Transfiguration: O
Defence Against the Dark Arts: O
Divination: E

'Lily,' her mother said, 'your results are wonderful! Twelve subjects and eleven with the highest grades, and the only one you didn't make the highest grade on, you made the second highest grade. This is going to be rewarded! What would you like?'

'Well, Mum, I could use an owl -'

'What are you going to do with an owl?'

'Witches and wizards use owls to communicate by something called Owl Post.'

'It is? Hmm ... Where can we get an owl then?'

'In Diagon Alley.'

'OK. When should we go there?'

'When the book list arrives. It will arrive sometime this month, I hope.'

-----

That July was the hottest month in a very long time. Lily and her parents visited many different beaches and lakes, most of them around their home. Petunia did not spend much time with them. She had been angry at both her parents and her sister since the day Lily's O.W.L. grades had arrived.

Now, it was the end of July of the following year. Lily and her mother lay outside the house, basking in the sunshine. Lily had brought along one of her old school books and was studying. It was a book from her third year. She reviewed it so she wouldn't forget what she had learned, and she found it very enjoyable. Petunia thought Lily was insane, preferring a school book instead of a 'normal' book, as Petunia called them. Petunia did not bother to do any studying, and she only did the least she could get away with if there was an essay for homework. If she had a test, she did not study much. It wasn't worth talking about her effort to do any homework for her English and French classes and so on. She was very lazy.

Lily loved school. She loved studying and practising and so on. Petunia thought Lily was a 'nerd,' but Lily was far too used to Petunia's insults to care about them. Lily knew that Petunia was just jealous about her grades. When Lily was younger, Petunia had told her that she was not jealous at all, but now that she was older and could recognize her sister's behaviour better, Lily more and more understood that it was a big, fat lie.

'What are you thinking about, Lily?' her mother asked her.

Leaving her private thoughts about her sister, Lily said, 'The owl flying over there.' She pointed up in the air and saw a handsome tawny owl. It flew down, landed gracefully on Lily's chair and stretched out a leg to her. The second letter that month was attached to it.

'Oh, here comes the book list at last!' Lily said happily as she freed the letter from the bird's outstretched leg. The owl immediately flew away. Lily opened the letter and found what she had been expecting: the Hogwarts' booklist.

Spells: How to Perform Them and How to Stop Them by Rupert Axebanger

Advanced Transfiguration by Agatha Robinson

The Stars by Anthony Friddles

Runes by Runa Aldrad

Muggles' Lives and Ways by Rohan McDaw

Effective Defence by Kevin Knorr
The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 7 by Miranda Goshawk.

When are we going to Diagon Alley?' Lily's mother asked.

'Dunno,' said Lily. 'Whenever you want.'

'OK, let's say ... tomorrow? And we've got to buy some Owl Treats for your owl.'

Author's Notes; This is bound to be the longest chapter I've ever written. It's 3319 words without this Author's Notes. Applauses to me thanks!
Lily's quote from Dumbledore, 'fear for a name increases fear of the thing itself,' is one of my favourites in 'Philosopher's Stone'. I also agree with what Mr Evans said in the beginning about the word 'normal'.

When typing this into my computer, I want to say that Petunia over-reacted a lot in this chapter, but I enjoyed writing it ... :)

And, at last. Anywone curious about updates, planned updates etcetera can look at my 'writing blog,' where I am trying to fetch all readers on different archieves/sites where I am linking to my stories to a kind of 'central.' That is very good, at my Swedish story, I only had readers at a Harry Potter fan site and two at Fanfiction.net. Now, I do not know how many I have, but anyway, I have the story published at a few places, so that is almost needed. The blog is located on awnswritings [dot] blogspot [dot] com. And, (this is to you who's reading att fanfiction.net, if you are a registred member), please do write a line in a review (it can be so simple as 'The story is god/bad,' only you are reviewing) so I jnow how many readers I have . Thanks! (Unregistred Fanfiction.net-members can simply email me at axel[dot]nyden[at]gmail[dot]com. Like as with the URL to my blog, you replace [dot] with a dot and [at] with an '@'.