Lily Evans: A History

Lily Evans sat at the window in her bedroom, watching the moon
peek out from behind the clouds. It was terribly hot. So hot that Lily
felt like she might melt and become a puddle on the floor. To make
matters worse, this record-setting summer was punctuated by the air
conditioning unit tearing up. It had been five days since Lily had felt
properly comfortable, and would be another five to seven before the
repair man would make it to their house. She wished she could cast a
cooling charm; but not only did she not know one, students weren't
allowed to do magic outside of school.
	This had been a slight problem for Lily, who never realized how
much she used magic in a day-to-day basis when she was at Hogwarts. For
the first couple of days back home for the summer, Lily had felt
slightly withdrawn and out of sync with the rest of the family. Simple
things like turning a light on, or getting up to get something was
unfamiliar to her since she had spent the last ten months flicking her
wand to get them done.
	To say that the withdraw from her wand was the only bad thing to
happen so far this summer was a outright lie, however. Though not
nearly as bad as last year, Lily's summer wasn't as wonderful as
everyone else made theirs out to be. Petunia, Lily's older sister, had
decided long ago that it was a disgrace to have a witch in the family.
A freak was her favorite name to call Lily. And ignoring someone with a
mouth that large was proving to be harder than it sounded.
	Lately, however, Petunia had seemed occupied more so than normal.
It was quite common to find her lounging in the living room on the
phone with her friends, discussing everyone else's business. Because
Petunia was most likely the noisiest person alive. But her
conversations were quiet now and sometimes she walked around with a
dazed look on her face. Lily and Petunia avoided each other like the
plague, however, so Lily didn't know what made Petunia change. And
didn't care, most of the time.
	Giving a huge sigh, Lily turned away from the window. The clock
sitting on the table beside her bed changed; it was now midnight. And
therefore her birthday. Lily went to her bed, humming while she pulled
the covers back. "Happy Birthday to me..." she sang lightly. "Happy
Birthday t---ooff! What in the world?!"
	For at the exact moment something hit Lily in the back of the
head. Not once, but multiple times. Lily turned, frantically looking
for whatever it was and found herself face to face with an owl. As owls
were quite common to witches and wizards, because they used them to
send letters, parcels or anything that needed delivering, Lily wasn't
scared by the large barn owl. But it was very unfamiliar, and
curiously, she took the package from its leg. Her name was written on
it in rather familiar writing and Lily grinned as she opened it. Out
fell a small box and a card. Lily opened the card first, wondering what
was in the box.

Lily,

Happy Birthday! I hope you like what I got you; it's Muggle. I've got
the other half. My Mum said that I could come stay with you! I've been
begging since the end of school. Let me know when it's ok to come!

Love,
Kassie

	Lily re-read the card and then picked up the box. It was small,
like a jewelry box, and when Lily opened it she found a small half moon
shaped pendant on a chain that read "Best".
	There was another piece of parchment stuck in the box, and Lily
opened it, already knowing what it would say.

	I have the other one, it says "Friends". Hope you like!

	Lily grinned as she snapped the chain around her neck and it laid
on her collarbone. Finding a piece of parchment, she quickly wrote
Kassie back and told her to come as soon as she wanted to. After
sending the owl off, she put Kassie's card on the table beside her bed
and was heading to bed when yet another owl came swooping into her
room, this one snow white, baring another box. This owl she knew
instantly, though. His name was Horace and belonged to none other than
James Potter. Curiously (because Lily didn't even know if James knew it
was her birthday) she unbound the package from Horace's leg and he flew
over to join Morgana on her perch.
	Morgana gave Horace a disdainful look, moving over a few steps.
Horace moved closer and Morgana gave a giant hoot of displeasure. Lily
shot her a glare. "Behave, Morgana," she hissed, hoping that the owl
hadn't woke Petunia up in the room next door. She certainly didn't want
to deal with her at the moment.
	Still giving her owl a warning look, Lily sat on her bed and
opened the second package. Within it lay a glass flower. A lily to be
more precise. Lily sighed, grinning. Sure, she was named after a
flower, but her favorite was roses. It was still very thoughtful, and
Lily carefully plucked it out and gazed at it admiringly. It was very
small, almost as long as her finger, but the light caught the glass and
made it sparkle brilliantly. Under it laid a piece of folded parchment
and Lily opened it.

Lily,

Happy Birthday! I hope you like it.

~James 

	"Well that was short and sweet," Lily muttered, shaking her head.
James usually had more to say. Given, he was probably trying to send
this without any help from Sirius. Her last letter from him the
previous summer still made her laugh when she opened it. Sirius liked
to add his two knuts, and if she remembered correctly, Remus had a hand
in it as well.
	She sat the glass flower next to Kassie's card on her nightstand
and turned the light out. It was only twenty minutes into it, but it
seemed it would be a wonderful birthday.

					*			 *

	August 19, 1973 dawned bright and hot. Lily turned over grumpily,
pushing the cover off her body. It was entirely too hot to be covered
up, she decided, shoving the blanket into the floor. She couldn't
fathom what had woken her, she couldn't remember anything at any rate.
There was someone walking down the stairs, but Lily assumed it was
Petunia and ignored it.
	"Lily!" her mother's voice floated up the stairs.
	Groaning, Lily glanced over at the clock. It was nearly eight
a.m. Why on earth did parents insist on waking you up early in the
summer, and especially on your birthday?
	With about as much grace as a Slytherin after becoming to victim
to one of the Marauder’s pranks, Lily grabbed a dressing gown and put
it on over her gown as she descended the stairs. She turned the corner
to head into the kitchen.
	"Happy Birthday!" Christine and Daniel Evans said together.
Petunia snorted, rolling her eyes.
	Lily beamed at everyone, including her sister, who stuck her nose
up higher in response. "Thank you," she said, sitting at the table and
throwing yet another smile at her older sister. This only proved to
irritate Petunia even more.
	"What are you so happy about?" she grumbled, glaring at Lily over
the fork she held halfway to her mouth. The bit of egg fell off it,
slapping onto her plate.
	Lily grinned, spooning eggs onto her own plate. "Well, let's see;
it's my birthday, Kassie's mum said she could come over, and it's my
birthday."
	"Big deal," Petunia muttered back, poking at her eggs again.
Suddenly, her head snapped up. "Mum, you said that I should invite
Vernon over for dinner soon. May I invite him tonight?"
	"Who's Vernon?" Lily interrupted.
	Lily was sure she was about to find out why Petunia walked around
like she was on cloud nine when she thought no one was looking.
	Unfortunately, Petunia didn't feel like Lily was beneath knowing
about. And suddenly, Lily wished she hadn't asked. Life was always much
simpler anymore when her and Petunia weren't on speaking terms.
	"Vernon Dursley is my boyfriend," she boasted loudly. Daniel
Evans, who was sitting at the table with his daughters, glimpsed, but
said nothing. "His dad owns Grunnings, a drill company that Vernon will
inherit one day."
	Lily tried to look impressed, but failed miserably. Instead she
focused her attention on her meal. But Petunia was far from finished
speaking. "He's very handsome, very smart and--" Her voice dropped and
Lily felt her heart pound in her chest. "--he knows nothing about...
you. And your kind." She huffed. "And I would like to keep it that
way."
	Lily knew she should feel outraged, but could hardly find the
motive to care. She simply took it for granted as another occurrence in
the Evan's household. The mother of the two girls seemed to feel
otherwise.
	Christine Evans, her hazel eyes flashing as she raised her hand
that held a spatula, came to a stop so close to Petunia that her oldest
daughter looked slightly nervous. "I don't ever want to hear another
thing like that out of your mouth again, Petunia Sue Evans! There is
absolutely nothing wrong with your sister!" Petunia looked ready to
scream. Her normally pale face was flushed with pink and her sharp eyes
darted around to Daniel for help, but he was busying himself with
folding the newspaper and quite ignoring her.
	Christine shifted her eyes from Petunia to Lily, who looked away
quickly and picked up her orange juice. The kitchen fell into a deep
silence, punctuated only by the postman pushing the mail through the
slot.
	Suddenly, Daniel stood, straightening his tie. "Well, I'm heading
to the office." He kissed Christine on the cheek, tried to kiss
Petunia, who moved out of the way, and came over to Lily. "Happy
Birthday, sweetie," he said as he kissed her cheek.
	"Thank you, Daddy," Lily replied. As Daniel moved away, Lily
caught sight of the look upon Petunia's face. She was sure she had
never seen such hatred.

				*			 *

	Lily felt that she had had a rather uneventful birthday, or as
uneventful as things could be when living with Petunia. She received
presents from the girls she shared a room with at school, her parents
gave her money to buy whatever she wanted as a gift and Petunia spent
nearly all day in her room getting ready for dinner with Vernon.
	Lily would have dearly loved to asked her parents if she could go
to James', Kassie's or anywhere else for dinner rather than spend it
with Petunia's new boyfriend. But as it was her birthday, and her
mother was making a wonderful looking cake, she felt she needed to stay
home.
	So that evening about six o'clock, Lily dragged herself down-
stairs and into the dining room. As soon as she came to the doorway a
very strong smell of furniture polish greeted her. Lily was sure (and
probably wasn't very far off with this) that Petunia had cleaned and
polished everything the light touched and a few places that hadn't seen
light in years. Currently, however, she was busying herself with the
fresh floral arrangement sitting on the table.
	"Mum! Mum, there is a spot on this fork! Vernon will think we are
filthy!" Petunia shrieked loud enough for anyone within hearing
distance to hear, not to mention a few unlucky people two streets over.
	Lily watched as Petunia snatched up the fork and polished it
relentlessly with a napkin. Watching from this angle, Lily could almost
say that her older sister could be pretty; if she didn't work so hard
at it. Her hair was so over-worked that it looked like she had stuck
her finger in a light socket rather than curled it. And her make-up had
been applied with a heavy hand. She wore a light blue dress that didn't
make her milky white skin look sickly, which was an improvement. And if
Lily squinted her eyes enough, her arms didn't seem to long and her
nose didn't seem to draw all that much attention...
	"What are you making that face for?" Petunia suddenly demanded.
	Lily choked, her eyes snapping open. She tried to disguise her
laugh as a cough, which sounded suspiciously high pitched, even to her
own ears. She averted her eyes to the table. "Eh, nothing. It's just,
well, when you look at the table just there, there is a sp--"
	"Where?!" Petunia demanded, lunging for the polishing rag she had
left on the table beside the door.
	Lily smiled to herself and walked through the dining room and
into the kitchen where her mother was adding pepper to the chicken.
Christine turned as Lily came in, looked slightly relieved when she
spotted her youngest daughter, and reached for the mint.
	"You look lovely, dear."
	"Thank you," Lily replied. Due to Petunia's never-ending
insistence, Lily had dressed up tonight. Well, she wasn't in jeans,
anyway. She wore a simple, straight black skirt that fell to her mid-
calf, a violet squared necked short-sleeved shirt and the necklace her
father had given her for Christmas. Lily hadn't applied any make-up,
only lip gloss and had brushed her hair to lay around her shoulders.
	"Dear, could you please carry this plate of bread to the table? I
believe I just heard the door bell, which means that Petunia is in no
state to carry my fine china."
	"Yes, Mum," Lily said, rolling her eyes but taking the bread
platter from her mother and carrying it to the dining room. As she sat
it on the table, she heard Petunia's loud shrieking laughter from the
foyer, followed by a male voice that must have been Vernon.
	Shortly after, Daniel came in from work and Christine came
sweeping into the dinning room, looking the part of the cool and calm
hostess, as she always did. She planted one hand on Lily's shoulder to
steer her into the living room to greet their guest.
	Lily wasn't sure what she had expected from one of Petunia's
boyfriends. Someone tall, lanky framed and boring-looking, much like
her older sister. But whatever she had been expecting, it certainly
wasn't this.
	Vernon Dursley looked like a small whale with facial hair. He was
very broad, had very little neck, or two rather large chins, and a
thick mustache to top both. Lily wondered if they made suites that big,
or if he had to have his tailored. To top it off, he was at least three
inches shorter than Petunia. Which didn't seem to both either of them.
	Lily couldn't quite see what Petunia saw in him. But then again,
she couldn't see what Vernon would see in Petunia. Perhaps they were
made for each other.
	"Vernon, how wonderful to meet you at last," Christine said,
breaking the short, but rather nasty silence that had eloped the room.
"Petunia has told us so much about you."
	Lily fairly ignored the small talk, instead focusing on the nice
cool breeze that had raftered through the house. Of course, the
weatherman had predicted rain, but to Lily it meant a break from the
searing hot that had hung in the air for days.
	"And that's Lily," Petunia said, effectively breaking Lily from
her thoughts. Lily blinked, meeting Vernon's eyes as he shook her hand.
	"Nice to meet you," she muttered, trying to pull her hand away
quickly. Vernon held on to it, though, and was looking at her with an
intensity that Lily felt very uncomfortable with.
	Finally, Lily managed to yank her hand away, trying to avoid the
glare she was sure Petunia was giving her. "Petunia, why didn't you
tell me you had such a beautiful sister?" Vernon asked, never taking
his gaze from Lily.
	Petunia ignored him, instead addressing herself to Christine and
Daniel. "Is dinner ready, then?"
	Lily followed last into the dining room, wishing with every step
that she could disappear. Past experience told her this wouldn't help,
but she wished it all the same.
	Dinner commenced and Lily tried to stay as quiet as possible,
which was rather hard considering that Vernon asked her opinion about
everything. In fact, she was sure he was paying her more attention than
he was Petunia, and that she wasn't the only one to notice this. He
would ask her to pass things she was sure he could reach and stared at
her so intently when she did speak that she wanted to slap him. By the
time dinner was over, Lily wanted nothing more to leave the table and
never set eyes on Vernon Dursley again.
	It was then that Christine brought the cake in and Lily felt like
groaning out loud. Vernon looked simply delighted.
	"It's your birthday, then, Lily?" he asked, again giving her that
stare that gave her the creeps.
	"Yes," she bit out, trying not to sound sarcastic. Not that it
wasn't very obvious by the cake that said "Happy 13th Birthday, Lily"
that it was her birthday.
	Lily strained to keep a smile on her face as everyone (save
Petunia) sang Happy Birthday to her and then as soon everyone had cake,
she excused herself from the table. Taking the stairs two at a time,
she didn't stop until she was sitting on the edge of her bed, her
heart beating madly.
	She felt dirty and disgusted by the lustful way Vernon had looked
at her. Shivering, she got up, gathered a gown from the dresser and
went to shower in the hottest water she could stand.
	When she finally emerged, Vernon was gone and Petunia had retired
to bed. Which was fine with her, as she didn't want to face Petunia
tonight anyway. She was sure that Petunia would blame Vernon's behavior
on Lily, even though it was very much unwanted.
	She had just entered her room when there was a loud crash
downstairs, followed by a quick scream that sounded like her mother.
Panicked, Lily grabbed her wand and ran down the stairs. The scene was
not that of what she expected.
	"Kassie!"
	Indeed, standing in the living room near the fire, covered in
ashes and holding the handle of her trunk, stood Lily's best friend
Kassandra Phillips. Christine was standing not too far away, one hand
on her chest and Daniel was trying to coax her into sitting down.
	"Oh, Mrs. Evans! I'm terribly sorry!" Kassie squeaked, dropping
her trunk and helping Christine to the near-by chair. "I didn't mean to
scare you like that!"
	"It's perfectly ok, dear," Christine said shakily, smiling. "I
just didn't expect... well, never mind."
	"Kassie!" Lily repeated, running down the rest of the stairs and
throwing her arms around the other girl. They hugged for a moment, Lily
mumbling about how she hadn't expected her in so soon.
	"I should have owled first, but I just wanted to get here soon!"
Kassie explained, still giving a nervous glance at Christine, who just
smiled back.
	"What is all this noise?" a new voice suddenly demanded. Standing
at the bottom of the stairs, wearing a white dressing gown, her hair in
curlers and a green face mask on, stood Petunia.
	The silence stretched thick for a second before Daniel recovered
himself. "It was only Kassie arriving. Lily's friend. She'll be staying
with us for a while."
	As Petunia stormed back up the stairs, mumbling something about
now there were two freaks in the house, Kassie turned to Lily with an
expression of glee.
	"Is that Petunia?"
	"It is," Lily confirmed.
	Kassie's face broke into a wide grin. "Oh Merlin, but this will
be fun," she said just loud enough that Christine and Daniel couldn't
hear.
		
					*			 *

	Not too much later the girls bid Lily's parents goodnight and
went to Lily's room. Kassie set off to examine everything in Lily's
room, but asked no questions. Lily didn't know if she knew what half of
it was or not.
	Finally, Kassie sat down, pulling her long dark hair (pulled into
a braid) around and playing with the end of it. "So, how long can you
stay?" Lily asked, pulling her legs up.
	Kassie shrugged, staring out the open window at the night sky.
"Until school starts, I suppose."
	Lily gave her a curious glance, her eyebrows pulled together with
a frown. When they weren't in the presence of Lily's parents, Kassie
seemed horribly withdrawn about something. Biting her lip, Lily watched
Kassie closely for a reaction when she spoke: "Kassie, what's wrong?"
	"Wrong?" Kassie repeated blankly, tears filling her violet eyes
like they had been looking for a means of escape all evening and had
finally found it. She tore her gaze from Lily's, but it was too late.
She sighed in a defeated tone. "I-I..." A few tears fell down her face
and she wiped at them in vain. "Oh Lily, it's horrible!"
	Lily started, staring for a few seconds at her best friend
sitting across from her, crying. Lily had never seen Kassie cry, and
the effect was rather awful. Her face broke out in red blotches, her
eyes were bloodshot and her nose running. Lily jumped off the bed, ran
over and put her arms soothingly around Kassie.
	"Hey, what is it?" she asked, rubbing her arm.
	Finally, Kassie seemed to get a hold of herself. She gave Lily a
watery smile, rolling her eyes. "How draft am I?" she mumbled, wiping
her face with the back of her hand. "Sitting here going on like this.
I'm sorry."
	"Don't be," Lily told her, sitting cross-legged on the floor.
"What's going on? Anything I can help with?"
	Kassie nodded. "Yeah, as a matter of fact." She swallowed. "Can
you not tell your parents any of this?" Lily shook her head. "Ok. I--
erm, my Mum doesn't know I'm here."
	Lily gave her a puzzled look. "But you said..."
	"I know I wrote and said my Mum said yes. But the truth is, I
haven't seen my Mum since I started Hogwarts." Kassie paused, but Lily
didn't really know what to say. "Well, when I went home for Christmas
break last year, my Aunt Grace picked me up at the train station. My
Mum and my Dad's sister don't get on at all - my Dad was a Muggle, you
know - but I didn't think much about it. When I went home, my Mum
wasn't there. Aunt Grace told me something about her having to go take
care of her sister, my Aunt Wanda, because she was ill. My Dad has been
dead for a couple of years, so she had me and my brothers and sisters.
They didn't say anything, so I believed her.
	"And then, when I came home this summer, you saw my Aunt Grace
pick me up. And she had all my brothers and sisters with her. When I
went home..." Kassie swallowed, tears threatening to consume her again.
"My Mum wasn't there. And this time, I found out the truth. My Aunt
Grace practically screamed it for all the world to hear. My Mum left
after I started Hogwarts. And apparently, she left because I started
school. She didn't want me going there... I told you about the money
and everything. Anyway, Aunt Grace told me it was all my doings. Now
Mum's gone and my brothers and sisters are left in the hands of my
horrible Aunt Grace.
	"And speaking of Aunt Grace," Kassie bit out. "She told me I was
never coming back to Hogwarts again. That if I stayed home, my mother
would come back and she wouldn't be stuck with all of us."
	Lily shook her head, not sure what to say. But the one thing
burning in her mind shot out of her mouth before she could stop it.
"Kassie, that doesn't make good sense. What would your mother leaving
have to do with you starting school? Professor Dumbledore talked to
her, right? And why take it out on your siblings?"
	Kassie snorted. "Does anyone say no to Dumbledore? Honestly? You
know how you were when he suggested taking Divination next year. He
usually gets his way without most people realizing it. He wanted me to
start Hogwarts, so there you have it. But you're right, I don't believe
Aunt Grace. There is something more to this. But either way, I'm going
back to school."
	Lily nodded. "You can stay here, I don't care. And my parents
won't care, either."
	"Thanks," Kassie muttered, looking for all the world like she
wasn't really paying much attention to Lily. She heaved a huge sigh and
rubbed her still blood shot eyes. "Lily, what am I going to do? I
just... I just ran away from home." The words seemed to make it final
for Kassie, for she looked thunderstruck.
	Lily patted her arm soothingly. "It's ok. We'll figure something
out. I've got that money Mum and Dad gave me for my birthday, we can
get your school books with that."
	Kassie looked on the verge of tears again. Lily smiled
reassuringly. "It will work out. Don't worry." The other girl nodded,
not looking quite convinced.

					*			 *

	That night as Lily lay in bed, she stared at the ceiling,
wondering the same thing that Kassie had asked earlier. What were they
going to do? Lily didn't know if running away in the wizarding world
was different than in the Muggle one or not. What if Ministry officials
came looking for Kassie to take her back home? What if her Mum and Dad
got in trouble for her being there, even though they didn't know she
had ran away? Should she tell her parents?
	Lily fretted about it until finally she feel into a troubled
sleep. She had passing dreams about Ministry officials coming to the
house, but they took Petunia away instead of Kassie. Arthur Weasley, a
tall red haired man from the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office came,
explaining to Lily's parents that Petunia's nose was against the
wizarding law.
	Lily ran outside, trying to get away from Petunia's accusing
eyes, but when she opened the front door everything changed. Instead of
looking outside at the walkway, Lily was staring into a forest. The
trees were as tall as those in the forbidden forest, and so dense she
couldn't see more than a yard ahead. She turned to go back in the
house, but the door, house and all had disappeared.
	Her heart hammering so loudly in her chest that she could feel
it, Lily walked forward into the forest. She seemed to be walking
forever before she heard the distant sound of voices. From where she
stood she could just make out a clearing and the voices grew louder as
she approached.
	In the middle of this clearing was a circle of people, all
dressed in black robes with hoods covering their faces. As Lily
watched, more people Apparated into the circle to make it complete. In
the middle stood a lone figure. He, too, wore a black robe with a hood.
Only when he turned Lily could just make out two red slits that looked
slanted like a snake's.
	"Death Eaters," the man with the snake eyes hissed. Lily
approached as quietly as she could, willing her heart to slow down
before someone heard it. Unless she was very much mistaken, the man
speaking was none other than Lord Voldemort himself. "Do you know why I
have summoned you here?"
	No one moved, nor spoke for a long moment. Then, suddenly, one of
the men in the back robes fell to his knees at Voldemort's feet and
crawled towards him, kissing the bottom of the robes. Lily felt
revolted at the sight of a grown man cowering before another in this
fashion. It was pathetic. "My Lord," the Death Eater spoke, his voice
whimpering slightly. "My Lord, we are sorry. Have mercy, My Lord. Have
mercy on us."
	Voldemort kicked out, but the man barely flinched. He pulled out
a long, thin wand and pointed it at the man groveling at his feet.
"Crucio," he said, almost lazily.
	Lily flinched as the man on the ground started screaming. Blood-
curdling screams that echoed through the night as he twitched and
writhed on the forest floor. His screams seemed to last forever,
grinding themselves into Lily's mind until she wanted to scream
herself.
	Suddenly, Voldemort pulled his wand up, removing the curse. The
man on the ground was still shaking, though, obviously in pain. The
others looked on silently. "I have a mission for us tonight," he said
suddenly, as though he had not just tortured a man that was laying on
the ground at his feet. Still, no one spoke. Lily waited with baited
breath. "Tonight, we attack the Order of the Phoenix."
	There were some light intakes of breath, but still, no one spoke.
Voldemort paced for a moment before one of the Death Eaters gathered up
his courage and fell to the Dark Lord's feet.
	"My Lord," he said, staring at the ground carefully. "My Lord, is
that wise? We--"
	His voice was cut off by Voldemort pointing his wand at him and
saying: "Crucio!" sharply. The man screamed and Lily covered her ears,
trying to block it out.
	"Lily! Lily, wake up!"
	Someone was shaking her and a bright light suddenly filtered into
her vision. Breathing heavily, Lily jerked awake and sat up, one hand
over her heart that seemed to be trying to get out of her chest. She
looked at Kassie, who looked scared and then noticed that Petunia was
standing in the doorway. She had been the one to turn the light on. Her
eyes were wide and she looked half scared and half aggravated.
	"Lily?" Kassie muttered, concern etched in her features.
	Lily took a deep breath, trying to sort through the flashes of
images flying through her mind. And then it hit her: Voldemort was
planning an attack. A huge one, on something called the Order of the
Phoenix... Lily's head jerked up just as Christine and Daniel came
running in the room, followed by Petunia who seemed to have fetched
them.
	"What happened?" Christine demanded, sitting next to the side of
the bed Lily was on and feeling of her forehead. "Are you sick?"
	"She had a vision," Kassie replied and Lily nodded her
confirmation. "Lily, do you need to see Professor Dumbledore?"
	Lily nodded vigorously, still trying to catch her breath. Kassie
grabbed a small pouch from her trunk and dashed down the hall. Lily's
body ached, like the curse Voldemort was using had been placed on her
instead of the two Death Eaters. Her mother was sitting beside her on
the bed, looking very worried. Daniel paced nearby, and Petunia was
still watching, her face mirroring what Lily felt.
	A few minutes later Kassie came running back up into the bedroom,
nearly falling into Petunia as she came through the door.
	"Watch it!" Petunia grumbled, glaring at her. Kassie, against her
better judgment, ignored her best friend’s sister.
	"He said he'll be here shortly," she said, sitting in a chair by
the window.
	"How did you get him?" Lily asked, apparently confused as to how
Kassie could contact the Headmaster of Hogwarts on a moments notice, at
two a.m. no less.
	"Floo Powder," Kassie replied, holding up a small pouch before
depositing it back in her trunk. "I just yelled into the fire that I
needed Dumbledore and I got his office."
	The silence that might have followed was broken by a sharp pop
and suddenly Professor Dumbledore was standing in Lily's bedroom. Lily
was sure this was the last place she ever envisioned seeing the
Headmaster, but was grateful to see him all the same.
	"You had another vision?" Dumbledore asked, not bothering with
niceties.
	"Yes," Lily replied and then told him everything she could
remember, beginning with finding herself in the forest. She didn't
think the part about Petunia being carted away for having an illegal
nose had anything to do with the vision. Besides, Petunia was in the
room and Lily would surely never hear the end of it. "He said they were
going to attack the Order of the Phoenix, whatever that is," she
finished.
	When Lily spoke the last sentence, Dumbledore's eyes grew large
for a split second. It happened so quickly Lily couldn't be sure if she
seen it or not. Dumbledore raised his wand, mumbled something Lily
couldn't understand and a red spark shot out the end of the
Headmaster's wand and through the open window. His blue eyes met
Lily's.
	"Thank you. I can not tell you how many lives you may have spared
tonight." And without waiting for anyone to respond, he Disapparated. 
	Lily stared at the spot where he had stood a moment before and
felt a great weight lift off her shoulders. "It was in time.... thank
goodness." Kassie rubbed her back soothingly.
	"I wonder what that red spark was he sent out?" Lily mused out
loud, giving a queer look at Kassie.
	She noted that her parents were both slightly pale, but saying
nothing. For that she was grateful, explaining things to them tonight
just didn't appeal to her in the least.
	"A warning?" Kassie guessed, shrugging. "For that matter, what is
the Order of the Phoenix? Sounds important."
	"It must be," Lily agreed. "For Voldemort to want to attack it,
and for his Death Eaters to be scared of doing so."
	"We may never find out," Kassie said a moment later, looking out
into the dark night. There was no sign that a battle was raging on
between good and evil; between light and dark. But it was there,
lingering just under the appearance of peace the Ministry of Magic kept
in place just to keep the Muggles in the dark.
	But not all Muggles, Lily realized. Because her parents looked
scared to death at that moment.