“Is this true?” An icy voice split the night air.
“Ye--yes, of course, my lord! I am your loyal spy and of course I have my connections with the Potters an--”
“Very well. I will have Bella, my more dependable Death Eater, double-check your information. If what you tell me is true and I successfully carry out my plans, I daresay Wormtail, that your reward shall indeed be great. Now go, and help the others track down those insolent Longbottoms.”
“Yes my lord. I am glad that my information has pleased you.” Wormtail’s squeaky voice sounded much relieved, for Voldemort’s snake-like face had twisted itself into an evil and almost hungry grin.
“AHHHH!”
A woman suddenly cried out in her sleep and woke with a start. Her almond-shaped, startling green eyes sprang open as she jumped awake from her sleep.
“Lily! Lily, honey, are you all right? What’s happened? You’re covered in sweat--are you sick? Should I send for a healer or-”
“I’m fine, James, I’m fine. I just….had a very weird dream.” Lily Potter smiled softly and looked up at her husband. James Potter had come running out of the adjacent room. He heaved a sigh of relief and pulled his wife into a loving hug. He gently stroked her beautiful red hair.
“Don’t scare me like that,” he murmured. Lily rested her head on her husband’s shoulder.
“Is Harry asleep?”
“Yes, but barely. You nearly woke him up again!” laughed James. But then he said, rather seriously,” I think he feels our nervousness. Even though he’s just a baby…”
James glanced at Lily and saw that she looked strained.
“Well, he must be coming on to his ol’ man and becoming a genius at a very young age!”
Lily laughed. James could be so arrogant and funny at times. That was part of the reason she loved him so much.
Suddenly, she felt so hopeless and so lost that tears started to well up in her eyes.
“What is this? Lily Potter crying!” James said in a fake surprised voice. Lily merely sniffed.
“Now look Evans, stop being such a water lily,” James joked.
Lily smiled through her tears. It had been a while since James had called her water lily and even longer since he had called her by her maiden name. James always called her water lily whenever she became depressed and began to cry. She thought back to how the nickname had come about. James had made up the nickname when she had cried so hard one time in seventh year that he claimed that her tears would create a river and make her float--like a water lily.
Baby Harry began to cry in the other room. James let go of Lily.
“I’ll go soothe him,” said James. In the kitchen, a teapot began to whistle loudly.
“And I’ll go fetch us some tea,” Lily said brightly. Lily walked down the hall in half a daze from waking up so suddenly. She shivered. Why did house seemed so cold and dark tonight?
She reached the whistling teapot on the stove. That whistling….it sounded familiar to Lily somehow….hmmm. Then it hit her. It sounded just like the Hogwarts Express. The Hogwarts Express…..
And Lily found her memory flying back in time to what seemed to her like a million years ago as she fondly, and yet sadly, thought back to the first day of her last year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry……..
Seventeen-year-old Lily Evans calmly walked through the barrier of Platform 9 ¾. The rest of her family also followed through. Even though this was their seventh time passing through the barrier, they still showed amazement at it.
They are Muggles after all, thought Lily.
“We’ll miss you so much dear! We’re so proud of you.” Mr. and Mrs. Evans wrapped their daughter into a hug. Lily’s sister, Petunia Evans, looked jealously over their shoulders.
“I'll miss you too Mum, Dad.” As much as Lily wanted to spend the last minutes with her family before the train took off , she couldn’t. It wasn’t because of her new responsibilities of becoming Head Girl, but it was because someone had threatened her at the end of her sixth year to meet her and her parents here at the station and say a friendly hello. Lily grew sick and excited at the thought of it. She had to hurry and get away from her family before-
“You should be proud Mr. and Mrs. Evans. She was made Head Girl after all.”
Lily spun around and nearly collapsed from shock to find that the one and only James Potter, the one person she had been trying to avoid, was standing inches away from her.
Oh no.
“And who is this charming young gentleman Lily?” inquired Mrs. Evans.
“Nobody!” said Lily as she tried to push James away. He was too strong however and stood rooted to the spot as Lily panted with the effort to try and move him.
Damn Quidditch made him too strong for his own good thought Lily furiously.
“Lily, what are you doing? --Nice to meet you…er…”
“James Potter ma’am. Nice to meet you… Yes, nice to meet you too Mr. Evans… No, no the pleasure is all mine.”
He is such a suck-up!
“Go away Potter!”
“Lily! That’s no way to talk to someone!”
“Sorry Mum but-”
“Yeah Evans! What were you thinking?”
“Shut up Potter or I’ll curse you!”
“Lily!”
“Sorry Dad but-”
“Did I mention that I will be working with Evans this year? I was made Head Boy you see.”
“Don’t you dare lie to my parents Potter!”
“Lily, why are you being so rude to him?”
“Yeah honey. Why so rude so suddenly?”
“Potter, I’m warning you!”
“Hey Lily!”
“WHAT?”
“Well someone is a tad bit cranky today.”
Lily turned to her right and found someone much better than James Potter facing her. It was Anne, one of Lily’s best friends. She was staring at Lily through her keen black eyes with one eyebrow raised. Her black hair glistened in the sun. Lily loved her hair. It was short and flared in the back. It made her look even more formidable than she already did. She was taller and leaner than Lily and usually had her arms crossed and gave strangers the “if you touch me, I’ll curse you” kind of look.
“Sorry Anne.” Lily blushed out of guilt and embarrassment. “How was your summer?”
“Not bad. Hey there Mrs. Evans, Mr. Evans….. Petunia. And Potter! How lovely.”
“Not really,” Lily said forcefully. She made to try and push James away again.
“Wait, hold on! I didn’t even get to say hi to your sister!”
“No! Just-- let’s go. Now.” But it was too late. James had already extended his hand out to Petunia.
“James Potter. Nice to meet you.”
Petunia took a step back and looked at James’s hand as if it was a dead rat. Five seconds passed and James’s smile faltered. Lily’s parents were looking uncomfortable.
“Er… maybe not.” James began to withdraw his hand.
“No.” Lily stopped James’s hand. Something had quite unexpectedly sprung up in her. It was anger. Her sister could be as rude as she wanted to everyone else, but not Potter. Lily was the only person allowed to give that kind of a look to him.
“Petunia, say hi. This is James Potter, my friend.” James looked at Lily in shock but Anne looked merely amused.
“Say hi Petunia.” Lily’s voice was dangerously low.
“Hello,” Petunia grumbled after shooting a mean glance at her sister.
“Well, er, have a great year honey,” Mrs. Evans said, obviously trying to break the cold ice.
“Oh… yeah. ‘Bye Mum and Dad!” Lily hugged them both.
“It was nice meeting you Mr. Potter.” James smiled. Lily was relieved. If he was still able to smile, then it meant that he wasn’t very angry.
The three of them saw the Evans off to the barrier. After they had disappeared, Lily stomped away to the train and got lost in the crowd.
Why the hell did I stand up for Potter like that?
A/N: My first fanfic ever! Please review!
A/N that was written way after the A/N above this one: I'm starting to see fanfics where they start on the night James and Lily dies--hmmm, sort of like MINE. I'M THE ONE WHO STARTED IT MWA HA HA HA....