Rating:
PG
House:
Schnoogle
Characters:
James Potter Lily Evans
Genres:
Action Romance
Era:
Multiple Eras
Stats:
Published: 06/07/2003
Updated: 01/08/2013
Words: 389,988
Chapters: 59
Hits: 80,010

Lily Evans: A History

Bethany

Story Summary:
A story of Lily's life from pre-Hogwarts to marrying James Potter. How she coped with growing up with Petunia to her friendship with the four boys that would change her life - and eventually the course of history - forever.

Chapter 05

Posted:
06/10/2003
Hits:
1,487
Author's Note:
I seen this somewhere on a fic before and thought it was extremely funny. So, in honor of something so funny that I still remember it; here are a few phrases from this chapter that hopefully will catch your interest :)

Chapter 5 - Summer of Petunia, broken noses & trunk hexes

    Lily finally made it to the second floor landing of her house, dragging her trunk behind her and carrying Morgana's cage, stopping for a moment to breathe. When she opened her bedroom door, it looked exactly like it did the day she left for Hogwarts. The sun shone through the double windows with lace curtains, casting light on the twin size bed with the pale blue comforter and matching pillow shames. There was a small love seat by the window with two huge fluffy pillows, next to Lily's desk and closet. She had a few large stuffed animals that sat on the floor in various spots, and a couple of smaller ones on the bed. The room had a just cleaned smell to it, which wouldn't last long, but was nice all the same.

    Lily put her trunk at the foot of her bed and opened Morgana's cage to let her out. The owl flew out of the cage, giving a grateful hoot to be out of the cramped up space, and perched on the window sill impatiently. Lily threw open the window and watched as her small (well, not so small anymore) owl flew over to land in the giant oak tree in the back yard.

    "Need any help?" Christine asked from the doorway.

    Lily smiled, lifting the top of her trunk open. "Sure," she replied. Her mother came over to sit on the side of the bed while Lily began dragging things from her trunk. She laid her robes on a chair while she cleared her desk so to make room for all of her school books, parchment, ink and quills.

    "Do you have school work to do?" Christine asked, confused when she saw the book marks in Lily's school books.

    "A little," Lily replied, shrugging. She wasn't sure what to really say to her mom, since anything she said was bound to confuse her. She felt funny, not having a grown up witch or wizard to talk to. Almost as if she now belonged to another world. A world that didn't include her parents.

    Christine put A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration aside and gave Lily an appraising sort of look. "You know, Lily, even though I hadn't the first clue what all you do while your at school, you can talk to me. You may have to explain some of it, but I still want to know what you're interested in." Lily felt a little of the fear in her gut dissipate and she grinned at her mother.

    "Tell me all of it," Christine urged. Lily didn't need much more prompting.

    "It is so fascinating!" she gushed, grinning as she kept digging things out of her trunk. "We get to use magic all the time. Of course, James, Sirius, Remus and Peter kept getting in trouble. They were all the time looking up new spells and learning them. They know stuff we aren't suppose to learn until fifth and sixth year!"

    "Did you learn any, too?" her mother asked, raising an eyebrow.

    Lily blushed. "Well, it was hard not to pick up on some stuff when you're around them. We've all mastered summoning and banishing charms, and Professor Flitwick said that is fourth year stuff. I used a summoning charm to throw some mud at Snape. He was so mad!"

    "Snape?" Christine asked, a confused grin on her face.

    "Severus Snape," Lily explained, spitting the name the way Sirius and James always did. "He's in Slytherin and doesn't miss a day of calling me... well, not so nice names. But I got him back good."

    "Why doesn't he like you?"

    "Oh, Snape doesn't like anyone. You've seen him, Mum. He was in Ollivanders the day I got my wand." Christine nodded, vaguely remembering a black haired boy who looked in bad need of a bath. "Him and Malfoy are the worst. Of course, they have their stupid little prats that follow them around to do their bidding. Rosier, Avery... there's a whole group of them that means nothing but trouble.

    "But Gryffindor House and Slytherin House is known for not getting along, anyways. I don't see why they would even put us in classes together. I think they do it just for torture. Given, I don't think Hufflepuffs or Ravenclaws like them much, either. The Slytherins are sneaking and cunnin--" Lily's eyes narrowed as she caught a slight movement outside her bedroom door. Speaking of which... Lily thought. "Yes, Petunia?" she called.

    At once her sister came around the doorway to stand at the edge of the room. She had grown taller since Lily had seen her last and bonier, if possible. She had always had a long face that reminded Lily of a horse, but it seemed even more so since she had her arms crossed and was scrowling. Lily always thought Petunia could have been pretty, if she hadn't worked so hard at it. She wore too much make-up, over done her hair, and had about as much fashion sense as common sense.

    "So, you came back, did you?"

    Christine stood up as if to say something, but Lily cast her a sideways glance, pleading for her to not say anything. Then Lily also crossed her arms, walking up to Petunia.

    "You knew I would," she said in a conversational tone, absent of the resentment that Petunia's voice held.

    Her older sister's sharp eyes glanced around at Lily's school books, cloak, robes, quills and owl's cage in disgust. It was obvious that whatever was on Petunia's mind, she didn't want to speak it with her mother sitting so close. "Hmph," she mumbled indignantly and stormed out of the room, leaving Lily in her wake.

    "She hates me," Lily whispered as she turned back around, looking around her room.

    "She'll come around dear," Christine said in an off hand way that meant she really didn't believe it.

    Lily nodded all the same and took her cloak off. Under it she wore jeans and a peasant shirt. Christine caught sight of Lily's wand laying just inside her cloak and she gingerly took it out and laid it on the bed, as if afraid it would emit sparks if she held it too long. "Your grand mum would be so proud to know you're a witch," she said suddenly, causing Lily to start. "When she married your grandfather, who was non-magic, and had my mother who wasn't magic, she was afraid that no one in our family would be magic again."

    "I'll probably marry a wizard," Lily said reassuringly. "So our family can be magic again. It's so wonderful, I'm glad I'm a witch."

    Christine ran her hand down Lily's shoulder length auburn hair, smiling at her. "And I'm sure you're such a good witch, as well."

    Lily forced a smile to her face, but it didn't reach her eyes. For just at that second, she had looked up and caught Petunia standing just outside the doorway, listening. The look on her face was that of pure hatred.

    For the first three weeks of summer, Petunia avoided the entire family like the plague. She wouldn't even eat when they ate together. In fact, if she wasn't out with her friends, she stayed locked in her room. At first Lily tried to talk to her, but it became painfully obvious that Petunia would have no part of it, so Lily stopped trying.

    But Lily wasn't really thinking about her sister as she rolled her parchment up and closed her ink well, yawning. It was very late and rather warm, being the end of July. And she couldn't concentrate on Goblin Rebellions to save her life. The full moon was bright tonight, and Lily found herself wondering about Remus. He would transform tonight, into a werewolf. Lily shuttered, if Petunia ever found that out, she'd really gripe about Hogwarts.

    Thinking about Remus got her thinking about Sirius, James and Peter. She had been home for four weeks, and the only person she had received an owl from was Kathleen and Gabrielle. The twins had apologized for not calling, as they couldn't figure out how to work a pay phone, and their house didn't have one. Lily chuckled to herself as she recalled what they had wrote...

"..and this voice came on, telling us to put money in the slot. But Lily, that hole wasn't big enough for a k'nut or a sickle!"

    It was little things like that that made it painfully obvious how different her world was from the wizard world. If you were from a complete magic family, like Kathleen and Gabrielle were, you had no idea about things that muggles took for granite.

    Almost as if someone had heard her thoughts, there was a sound on the kitchen window. Lily's head jerked up sharply to see a white owl pecking at the window with it's beak. Lily recognized it instantly as James' owl, Horace. She raced over to the window, sliding it up a crack so that he could come inside. Absentmindedly she took the letter from it's leg and began unrolling it.

    Horace snipped her finger a little harder than normal, giving a rather loud hoot of displeasure.

    "Oh!" Lily breathed, shaking her head. "I'm sorry Horace; you'd like some water?" If the owl could speak, Lily was sure it would have something sarcastic to reply.

    Quickly she got a bowl full of water and placed it before the snow white owl before once again opening the letter.

Lily,

How has your summer been? I had heard you mention something about not being thrilled about seeing your sister. I hope everything is ok now. If not, pull out your wand and threaten to hex her. In fact, do it. You'll only get a warning your first two times. It's only the third that the Ministry gets really upset and sends out officials.

    Lily rolled her eyes, she was sure that James or Sirius one had found this out first hand.

Sirius is staying over for the rest of the summer--I'll explain later. We are going to go to Diagon Alley the third weekend of August to get our school things. Can you meet us there? Sirius and I have spent all summer devising new things to do to the first years and Slytherins and we wanted to run them by you.

    "Or get my help in making them work," Lily muttered to herself, grinning.

Send your reply straight away. Hope to see you soon, James

    Lily couldn't help the grin on her face as she re-read the letter. She was sure that James and Sirius were getting into more trouble than James' parents bargained for when they allowed Sirius to come over. But, from listening to them, she believed them to have been friends long before they started school together. Perhaps his parents already knew all too well what they were doing.

    "What the hell is that ruddy thing doing on the counter?!"

    Lily started violently, nearly falling over the chair as she looked up. Petunia was standing in the doorway, her hands on her hips and one of her more nastier scrowls on her face. She seemed to swell with anger the longer she looked at Horace. "He's getting a drink and waiting for my reply," Lily answered in a neutral voice that would have made Remus proud. He tended to be the calmer of the four Marauders.

    Petunia's frown deepened and she suddenly raced for the owl, her arms outstretched. "You're letting the damn thing drink from the bowls we eat from?!" she screamed. Horace gave a loud hoot, lifting off into the air just as Petunia reached the counter. Lily screamed, jumping back so not to get tramped.

    It happened quickly. Petunia's feet, seemingly having a mind of their own, jerked out from under her and she fell face forward, her nose making an awful crunching noise as she hit the tile floor. Lily's mouth fell open in disbelief just as the hall light clicked on.

    "Lily? Petunia? What's going on?"

    Daniel Evans came to the doorway just as Petunia was rolling over, moaning. Blood had soaked her shirt and was dripping onto the white tile, staining it red. Horace came down to land on Lily's shoulder, but Lily didn't take notice. She was staring at Petunia, her face transfixed in horror.

    "AGH!" Petunia suddenly screamed.

    Someone else screamed right about that time as well, breaking the trance Lily had found herself in. Christine came running around the table, sliding to her knees in front of Petunia. "Oh my goodness! Petunia, what happened?! Oh Daniel, I think her nose is broken! Quick, we'll have to take her to the emergency room!"

    "She did it!" Petunia cried, tears running unchecked down her face. But when her eyes meet Lily's they were full of cold fury, hatred and a thirst for revenge that made Lily's heart pound painfully.

    Miserable. That's how Lily's Evans felt as she sat on the third step from the top and stared at the front door. It had been two hours since her parents had rushed Petunia out into the warm night to the emergency room. The events of the evening had begun to replay themselves in her mind.

    Petunia could have tripped, couldn't she? She was wearing socks and running on the tile floor, which was never a good combination. But then again, Lily was angry and scared when Petunia dived for Horace. That's usually when her magic tended to unleash without her consent. She could have made her fall, but she surely hadn't meant to break her sister's nose. Of course, Petunia would never believe that.

    The grandfather clock chimed the one o'clock hour and still there was no sign of her parents. Sighing, Lily went to her room and sat at the desk, pulling out a piece of parchment. She had to tell someone what had happened or she'd go mad. Thinking over the list of possible people, Lily quickly came to a decision. "Dear James," she wrote, reading it aloud as she went. "You're not going to believe what happened...."

    Lily sighed heavily as she watched Horace fly out into the night with her letter to James tied tightly to his leg. She was anxious to see what he would say about what had happened. She thought back over what his letter said: they got warnings for using magic outside of Hogwarts. So if she had used magic to make Petunia fall, wouldn't she have gotten a warning? But was that only on wand magic? She hadn't used her wand. But then again, the other times she had managed to use magic on Petunia, she hadn't had a wand at all. She also hadn't got warnings then, or broken her sister's nose.

    At ten minutes after three sounds of car door shutting drifted in the window. Lily pulled on a robe over her nightdress and raced down the stairs to the front door just as Daniel was putting the key in the lock. Christine followed him in, her arms around Petunia, whose face was bandaged up pretty heavily. Christine took Petunia up stairs, saying nothing.

    "Come on Lily, let's get something to drink, shall we?" her father asked suddenly, putting a reassuring hand on Lily's shoulder.

    Nodding, Lily slowly followed her father to the kitchen and sat down at the table while he poured two cups of tea. Lily stared at hers, her thoughts completely morbid. "I'm sorry Daddy," Lily suddenly blurted out, a tear falling down her face. "Is her nose broken?"

    "Aye, it is," Daniel replied, taking a drink of his tea and making a face before adding more milk. "She'll live, I imagine. Though it might not be easy to live with her."

    "It's all my fault," Lily muttered, burring her face in her hands. "Now she'll never forgive me for becoming a witch."

    Daniel raised an eyebrow up questioningly, though Lily didn't see this for having her face buried in her hands. He stirred his tea for a moment absentmindedly before putting the spoon down and taking another sip. "Lily, you didn't do anything wrong by becoming a witch. You can't help being a witch no more than you can help having red hair. It's just who you are."

    "Hmph," Lily snorted, wiping the tears from her face. "It's not that easy. Petunia said she would never forgive me. And now look what I've done...." her voice trailed off uneasily just as Christine walked in the kitchen.

    "This is not your fault Lily Evans," she said firmly, pulling a chair out from under the table and sitting. "Petunia had no business down here bothering you tonight, and if she slid, it was her own doing."

    "If," Lily repeated the only word that had sank in her mind. "There's no 'if' Mum. You know and I know what happens when she makes me mad... and now look what's happened. I--I'll never go back to Hogwarts! All my magic has done is bad things!"

    "Lily, you don't mean that!" Christine gasped, looking thunderstruck at the idea. "You just haven't learned to control it yet. You'll get better at it honey. But you can't give up, you love your school."

    Tears began to fall from Lily's green eyes, making them sparkle in the light that caught them. "I know... I could never leave Hogwarts. I do love my school. I love the hidden passages, the classes, the teachers... my friends. But look what it's costing me. How do I know if it's worth it?"

    Christine put her hand over Lily's, smiling softly. Never in her life would Lily forget the words her mother spoke. Throughout everything that would happen, she recalled these words when it was time to make a hard decision. "If you feel it's right in your heart, Lily, it is. No matter what others say, or what they think. Understand?"

    Lily nodded, smiling through her tears.

    Daniel had been right about one thing. If living with Petunia was bad before, it was worse now. Lily wasn't mistaken when she seen revenge shining in her sister's eyes the night she fell. And several times Lily wondered how much trouble she would be in for putting a locking charm on her bedroom door. Just to be sure, she did begin locking her school things in her trunk. The trunk, which she had bought in Diagon Alley last year, came with it's own security. If anyone besides Lily ever tried to get into it, it would hex the person at least, and most definitely wouldn't let anyone in. The advertisement had even suggested dropping it down ten flights of stairs to test it.

    Horace had returned the evening after Petunia's accident with a reply from James. Morgana had eyed Horace with disdain when he had settled beside her, presumably for a nap before heading back to James again. But Lily wasn't bothered by what her owl thought, her mind was completely on the letter she was unraveling. It was without a doubt one of the weirdest letters she had ever seen in her life. Not one, but three different handwritings were scribbled all over the parchment. James had wrote first:

Lily,

I'm sorry to hear that things aren't going too well with your sister. Don't worry about what happened to her, I'm sure it wasn't your fault. We never got warnings for wandless magic before we started Hogwarts, because we didn't know any better. But if you had made her fall, even unintentionally, you would have gotten a warning from the Improper Use of Magic Office. They tend to think that after our first year, we can control wandless magic. Goes to show how much the Ministry of Magic knows. Hey, if it would make you feel any better, you can always come stay at my house for the rest of the summer. Remus got here today, Sirius is here already and Peter is suppose to come at the end of the week. It's just two more weeks until school starts anyways.

Let me know, and if not, we'll see you at Diagon Alley.

James

P.S. Hi ya Lil'! It's Sirius -- Excellent job on your sister! You know she deserved it!

Sirius, honestly.(this must be Remus', Lily thought, as it was much neater) We all know she didn't mean to do that.. Just like she didn't mean to get Snape that day.

Oooh! Now THAT gave me good dreams all summer.

Can't you two write Lily yourselves? Or do you just have to mess up my letter?

We have to mess up your letter Jamsie, it's so much more fun this way.

Don't you have something better to do?

Like what?

Obviously, Sirius, James doesn't want us nosing around in his privacy. Which means, you know, that he has something private going on with Lily. Now wouldn't that be interesting?

Oi! Jamsie and Lily sitting in a tree--

Arg! Sorry about this, I really should just hex them both---

K-I-S-S-I-N-G!

Lily, keep this parchment as evidence for when I kill them.

    Beyond the last sentence James had wrote there was something that had been marked out with a good deal of ink. Lily couldn't help laughing to herself. It would be fun to go to James' for the remainder of the summer, if not educational. His parents were a witch and wizard, and Lily had never been in a wizard's house before.

    Hastily Lily wrote back, telling James she would ask at dinner, and sent Horace off again. Then, with a smile on her face, she got up from her desk to go downstairs.

    "What's got you so giggly?" a voice from the doorway drawled.

    Lily instantly made a bee line for the desk to get the letter from James and place it safely in her trunk. Petunia's eyes sharpened as she watched her. "Nothing I want you to go gossip with your friends about," Lily answered softly, shutting and locking her trunk before standing back up.

    Petunia smirked, but unless you had seen several of her smirks, you wouldn't be able to tell with the huge bandage on her nose. Lily also noted, a little guiltily, that Petunia was sporting a large bruise under her right eye.

    "Stop staring at me," Petunia whined, her eyes narrowing.

    Lily opened her mouth to retort, but thought better of it and left her room. She half thought that Petunia would throw a punch at her as she passed, but thankfully she didn't. Either way, Lily rushed down the steps at almost a break neck speed and into the kitchen.

    "Oh Lily, there you are," Christine said as she looked up from the counter. "Would you mind giving me a hand with these dishes dear? Anna is coming over for dinner tonight. She wants to hear all about your first year at school."

    Lily nodded, coming over to the sink. She washed the dishes in silence that was interrupted only by Petunia turning her stereo up nearly as loud as it would go.

    Dinner that night was very fun. Anna, one of Lily' grand mum’s friends, had been married to a wizard herself, and knew a lot more about what Lily was going through than her parents. Petunia sat at one side of the table, her arms crossed and staring at everyone with a glare, but no body paid her much mind.

    "Of course we learned only simple things this year," Lily explained to Anna when she had inquired about all the spells Lily knew. "And because of the huge library, it was easy to learn other spells if we wanted. I've learned a few more complex spells that we won't be studying in class until fourth and fifth year. Just things from the Standard Book of Spells. I don't want to mess with stuff that I don't know the properties of, yet."

    "Of course, dear," Anna said, patting Lily's hand affectionately. "Oh, you'll learn how to change things into something else, and how to make things appear that you want. I remember Robert doing some of the most amazing things."

    At each mention of magic, Lily noted Petunia's eyes would grow darker and swell with anger. Ignoring her, Lily smiled pleasantly at Anna. "That's all advanced transfiguration. So far we've only learned simple things, like changing hedge hogs into pin cushions. But I've heard some sixth and seventh years talking about transfiguring furniture and other things."

    Suddenly Petunia stood up, glaring at everyone, slammed her chair under the table and went upstairs. Christine rose as if to follow, but Daniel put his hand on her arm, shaking his head. Lily bit her lip nervously.

    Anna, a blissful smile on her face, reached for her drink. "Didn't you mention you had some pudding, dear? I do think I've saved room enough for it."

    After dessert they retired to the living room for coffee. Lily still hadn't brought up the subject of going to James' house, and found herself in such deep thought about it that at first she didn't hear the commotion upstairs. It was hard to ignore for long, however.

    "What was that?" Christine said shrilly, jumping up off her chair. Daniel and Anna followed suite.

    Lily slowly unfolded her legs from under her, staring up the staircase where the worst noise was coming from. It felt like someone had dropped lead in her stomach as she forced herself up the steps after her parents. As they reached the second floor landing, Lily could just make out Petunia's voice wailing softly.

    "Oh dear, Daniel, do something!" Christine suddenly shrieked.

    Lily felt fear drip down her spine as she realized they were in her bedroom. She pushed herself ahead to find Petunia laying on her bedroom floor in a fetal position, cradling her hands and moaning. She dropped to her knees beside her. "Petunia, what did you do? Let me see!" Lily demanded. Instead of listening, however, Petunia wailed louder and scooted away from her sister.

    Lily's eyes glanced up, and at once she understood. Petunia had tried to get into her trunk. The lock on the trunk was smoking lightly. "Oh no... she tried to get into my trunk. It has anti-theft hexes, and I'm not allowed--"

    She was cut off by a series of 'Pops'. Christine and Daniel backed up as two wizards suddenly appeared in Lily's bedroom. The tallest one didn't look very old, perhaps eighteen or nineteen, with bright red hair and a friendly smile. His partner was older, and seemed less friendly as he pushed his hand through what was left of his gray hair.

    "Eh--yes, Mr. and Mrs. Evans?" the older man said, looking around at the startled faces. "I am Nathan Crinkle from the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad with the Ministry of Magic. And this," he nodded his head towards the taller man, "is Arthur Weasley, with the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office. He's just helping out my department tonight, as we're a little short handed."

    Lily was willing to bet the only two people in the room who had understood that was herself and Anna.

    "We're here to help," Arthur said kindly to her parent's puzzled expressions. He smiled at Petunia, who was still whimpering on the floor, in a way that clearly said she hadn't known any better than to mess with a hexed trunk. As he tried to approach her, however, she backed up, nearly screaming.

    "If you could just hold still, it's just a matter of using the correct counter curse..." Arthur mumbled, while Lily was trying to figure out where she had heard his name before.

    Nathan also tried to approach Petunia, but she was having none of it. As she got to her feet to move away, Lily could see large, angry looking boils on her hands. "Petunia, they are only going to help. Stop acting like a git!" Lily shouted, stomping her foot.

    "This is all your fault, you freak!" Petunia shouted in reply, causing both Nathan and Arthur to stop.

    "Now see here," Nathan said irritably, waving his wand as he spoke. "Trunks don't just throw out hexes, you had to be trying to break into it. Now hold still, so we can remove the damage done to your hands!"

    "She's not going to listen," Arthur mumbled under his breath. "Think we should stun her? It may be the only way."

    "Well, of course, we don't like to..."

    "Do what?" Daniel asked, barely hearing what was said between the two officials.

    "Stun, Daddy. It won't hurt her," Lily explained, biting her thumb nail.

    Again Nathan tried to approach Petunia, and again she screamed and backed up. Lily knew what was coming, but that didn't stop her from cringing. "Stupefy!" Arthur said with a wave of his wand.

    Petunia slumped to the floor and Christine screamed. "She's fine Mum!" Lily insisted. Behind her she could hear Nathan using the counter curse to remove the boils from Petunia's hands.

    "Enervate!" Arthur mumbled, directing his wand at Petunia's chest. She awoke slowly, a confused expression upon her face. But once she caught sight of the two wizards, again started backing up.

    "Well, alls well that ends well, eh?" Arthur said, smiling at Petunia again in that kind way that suggested she had the IQ of a rock. Lily couldn't help the smile on her face.

    "If you want, Mr. Evans, we can do a memory charm so that she doesn't remember what happened," Nathan suggested lightly.

    Daniel shook his head numbly. "No, I think it's best she remember. So that she doesn't try to get into Lily's trunk again."

    "Right-o," Nathan said, clearly ready to leave. "That would make us done here."

    Suddenly Lily remembered where she had heard Arthur's name before. "Eh, excuse me, you wouldn't be the Arthur Weasley that Molly was going to marry this summer... would you?" Lily asked, unsure if she had remembered the name correctly.

    Arthur's eyes lit up. "Oh, were you in Gryffindor with Molly this year? Yes, yes -- we were married a month ago. She's quite a witch, my Molly."

    Lily nodded, smiling. "Yes. I didn't see her often, but she was a very nice person."

    "Well, really must be going now--" Nathan said, backing away.

    "Oh, right," Arthur followed. "Do make sure you stay out of your sister's trunk," he said to Petunia, who scrowled at him.

    "Thank you," Lily said, despite the glare she could feel from Petunia.

    "Oh, you're quite welcome," Arthur said and then with two audible 'Pops' they were gone.

    Lily felt herself exhale rather loudly before she rounded on Petunia. "What did you think you were doing?!"

    "Now Lily, let's--"

    "No," Lily said, pulling her arm out of her mother's hand as she advanced towards Petunia. "You have no business trying to go through my trunk. There are things in that trunk that could hurt you worse than those boils!"

    "You--You--" Petunia stood up, her eyes hard and cold. "FREAK! Look at the stuff you bring home! It's straight from the devil, I say!"

    Lily, for once, had no idea what to say to this. She blinked, her hands twisting in front of her. Petunia stomped out of the room, mumbling something that sounded suspiciously like curse words, and went into her room and slammed the door. Lily still stood where she was.

    For the next few days, Lily was positive that had Petunia one once of magic in her veins, Lily would be dead. Every time she seen her sister, Petunia looked like she was trying to wish her dead. Under the strain of the recent events, as well as Petunia's new found hatred, life became almost unbearable in the Evan's house.

    Lily never thought she would want to get away as badly as she did now. So it was with a heavy heart that she brought up James' invitation to her parents.

    Daniel put his fork down, studying Lily across the table. Lily seen his eyes dart over to Petunia's empty chair and then back again. "They are-- eh, a wizarding family, you say?" Daniel asked, again reaching for his fork.

    "Yes Daddy. James' family is wealthy, and they have a nice sized home, from what he's said. And it's only a week until school starts. I can catch the train with them..." Lily tried not to sound pleading, but she knew it was no use. She wanted badly away from the tension her sister was causing, and this was practically her only way.

    Christine looked sad, Lily noted, and she was almost ready to say forget it when her mother spoke up. "Lily, let your father and I discuss this and we'll let you know before we go to bed, ok?"

    Lily nodded soundlessly and left the table. She started to her bedroom, but remembered some homework she still hadn't completed that was in the living room.

    She darted into the living room, not wanting to seem like she was ease dropping on her parents, and grabbed up her history book. But when she reached for her parchment, she was in for a shock. Someone, Lily was sure of who, had poured her entire bottle of ink on her homework. Two feet of parchment, ruined. Her entire History of Magic essay that she was almost done with, gone.

    Lily stared at the parchment, her eyes wide and unblinking for about two minutes before she felt the first tear fall. Angry, she slammed the book down and was just mad enough to go upstairs and hex Petunia when her parents came in the living room.

    Her mother, of course, was the first to notice something wrong. "Lily, what is it?"

    Vainly, Lily wiped at the tear on her face and held up her ruined homework. Christine gasped audibly. "Who--" Before she finished the question, though, she stopped. "Petunia. Oh, Lily, can it be fixed?"

    Lily shook her head, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "If I could use my wand, maybe. But since I'm not allowed..." She cast an angry glance upstairs just in time to see Petunia disappear around the corner, but not before giving her a satisfied grin. "Ooh!" Lily grumbled, her face turning red from anger. So caught up in her plot for revenge, she barely heard her mother speaking.

    "Daniel, really, it's for the best," Christine was saying, looking up at her husband who nodded reluctantly. "Lily, I know this won't fix your homework. But, well, your father and I decided that you could go stay with James for the rest of the summer." Lily felt her heart lighten considerably. "If..." And then drop again.

    "If," Christine repeated. "His parents come pick you up, so we can meet them. And I have your word that you'll behave."

    "Oh, Mum, you know I will!" Lily grinned, homework temporarily forgotten as she slung her arms around her mother's neck. "Thank you! I'll go owl James right away!"

    Christine smiled as Lily bounced out of the room and up the stairs. Had Lily not been so anxious to write to James, she might have heard her mother's deep sigh and sad words as she left the room. "We're loosing her, aren't we Dan? It'll never be the same again." Her father nodded in quiet agreement.

    Lily paced by the open window half the night, waiting for James' reply. She had sent Morgana with strict instructions to not leave James' without a reply and to come straight back as soon as possible.

    It was well past midnight when Morgana came back, looking exhausted, but with a piece of parchment tied to her leg for Lily. She took it off, unrolling it impatiently.

Lily,

Not a problem! My mum and dad said they would pick you up tomorrow at two o'clock. See you then!

James

    With a grin on her face that not even Petunia could get rid of, Lily climbed into bed. In just thirteen short hours she would be away from her sister, at a real wizard's house, with her friends. And just maybe she could end this summer on a happier note than it began.


And, not much going on in this chapter, I know. Things will get better in the next chapter, I hope, as Lily makes her way to James' for a week and then back to Hogwarts for her second year.

Huge thanks to all who review ^_^!! *huggles her reviewers*

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am the proud owner of about five medications for my resent bought with illness, but you can't have them!! :P hehehe

Please stick around for the next chapter, and review, and all of that stuff.

<3 Bethany