Dear Diary,
Well, I now have a new diary to place my thoughts. My other one has been filled to capacity. I feel it is only proper to introduce myself seeing as we are going to spend a lot of time together over the next few years. I tend to write a lot. Anyways my name is Lily Evans, and I am ten years old with one sister Petunia. She is fourteen and is in to makeup and boys, and I like dirt and games. We are completely different, near total opposites. I like blue, she likes pink. I like birds, she likes cats. My hair is red, and hers is brown. She’s tall and I’m shorter. The differences go on and on.
Today is moving day right now in fact we’re driving to our new house completely on the opposite side of town. I won’t be able to see my friends at school anymore. I won’t even be attending the same school! How harsh is that? Well, I’m going to have to cut this entry short because mum says we are almost there.
I’ll write more later!
Love,
Lily Evans
I set my diary back into my backpack as we turned onto a back-road off the highway. Then onto a neighbourhood street. For some reason we were driving at a snail’s pace through the neighbourhood. I looked out the window and saw four boys looking at me. The boy with messy black hair smiled at me, but I only frowned at him in response. I was already in a bad mood over leaving my friends, and I was happy being grumpy. He looked taken aback as if he wasn’t accustomed to being frowned at or not liked or something. As we kept driving I saw a girl about my age across the street. She was roller-skating in her driveway. Dad pulled our car into a driveway a moving van behind us parking at the curb, and I thought well we’re here, our new house.
I got out of the car walked into the house. I was directly behind Petunia. I walked around the new surroundings, and took in what the house had to offer. It was definitely larger than our old home, having four bedrooms instead of three. A dining room opened into the expansive kitchen, and the living room off to the side. It was like a great room, everything was open, and airy. I peaked into a door off of the dining room and saw stairs, most likely leading down into a basement. Basements always gave me the creeps, so I decided not to explore down there any further. I walked slowly up the stairs, running a hand along the banister. Petunia had already claimed the largest bedroom for herself by throwing her backpack and books from school onto the middle of the floor. I chose the room furthest from her because she tended to play her music loudly. I placed my backpack on the floor, and walked over to the window. I had to have the best view in the whole house since it was the only room facing the front of the house. The houses in this neighborhood were more sporadic than those in my old neighbourhood. The yards were larger, giving us much more room to play. The girl I noticed earlier was still struggling to skate up and down her driveway. She must have been teaching herself because she wasn’t doing very well.
Petunia walked in my room, and started talking “Did you see those cute boys a few blocks back?”
“Yes, but they weren’t cute,” I retorted, bored as I continued to stare out my window, yet I still said it carefully knowing full well that she would start rambling about all the cute guys she had ever met. She always seemed to want to talk about boys. Is that what all teenagers do? If so, I never want to become one. After I thought this, my mind reverted back to what I had been thinking I had a great view of the entire neighbourhood.
“Did you see the one with those beautiful, grey eyes?”
“No, I wasn’t paying attention to them. I’ll see you later Petunia.”
I went down the stairs to look for my parents, the door bell rang, my dad came out of nowhere it seemed, and answered the door. I couldn’t understand what he was saying to whoever our first visitor was, but he suddenly yelled for my mother, Petunia, and I to come to the entrance hall. When we all got there, I saw that it was the girl from across the street, still wearing her skates with whom I could only assume were her parents.
“Sheryl,” he said, “this is Tim and Wanda Rosewood and their daughter, Ashley. She is the same age as Lily.”
The girl had light brown hair and ice blue eyes. She smiled brightly at me, and I half smiled back being impacted with the thought that I’ll have to make new friends. I couldn’t go back to my old ones every time I wanted to play. My dad waved his hand toward Petunia and I, he latched onto my arm, and I was pulled to his side.
“These are my daughters, Petunia and Lily.”
Ashley asked Petunia and I, “I’ve got a puppy; you want to come see her? I just got her and her name’s Jax and she’s really cute! Mum, can Lily come over to play?”
I could tell this girl was probably as desperate for friends as I was. There were hardly any neighbours around. I grinned, feeling happier at the thought of making a friend so easily. I found myself looking to my new friend’s mother in anticipation, hoping it would be okay for me to go over.
“I think that would be alright,” Mrs. Rosewood stated, smiling warmly at her daughter.
I then turned to my own parents. “Mummy, Daddy can I go? Please. I promise I’ll be good and do everything Mr. and Mrs. Rosewood tell me to do. Please!”
“That’s fine, but I ask that Petunia go along. We don’t know this area very well, and I’d feel better if she was with you,” my dad answered, looking to his oldest daughter. Petunia, being who she is, smiled sweetly at my father, and agreed. She then whispered to me that if I annoyed her, she’d get me in trouble.
“Just be home before six,” he responded, and then turned back to Ashley’s parents to quickly end their conversation. “You’re more than welcome to come over for dinner. We love to entertain, and my wife’s the best cook in the country."
“That sounds lovely, thank you for the invitation. We’ll see you at six then?” Mrs. Rosewood asked politely.
“That sounds wonderful.” My mum turned to Petunia, and I, and pointed at my chest. “I want you to be on your best behavior, promise?”
“Yes ma’am.” I turned to Ashley and followed her out of my new house and across the street to hers. Her parents were behind us, followed by Petunia. I noticed the large building behind her house. “What’s that?” I asked, pointing at the structure.
“Oh, it’s just the barn. That’s where we keep the horses,” Ashley replied nonchalantly as if everyone in the world owned horses.
Horses? I haven’t ever seen a horse up close before. The closest I’ve come was at the circus when I was eight my mind thought in a crazy haze. “You have horses? I’ve never seen one up close before!” I said in a rush, hoping that I might be able to see them.
“Mum, Dad, can we go over to see the horses?” Ashley asked pretty much reading my mind and, giving her parents a sweet angelic smile. I knew, then, that she had her parents wrapped around her little finger, just the way I had mine. That made me all the more sure that we should be friends.
“Of course, honey, but you’d better come a get your father or I before you think of riding one,” her mum answered, running her hand over her daughter’s hair.
We parted with her parents then as they went into the house and we walked towards the barn. Ashley pulled open a heavy sliding door and I was amazed at the amount of horses she had. There had to be at least fifteen. “Hey, Ashley, why do you have so many horses?”
“Simple, my dad’s a horse trainer.”
“What’s your mum?”
“She’s a wi… err… She’s a house wife. What are your mum and dad?”
“My dad is an accountant, and my mum is a lawyer.”
“That’s cool! Oh and, by the way, that horse’s name is Feather. She’s my mum’s.” She pointed to the horse that was nudging my arm over the stall door. I liked her. She was the prettiest and friendliest horse I had ever seen.
After that, Ashley left Petunia and I in the barn as she ran to ask her mother to come outside so we could ride. She and her mother then showed Petunia and me how to tack up our chosen horses. I, of course chose Feather because she was the most beautiful with a brown body and white spots. Her mane and tail were both white. They also showed us what signs to use to get the horses to respond.
“Okay Lily, and Petunia ready to go on a path around the field?”
“Sure, how far is it all the way around?” I asked looking at my watch, seeing it was almost four thirty.
“It’s like a mile it shouldn’t take more than an hour,” she said looking at her watch, too.
Her mother stood by the fences as we rode around the field. We started at the barn, and went clockwise having an ever changing conversation, while Petunia trailed behind. When I looked back, I noticed she wasn’t having much fun at all. She would keep lifting herself from the hard saddle and make a face, so I figured it must have been hurting her bum. When we reached the far side and were about halfway across it, four boys suddenly came running through the fence, trying to catch an odd looking ball that looked like it had been flying. They must have kicked it really hard to still be in the air. I thought. I looked at Ashley, and she had an odd look of fear and anger on her face.
“Hey, Ashley, are you okay?” I asked my new found friend.
“Yeah,” she replied looking in my direction, “but I don’t like those boys. They’re trouble.”
I had a second look at them and saw that they were the same boys from earlier. It was then that I heard Ashley call out, “Hey, you, what are you doing on my property again? I thought I told you to stay away.”
The one who had messed up black hair spun around and said “Oh, hi, I didn’t see you there, Ashley. We were playing Quid-”
Ashley threw him a dirty look and screamed, “Get out of here, now, Potter! Don’t you ever come here again!”
He ignored Ashley’s comment and instead, turned to me, looking up as I wasn’t about to get off my horse, and said, “My name is James Potter.”
“I’m Lily Evans. You need to go away, Ashley has already asked you.” I said stiffly, not really liking this James Potter at all for his disobedience to my friend.
“Want to come play a game with us?” he asked, totally ignoring the fact we had asked him to leave now twice.
I looked at Ashley and saw she was looking over at the other three boys who had crossed back to the proper side of the fence. She was staring at one with wavy, black hair. “Ashley,” I said annoyed that she was almost as obsessed with him as my sister seemed to be. “Do you want to go play with them?” All signs of me pleading not to go were in my voice, but she only heard the words.
“Yeah, but we have to put up the horses first. You go ahead. I have to ask them something first.”
************
As Lily turned away, Ashley turned to the boys and when she noticed her friend was out of the hearing range, she said frantically, “No magical games! Lily’s a Muggle!” and with that she trotted off towards Lily. When they reached the barn, Ashley unsettled the three horses and put them into their stalls, and then said hurriedly to Lily, “Let’s go so they don’t have to wait for us.”
*********
It surprised me how quiet Petunia was being, allowing me my own time to be myself with my new friend instead of catering to whatever she wanted to do. I imagine, when we’re back home, she’ll be forcing me to complete her chores for weeks on end.
When we got to the edge of the field, they were sitting there, and tossing a red ball back and forth, but as soon as they saw us, they stopped. I glanced at my watch, and saw that it was only five fifteen. I couldn’t wait for five forty-five, so I could head home. Why was Ashley so keen on spending time with these disrespectful boys? After they stopped playing, they got up and walked over. James who was at the head of the group seemed to be in charge.
Noticing I was looking at the other boys, James said “Oh by the way this is Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew,” waving his hand extravagantly over each boys’ head as he spoke their name. His confidence was full of an air that made me sure he was in charge.
When their name was said, a large grin would break out on the boy’s face, letting me know which one was which, as if I didn’t know by the hand gestures. Since Ashley already knew them, they didn’t bother introducing themselves to her. I can guarantee, though, I’ll never remember their names. They’re so weird. Who names their kid Serious and Raymus? That’s not normal. Petunia giggled. She is alive, I thought.
Sirius’s hair was as black as night, wavy and a little longer than his ears. His eyes were steely, grayish silver, and he looked older than he acted. It was definitely this boy Petunia had spoken of earlier. Remus was nice looking with light brown hair, and his eyes were an odd amber color. Peter was shorted and more mousey looking than the others, and one bad thing about him was he had bit his finger nails down to the quick. All these boys are so different from one another, I thought to myself. When we got to his house James asked us if we had any games in mind.
“Do you like football?” I asked looking hopefully over the crowd.
“What’s that?” both Sirius and James responded almost immediately.
I looked at them dumbstruck that they didn’t know what football was, but I was slightly relieved to find out that at least Remus knew what it was. Peter just looked at me dumbly. I asked Remus if he knew how to play, and he told me he knew the rules, but was bad at actually playing the game.
After that, I turned my attention to James, Peter, and Sirius, and said “Okay Ashley, Remus, and me, are going to teach you to play football.”
After going over the rules with them, and showing them how to kick the ball, Ashley asked them if they were ready to play an actual game of football. They just got into the spots that we had showed them, and waited. I was still completely amazed that there were people in England that didn’t know of the most famous sport!
As soon as the game started, I was positive that they were going to lose. I was on a team with Peter and Ashley. Our referee was Remus because he opted to sit out, so as soon as he said “Game” (he didn’t have a whistle) it was on. I was just a little worried because Peter sounded like he had asthma, but at the same time I was confident that we were going to win because both Ashley and I knew how to play. After five minutes, I started to get worried because they actually had more points. They were naturals! We ended up losing eight to six, and after we lost James and Sirius both bragged about it. At first it didn’t bother me, but then when they didn’t stop after ten minutes I told them to shut up or Ashley, and I would go home. They stopped rather quickly after that. When I looked at my watch again later, I was surprised to see that it was five fifty, and I apologized rather quickly to the boys and Ashley and I ran and ran all the way back to my house only stopping to grab Ashley, remembering that we were having dinner together.
We were both breathing heavily as we walked inside my house, Petunia had left earlier. Not wanting to play football with us, she had gone home, against my mother’s wishes. I didn’t care much, though. She didn’t seem to want to play with the boys. She must have realized how much younger we all were than her. Mr. and Mrs. Rosewood were already at my home helping my mother set dinner on the table by the time we arrived, looking spectacularly disheveled.
As we ate dinner, mum and dad asked Petunia and I how we liked the neighbourhood, and if we had done anything interesting today. Ashley and Petunia took turns explaining how we had met boys, while the whole time, I grumbled how much I disliked James Potter and his friends. I was sure I had already forgotten their names, and I didn’t even attempt to supply them. I was totally amazed that Petunia didn’t go on and rant about meeting the grey-eyed one, that there told me immediately that she was upset they were so much younger than her.
That night, I as laid in bed, I was thinking about that group of boys. Something was just not right with them. They were different somehow from other boys I knew. They just acted different like they were our superiors, not just stupid boy stuff no they took that to a whole new level. The more I got to know them the more I knew they were different, and the less I liked them. It was like a secret that they knew, but no one else knew. Come on who in their right mind in England doesn’t know how to play football? It’s England for crying out loud! My dad had me kicking around a football by the time I was able to walk!
Lily and James, A Love Unfolding by lupinslover
Chapter Notes: Disclamer- it's all JK Rowlings....I have no credit towards the characters except for Ashley and her family and Lily's mom and dad.