Falling From the Ground

It wasn't like it wasn't a nice day. It certainly wasn't a bad day, but it wasn't a beautiful day. The girl whistling didn't seem to realize this. She seemed to think the day was perfect. She was walking home from school with her friends surrounding her, and she was whistling. It wasn't a whistling that someone would stop and listen to. It wasn't a particularly beautiful job of whistling, the low notes disappeared somewhere in the wind and the high notes went too high, but it was the melody that was enticing. It was surprisingly happy. This little girl walking with her friends was someone special, even a stranger could notice that.

As her friends' conversation continued around her, she said not a word, but the conversation still revolved around her. It was her friends that maneuvered themselves around her as she simply continued to whistle and walk. She smiled as they dropped off one friend after another with the same promise to each- she'd see them the next day. She continued to walk until her group dwindled down to just herself. She waved at the neighbors working in their gardens, still whistling.

Then a girl came running out of a white house just to walk with her in the direction she had come. The two walked slowly into a blue house on a corner. They ate dinner together before the mother shoed the friend out. Later that day, as the whistling girl went to sleep, she didn't think that she could ever be more content.

~*~*~

Lily Evans slowly opened her eyes, taking in the blue sky outside, and sat up in her bed. As she reached out to grab her toes for a little morning stretch she noticed a nearly black owl sitting on her patio. Lily shuddered, involuntarily. She was terrified of birds. She closed her curtains, blocking the sun and the bird from view, and got dressed. She wore her nicest dress, a blue frilly thing that sparkled as she walked. As she was clicking on her shoe straps on she heard a soft hooting from the patio. When she opened the window she was surprised to find the bird still sitting there.

"You're trying to scare me aren't you? Well, tuff, there is no way I am opening this door. So you should just fly away. Okay?" but the bird didn't move at the sound of her voice. It didn't even budge when she banged a little on the window near where it was sitting. "Fine, you want to stay there? Fine!"

Lily turned around to walk into the hallway but heard noises coming from the patio. When she turned around for a quick glance the bird was gone; all that was left in its place was a small white envelope. Looking left and right to make sure that the bird wasn't just hiding in one of the places she couldn't see from her room, Lily opened to glass sliding door.

Her patio was Lily's favorite part of the house. It was light blue and her mother and father had bought her some small chairs that she could sit on with her friends or sister. The chairs were colored a slightly darker blue than the wood and had white lining that matched the white railing. The chairs were very comfortable and the nights her father had to carry her inside after she fell asleep were many.

Lily picked up the letter with trepidation. It wasn't everyday that an owl just happened to land on your patio and cover a letter with its big, ugly, feathery body. Plus it might have pooped on it.

She had flipped the letter over while it was on the ground to see if there were any little presents from the bird on it, but there weren't. So she opened the letter, breaking the wax seal before she had a chance to see what it looked like whole.

Lily pulled out the thick paper as she sat on the cushioned blue chairs. It was April first and still kind of chilly, so she covered herself with a blanket that had been draped over the chair and settled herself in. She read the letter and laughed aloud. Then she read it through a second time. She got up quickly, dumping the blanket on the ground and headed back inside, not even bothering to close the door behind her. She headed straight over to Sabine Lowery's. It didn't take long for her to reach her best friend's house; they were next-door neighbors.

"Morning Lily!" Mrs. Lowery said as way of greeting. "Happy April Fools and a happy birthday too, if I am not mistaken." Lily smiled at her and nodded. Mrs. Lowery and she had a connection that no one really understood. If Sabine didn't happen to be home Lily wouldn't mind talking with Mrs. Lowery for hours while she waited for her friend. The older woman just seemed to know so much about everything that Lily wanted to know about and she never seemed to mind explaining something to Lily, no matter how long it took.

"Oh, what is this?" Mrs. Lowery said, faking surprise as she looked into her refrigerator. "Could it be a chocolate cupcake with your name and the number eleven on it? Yes, yes, that is what it is. What a coincidence!"

"Oh! Mrs. Lowery! You didn't have to..." Lily said looking at the dish in the woman's hands.

"Yes I did. Last year I only said happy birthday and my daughter has yet to forgive me."

"Thank you." Lily smiled at the elder woman as she began to nibble on the cupcake, "My mother would never approve of this being my breakfast!"

"What she doesn't know won't hurt her," Mrs. Lowery winked at her as she took a finger full of frosting. "Speaking of which, shouldn't you be over there for your birthday?"

Lily had almost forgotten why she had come over. Then she looked at the paper she had put on the table when she had received the cupcake. Mrs. Lowery's gaze followed hers and when it landed on the paper her eyes widened. Lily could tell that she was about to ask something but Mr. Lowery had just entered the kitchen. Mr. Lowery was not nearly as fun as his wife. He was always polite and very kind towards everyone, but that was just the problem. While Mrs. Lowery could make anyone she was talking to feel special, Mr. Lowery made them feel ordinary. He was a bank manager at a big company downtown and Lily suspected that his job was part of what made him so boring. He had just picked up the steaming pot of coffee that seemed extremely odd.

"Good morning Veronica, Lily," he nodded at them and began to pour the coffee.

"Richard! Don't drink that," she said taking it out of his hand and dumping it down the sink.

"Honey, what was that?" Mr. Lowery asked, an eyebrow raised.

"April fools joke. But that isn't what is important. Did you know that today is Lily's eleventh birthday?" His eyebrow rose even more and as Lily was looking at them she had a shrewd suspicion that they were having a conversation that she couldn't hear, but both of them seemed to understand what the other was trying to ask. "Lily you were going to tell me why you came over this morning?"

"Sabine put a letter on my patio sometime today or yesterday as a joke and I wanted to tell her that I had found it," Lily handed Mrs. Lowery the letter and watched her read through it then hand it over to her husband. "She didn't fool me though. Every year since forever Sabine has pulled a prank on me on my birthday but this year I caught her. It wasn't really up to her usual standard but I suppose she wiped herself out last year."

"When did you say you got this letter?" Mr. Lowery asked.

"I don't know exactly because there was an owl was sitting on it this morning." That seemed to attract both of their attentions, "That was what really gave it away that it was Sabine. She is the only one that knows I am scared of birds."

"Well, you are going to have to get over that aren't you?" Mrs. Lowery mumbled.

"What?"

"Richard could you-" Mr. Lowery nodded, "Okay. Lily could you come with me please?" Without waiting for a response Mrs. Lowery took Lily by the hand and lead her over her mother's flower bed, as though she didn't notice them, and straight into the Evans family kitchen.

"Rose! Rose! Hello Rose are you home?" Lily had never heard Mrs. Lowery shout and wasn't sure whether to be happy or scared.

"Veronica! Good heavens what are you screeching about?" Mrs. Evans said, and then she caught sight of her daughter, "Oh, hello Lily I didn't know you were up yet! Happy birthday!"

"Did you know that today is Lily's eleventh birthday Rose?"

"Of cou-"

"Don't you remember what I got when I was eleven?" Mrs. Evans suddenly looked very downcast.

"I don't thin-"

"Do you know what Lily got by owl today?"

"No," she said looking more upset than Lily had ever seen before, but Mrs. Lowery's grin spread across her face and it was all Lily could do to stop herself from asking what she got. Then she remembered that she know what it was she had gotten, by owl? Well, she had gotten a letter that an owl had sat on and she figured that must be what Mrs. Lowery was talking about.

"Rose, listen to me. Do you know what LILY got by OWL today?" By this time Lily was sure that Mrs. Lowery was going to burst.

"No, Veronica, I do not know what my daughter got by owl," she said looking grouchy before her eyes suddenly went very wide. "By owl? Lily got something by owl?"

"On her eleventh birthday Rose!"

"Oh! Oh! Oh! Lily did you get a letter today?" when Lily nodded while Mrs. Lowery handed over the letter, her mother began to cry. Mrs. Lowery took her in her arms and held her as she cried and smiled sweetly at Lily. Lily thought that it meant for her to try to think of a way to cheer her mother up

"Mum, don't worry. The owl was just sitting on the letter. I am sure that I won't die or anything. Please don't be upset." Lily's eyes were welling up with tears. It was hard to see your mother cry and not tend to follow suit. Mrs. Evans looked down at her daughter and Lily was surprised to find that she, too, was smiling.

"Lily love. You don't understand any of this do you?" Lily shook her head and for a moment she thought about the fact that it was her birthday and she shouldn't have to deal with this, but she pushed that thought aside as soon as it had occurred to her. "You are going to be going to school with Sabine."

"What? Why?" Lily and Sabine had been best friends for years, much to almost everyone's surprise considering that they had never attended the same school. Lily had always gone to the near by private school and Sabine had been home schooled. None of that matter to them though, which was why Lily hadn't been particularly worried about the upcoming year. Sabine, for the first time in her life, was going to be going to a regular boarding school and Lily would be headed to another school near by. Lily had simply imagined summer reuniting them and nothing having changed. Still, though, the prospect of going to the same school was appealing.

"Did you read this letter?" Lily nodded, wondering how a simple joke had invoked all of this commotion. "Lily I am going to do everything in my power to get your father to agree to send you to Hogwarts. I promise."

"Mum, it was just a joke, Sabine does it every year on my birthday." Lily hoped her mother wouldn't be to upset about the news, but Mrs. Evans just smiled at her daughter.

"No, it isn't. This school is real. It teaches children how to do magic. I never thought I'd have to tell this to you. I always hoped but I never imagined it would happen.

"My entire family attended Hogwarts and now you will too!" Mrs. Evans broke away from her best friends grip and picked up her tiny daughter before swinging her around. "You must have a thousand questions running through your head right now doll but if you would let me finish I am sure that I could explain them all." Lily nodded and she and her mother said good-by to Mrs. Lowery before heading upstairs and sitting on Lily's patio.

"I am not sure how much of this you will understand but I am going to do my best to explain it all to you and know that you can ask me anything you like once I am finished and I promise I will answer you truthfully. I am an oddity in my family. Sometimes things happen that no one expects or is able to fix. One such example would be when a noble family of mages has but one heir and that person cannot perform any magic. That is what happened to me. I was quite an outcast and a disgrace to my family. They never said anything to my face but I knew I couldn't stay with them. So I quietly left my parents home when I was sixteen and with them I left that world behind me and started a new life.

"You father does not know any of this. No one does except Veronica and that is only because she was a childhood friend of mine. I don't know what Richard knows; he may just suspect that you are a muggle-born. But! AHHH! I am just so excited for you! Hogwarts! You are going to Hogwarts!!!" Lily sat very still for a long time as her mother explained what Hogwarts really was and the people that Lily should expect to meet, but Lily wasn't even listening. She was staring off at the sky, wondering if this was her best birthday or her worst one.

"Is it all real then?" Lily finally asked, interrupting.

"Yes." Her mother said glowing.

"Does that mean that I am going to have to move away? Away from you and Dad and Petunia?"

"Yes, but you will get to see us on all of your holidays and show us everything that you are learning. And, with any luck, Petunia will be joining you in three years." Lily could tell that her mother was trying her best to keep calm, but in Mrs. Evans mind there was no decision to be made. She had dreamed and wondered about Hogwarts her whole life and could not conceive of a single reason for a person not to want to go. And Lily would come to agree with her, but at that moment she couldn't believe what was happening to her.

"LILY!" a shout caught both Lily's attention and her mothers. Lily peered over her railing, knowing full well whom she would see. Sabine was standing right in the middle of the Evans' yard wearing only her bedroom slippers, nightgown and a half pulled on robe.

"SABINE!" Lily shouted back imitating her best friend.

"Let me up! Please, I don't think I am aloud to shout at you like this,"

"No, Sabine, I don't believe that you are," Mr. Evans said, opening the window in the master bedroom. "By the way, good morning."

"Good morning Mr. Evans!" Sabine shouted happily.

"Good grief girl! Just get in the house or the neighbors will be talking for weeks about how the Evans don't know how to respect the quiet of the neighborhood."

"The front door is locked. Can I jump through the window?" Sabine said. Mr. Evans sighed and nodded before retreating back into his bedroom. Lily and her mother watched as Sabine broke into a sprint the jumped in the air as though diving off a diving board and disappearing out of site under the patio.

"Well, I guess I should go and try to explain things to your father. Plus, that gives me an excuse to avoid and overly excited Sabine."

Both of them laughed and just as Mrs. Evans left, Sabine came charging at her friend and enveloped her in a giant hug. They sat down and for the rest of Lily's birthday she talked with various people about Hogwarts on her patio. It was enough to make an eleven year old not want to go to school anymore, but her father insisted that she finish the year in regular school before advancing to Hogwarts. In fact, that was his only condition.