Chapter Five
A Letter
“Lily!” A voice screamed through the quiet house.
Lily Evans rolled over onto her side and looked up through half closed eyes at her older sister Petunia. Across the room her other sister Violet was sitting up sleepily on her bed.
“Give it a rest Petunia.” Violet muttered.
“She needs to get up!” Petunia said turning to Violet.
“NOW!” Petunia yelled inside Lily’s ear quite suddenly.
“ALRIGHT!” Lily yelled back. She sat up rubbing her ear that seemed to have been shattered by her sister’s last very loud and horrible yell.
“You have to watch out for her. Petunia always wants to practice her vocal chords. The windows were saved this time because Lily so nobly sacrificed her ear. But I daresay Mom’s not going to be so pleased when a window finally shatters one day. Perhaps then she’ll stop giving Petunia permission to give us a “pleasant” wake up call.” Violet said grinning as she rubbed her own ears furiously.
Lily laughed.
“Do you think it’s possible that she could do it so many times that she would wear out her voice so that she couldn’t do it anymore?” Violet asked seriously.
“Let’s hope that if it is possible, even for Petunia, that that glorious day comes soon.” Lily said giggling.
“That’ll be the best day of my life.” Violet said looking wistfully off into the distance dramatically.
Lily and Violet both began giggling.
It was the beginning of an average summer day in the Evan’s household.
A while later Violet and Lily came down the stairs to the kitchen where Mr. and Mrs. Evans were seated with Petunia at the table. Petunia looked up at Lily and Violet and glared at them before burying herself inside her cereal that she wasn’t even eating. Petunia never ate much. That’s why she was so bony and thin.
Lily glared back as she sat down beside her mother away from Petunia and Violet stuck out her tongue making a funny face.
“Girls.” Their mother said warningly.
Mr. Evans laughed but silenced under a glare from his wife. She apparently did not find sibling rivalry as amusing as he did.
“I want no more fighting between the three of you.”
Lily and Violet exchanged a glance. There would be no fighting between them two but Petunia they wouldn’t be able to count on it. Lily couldn’t resist the temptation to call Petunia a name for more then five minutes. Violet had timed her last time.
Violet had surprisingly lasted fifteen minutes. This was very hard for Lily to believe since Violet was always the sarcastic one. But apparently she could keep her mouth shut when she wanted too. Lily’s fiery red haired temper always got a hold of her. Lily had become exceedingly famous for this temper of hers.
“We’re going to London for the day.” Mrs. Evans said.
“You already told us.” Violet said shoving her spoon into her cereal a little too hard. There was a loud clang that caused Petunia who was pretending to be buried in her cereal to look up.
“Stop trying to destroy the bowl.” Petunia said narrowing her eyes.
“I was pretending it was your face.” Violet said not looking up from her bowl.
“It looks a lot like you.” She continued.
“Nah too pretty.” Lily said laughing at her own comment.
Petunia seemed to be getting all worked up but wasn’t as quick as Lily and Violet were with comments so she didn’t have time to answer because their mother cut her off.
“Now girls.” She said sternly giving them a “no nonsense” look.
All three girls looked up at their mother giving her their best innocent look.
“I could still call that Marge Dursley to come over and baby sit you like when you were little. Now we don’t want that do we.” Their mother said looking each of her daughters in the eye.
“No! We’ll be fine on our own thank you very much.” Violet said quickly shocked at the idea of a babysitter.
“Not Marge! Not that Huge Ugly Fat Balloon Girl with the Big Ugly dog and the big ugly butt and face. She’s so stupid and dumb and”
“Lily!”
“Well it’s all true. I mean sorry I won’t insult anyone again.” Lily said remembering her last time with Marge.
Lily was eight and both of her sisters were going somewhere that night. Her parents needed a night out desperately so they decided to go out to dinner in London. That left Lily with no where to go. She couldn’t go over a relative’s house or Marabelles so she had to have a babysitter. So her mother did an awful thing. She called up the Dursleys.
The Dursleys lived on the other side of the street a few houses down. Lily, Violet and even Petunia never associated with those people or had anything to do with them. They were all ugly, fat and mean. There were four of them, Mr. Dursley, Mrs. Dursley, Marge Dursley and Vernon Dursley.
Marge Dursley was only a year older then Violet and they had gone to school together. The few times they had seen each other there had been a nasty verbal fight. Marge was always one to pick a fight by saying the wrong things. That was until a few years a go when Marge went into a private school. Though Violet and Lily had thought this over several times and couldn’t figure out how a stupid person like her got in.
Vernon was just as bad in Lily and Violet’s opinion. But because he was a boy Petunia believed that Marge was worse. Vernon was Petunia’s age and was also at a private school. Once again how’d an idiot get into a private school? Supposedly he wasn’t as much trouble as Marge for he had never fought with any of them. But then again he had never been nice to them either. He just scowled at them when they walked by while Marge tried to pick a fight.
Mr. and Mrs. Dursley were not too bad. All they ever did was talk about their car really loudly and brag about their job and all this other stupid stuff. But they never harmed any of the children. So they were harmless just not the people you wanted to be around. They just didn’t have a very nice personality.
Marge came over all sweet and innocent, until the parents left. Then all went down hill. As soon as that door shut Marge took over. She spent an entire hour calling Lily names and trying to fight with her. Lily couldn’t stand her but had somehow found a way to block her comments out. She had endured her patiently until Marge went in to raid the kitchen. Then Lily escaped up to the rooftop and stayed there for the rest of the night listening to Marge screaming names and trying to find her. Lily found this quite amusing until the parents came home.
She got in a lot of trouble. But luckily her parents had not figured out that Lily had been on the roof. Then they would’ve flipped.
“No going out of the neighborhood. I want no reports from the neighbors. Don’t make a mess.” While Lily had been remembering her little incident with the Dursleys her mother had started giving them a list of rules they were to follow.
As usual Violet was mimicking her because all three of them knew the list backwards and forwards. Petunia had buried herself inside her cereal once more and their father was reading the newspaper. Her mother continued giving them a list of useless rules. Lily would remember exactly how everything had been the moment her life changed forever.
Time seemed to slow down just for a moment and Lily drank all the details in. Then time returned to normal and it happened.
“Click”
“That’s the mail.” Her father said not looking up from the paper.
“I’ll go get it.” Lily said anxiously. She escaped the table for a moment. Taking her time, she walked slowly toward the mail slot where a pile of letters had accumulated on the welcome mat.
“Crash”
Lily turned and looked back toward the kitchen.
“Violet!” Petunias shrill voice screeched.
“It wasn’t my fault. Don’t try to blame it on me.” Violet said.
“It was no one’s fault now stop fighting and clean it up Petunia.” Mrs. Evans said losing her temper.
“But.” Petunia said.
“No buts pick it up, NOW!” Their mother said sternly.
Lily giggled softly and picked up the mail. She didn’t even bother to look through it. There was nothing ever for her unless it was her birthday.
Just as she was about to turn around she heard a noise outside the door. She opened the door a crack and poked her head out. There was a letter on the doorstep. Lily picked it up and nearly dropped it again in shock.
There was a huge brown owl looking at her with big yellow eyes. It was perched on the railing and was staring at her. It cocked its head to the side. Then it ruffled its feathers as if showing off. Lily stood still not knowing how to react to a huge owl sitting on her railing looking at her in the middle of the morning!
It spread its magnificent wings and took flight. Lily watched in awe, as the brown owl became a tiny dot far off in the distance. Then, still in shock, she turned and walked back inside.
“That was strange.” Lily said as she entered the kitchen. She dropped the mail in front of her father as she slumped back down in her chair.
“What was strange?” Violet asked.
Mrs. Evan’s grabbed the mail from Mr. Evans and began shuffling through it.
“I just saw an owl, on our railing.”
Petunia spat her orange juice back into her glass and looked up at Lily still sputtering. She didn’t like to here about things that were strange. And apparently Lily had seen and heard about a lot of strange things.
“Very funny.” Petunia said. Violet just watched Lily, interested.
“No I’m telling the truth.” Lily said honestly.
“Lily you have a letter.” Mrs. Evans threw a letter across the table and it landed safely beneath Lily’s hand before it could go off the table.
“I couldn’t believe it myself.” Lily said picking up the letter and opening it without even glancing at it. She was still thinking about the owl.
“That’s weird.” Violet said.
“Yeah I just saw it and” She stopped talking midway. She was reading the letter and what she saw was not right.
“This is even weirder.” She said giggling.
“What?” Violet asked.
“Here you read it because I can’t believe it.” Lily handed the letter over to Violet.
Violet took it and had a similar reaction. She read it several times but then sat back blinking furiously.
“Are my eyes really seeing this.” She asked Lily.
“It’s talking about a school of magic. Right?” Lily asked Violet.
“Yeah.” Violet put down the letter and looked at Lily in wonder.
“Mom read this.” Violet pushed the letter to their mother who grabbed it and began reading it.
Her eyes grew wide and she too looked at Lily with a strange look. She passed the letter wordlessly to their father never taking her eyes off of Lily.
Mr. Evans didn’t say anything after reading it. He too looked at Lily. Petunia grabbed it but read the first few words and ran out of the room screaming. Now Lily sat with a puzzled look on her face as she reread HER letter. Violet, and her parents watched her as she tried to figure out what this all meant. Voices in her head became louder and louder.
“Lily you’re a muggle right?” Said a far away voice.
“A what?” Lily heard her own voice say.
“Oh well done brother of mine.” Another voice said.
“Never mind what I said.” Said the same boy’s voice.
“Do you believe in magic?” He asked her.
“You do?” He asked.
“Well, this is going to sound strange, but Tiffany and I come from a world in which magic is everywhere.” The boy said once more as if he were about to launch into a story.
The voices abruptly stopped and Lily found herself still puzzling over the letter.
“What do you think?” Mr. Evans asked his daughter.
“I’ll think it over.” Lily said softly. Then she got up out of her chair and raced up the stairs back to her bedroom. She raced up the steps and flung herself onto her bed. She stared at the ceiling then flipped over onto her stomach. Tears began to form in her eyes and she didn’t even know why. She gripped the sheets and closed her eyes as a strange pounding in her head began once more.
“Today’s the day!” Mr. Potter ruffled his son’s hair. Today his son would get his acceptance letter to Hogwarts.
“Dad I think you’ve said that enough times.” James said moving out of the way as his Dad tried to ruffle his hair for the millionth time.
“But it’s such a great day.” Mr. Potter swelled with pride as he looked down at his son.
“Yeah we know it’s a great day.” Said Tiffany. She had been sulky all day and not in a very good mood. She wanted to go to Hogwarts so badly. And she was going to miss her brother. This would probably be the first time she and her brother would be separated.
Mrs. Potter came and sat down beside her daughter who was feeling left out. She put her arms around the little girl and tried to comfort her.
“Cheer up. You’ll be getting your letter in two years.” She said smiling.
“But I want to go this year.” Tiffany whined.
“Honey you know it’s against the rules. You’re too young.”
Tiffany sighed.
“I know but it’s not fair.” She whined once more.
“Look!” James shouted causing all the family to jump and look up.
James jumped to his feet and pointed up into the sky. The sun was shining brightly through the clouds that had just broke open to reveal a small dark dot moving steadily lower and straight toward the Potter family where they resided on the front steps of their house.
“This is it.” James heard his mother moan in half pride, half sadness.
James grinned, as the owl’s form became clearer and closer with ever second. It came soaring through the air wings spread. It was huge and brown with bright yellow eyes. He couldn’t tell what kind it was, but it was probably a barn owl since they were very reliable and often used at Hogwarts.
James outstretched his hand and the owl slowed down dropping it into his palm. Then it flew over to Mr. Potter who had prepared some water and a small portion of food for it.
“Well aren’t you going to open it?” His mother asked him.
James didn’t answer her but began tearing the letter open as carefully and quickly as he could so he wouldn’t rip the contents. The parchment spilled out into his hands and James let the torn envelope fall carelessly to the ground as his father, Tiffany and his mother gathered around him.
“Dear Mr. James Potter. We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of witchcraft and Wizardry!”
His mother and father beamed at him as if they hadn’t been expecting this even though James had shown signs of magic ever since he was five. But it’s a different thing when you actually see it in writing and all their emotions broke lose. They embraced him, Tiffany too, nearly strangling her. His mother began sobbing and smiling and his father kept muttering “a fine boy we have” as if it were the best thing in the world.
“Let go of me I can’t breathe!” Tiffany yelped spoiling the moment.
His mother and father then gave him a little room and allowed him to finish reading the letter before they broke lose with their emotions once more.
Lily found herself seated in her own backyard. Was she dreaming? Everything seemed so distorted and faded like it was some kind of old movie. Like the ones her mom showed her of herself when she had been a kid so many years ago.
“What’s going on?” She touched her head and realized the pounding eerie headache had stopped.
She twisted around looking at her surroundings. There was no doubt about it; she was in her own yard. Suddenly she jumped. There was a figure sitting under her favorite tree. Lily crept silently toward it and realized with a jolt that it was her very own self. She looked up and stared right through her. It was almost as if she could see her.
“This is creepy.” She murmured.
She watched as the other Lily looked up suddenly. Voices. Familiar voices. They were the voices that had been heard in her head earlier.
The other Lily stood up yawning and dropped a book on her toe as she stood up. Lily snickered but then realized that she was laughing at herself and stopped.
Lily knew what was going to happen next. Without thinking she headed to the hedge that separated their yard from the next door neighbor’s yard.
The world suddenly spun in and out of focus. Lily shut her eyes because it was making her dizzy and fell to her knees. Finally it stopped turning and Lily slowly removed her hand from her eyes.
She was still beside the hedge and she could hear that boy’s voice talking. He was telling someone about a magical world. It sounded so familiar. She stayed where she was mystified listening to the boy talk on about the magical world that only existed in her dreams. Occasionally she heard another girl break in to make a snide remark or warn the boy about “giving too much information” but for the most part he just went on and on. Talking in more and more detail of the beautiful world.
When he had finished. Lily stayed there leaning against the hedge thinking everything over in her mind. It sounded so familiar but if she had heard the tale before she knew she would have remembered. It was such a wonderful believable fairy tale.
“If only this could be real life.” Lily murmured.
Just when she was getting comfortable the world lurched forward once more spinning and twisting. She yelled and hit the ground hard as a red light streaked past her. Everything had gone black and dreary and she had fallen into the blackness.
Lily yelled and sat up at once. The blackness, the boy and his tale, the red light and herself with the book all came rushing back to her slamming into her brain and sticking there as if determined not to be lost again.
Lily rubbed her head as it began to briefly pound but the pounding faded away and she found herself in her bedroom. She had fallen asleep. It had all been a dream. Lily winced remembering the letter. That part had seemed so separate from her recent dream. It had seemed more real.
Lily rolled over onto her side with a sigh. Something fell off the bed and fell to the floor.
Lily shifted, hanging off the bed; she grabbed the parchment that had fallen from the bed to the floor.
She gasped when she saw it. Not all of it had been a dream.
“Mom, Dad!” She yelled. She went racing down the stairs and ran into the living room where they were sitting on the couch together.
“What is it?” They asked anxiously.
“I’ve made up my mind.” She paused dramatically and held her breath.
“I’m going.”
Chapter Six