Chapter One: The Letters
Lily Evans wasn’t exactly a normal eleven-year-old girl in many aspects. She was normal in that she lived with her two parents and her annoying older sister who she bickered with about half the time and played with the other half of the time. She lived in a nice house and she wasn’t rich, but she wasn’t exactly poor. She lived in a normal neighborhood where her best friend, Rachel Mooney, lived next door. Those were the aspects in which her life was perfectly normal to the point that it was somewhat boring.
But, she sometimes made rather strange things happen. For instance, the last time that Petunia and Lily had a fight; Petunia had ended up with her hair a bright shade of purple (which happened to be Lily’s favorite color). And then there was the rare time that she failed the math test with a low grade, but when they were reviewing over the test, all the answers had somehow become correct. Lily had handed the teacher the test and had ended up with a low A.
Because of the strange things that happened, she sometimes felt as if she didn’t belong with the other kids at school. Except for with Rachel. Rachel made strange things happen to. Unexplainable things. They sometimes pretended to be good witches fighting the evil demons and saving lives. It was their favorite game as kids.
But Lily didn’t think she believed in witches. Her father, who was a scientist, had explained away any possibility of a magical world…although he couldn’t explain the strange things she made happen. Lily wished that witches existed. She had a feeling that if they did, she might find a world that she belonged to. She had never talked that over with Rachel, but she sometimes wondered after she did something strange and miraculous if any of it was possible.
Maybe she was like the good witch in The Wizard of Oz or something like that, but then reason would catch up with her impossible thoughts and she would decide that she was just a normal eleven-year-old girl who had the tendency to do strange things.
And then it happened. The letter came that changed everything. She sat at the table with her sister and her father while her mother set the bacon on the table.
“Lily, go get the mail,” Mr. Jason Evans said, setting his newspaper down.
“Okay,” the eleven-year-old climbed out of her chair, obediently and headed towards the door. She heard Petunia telling her father about the girl at school who had been expelled. Lily grinned. She was finally going to go to Petunia’s school where more interesting things happened. Elementary school was completely boring. She grabbed the mail and flipped through it absentmindedly and paused when she landed on a letter for herself.
Lily Evans
9 Mercy Street
Little Whinging
Surrey
Lily decided it must have been addressed to her by mistake. The letter looked almost business like. She never got mail except for rude library notes saying her books were overdue.
“Mum,” she handed the letter to her mom. “I think this was addressed to me by mistake.” Lily handed it to her mother and sat down again and handed the bills to her dad. Mrs. Gloria Evans ripped the letter open and began reading a loud.
“Dear, Ms. Evans, We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at…” She paused. “This has to be a joke,” she breathed under her breath.
“Lily’s getting junk mail?” Mr. Evans asked, standing up and walked over to his wife’s side who handed it to him.
“What’s it say?” Lily asked, curiously as her father read silently.
“It’s impossible,” Mr. Evans said.
“But…it looks legit,” Mrs. Evans argued as she flipped the note over. “I mean look how detailed it is.”
“Can I see it?” Lily asked. “Please, Mum?”
Mrs. Evans read it out loud. “Dear, Ms. Evans, We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.” Lily gasped as her mother continued. “Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31. Sincerely, Minerva McGonagall.” She turned the page as Mr. Evans sat down.
“What does it mean await your owl?” he asked.
“Look at the book titles: The Standard Book of Spells, A History of Magic, Magical Theory, the Beginners Guide to Transfiguration, One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi, Magical Drafts and Potions, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection,” Lily listened in awe. She was a witch. A real live witch. It seemed almost too good to be true, yet it fit.
“Other equipment. A wand, a cauldron…,” Mr. Evans paused.
“Parents are reminded that first years are not allowed their own broomsticks,” Mrs. Evans said as the doorbell rang.
“Can I go, Daddy?” Lily asked.
“Get the door, honey,” Mrs. Evans said, not answering the question as Lily obeyed. She wanted to go. She had to go. She knew it sounded unreal, but somehow she knew it was real. She opened the door and started at the woman in her doorway. She wore her dark hair in a neat bun and her lips were pressed sternly together and she wore some kind of weird black dress that resembled a robe.
“Hello,” the woman said. “My name is Minerva McGonagall. Are your parents here?” she asked.
“Uh. Yeah. Daddy,” Lily turned and yelled. “Mum! There’s a lady at the door,” Lily turned back and smiled politely. “Would you like to come in?”
“Yes,” the woman nodded. Lily decided then that this was a strict woman as her parents came in with Petunia trailing behind them. Petunia was looking at Lily strangely.
“Hello,” the woman said, kindly. Lily’s parents glanced at the weird dress thing she wore. “My name is Minerva McGonagall. I teach Transfiguration at Hogwarts…”
“So, it is a real school, then?” Mr. Evans asked, unbelievingly.
“Yes, Mr. Evans.” McGonagall nodded turning to Lily. “I assume you are Lily Evans.”
Lily nodded. She couldn’t wait to tell Rachel…but, then it hit her. She couldn’t leave Rachel. Neither of them fit in with their class and they were always made fun of. The only way they got through school was because they were together.
“We normally have a teacher come and explain to those who don’t have wizarding family about the letter so that they can ask questions and things. Have you read the letter already?”
“Yes,” Mrs. Evans nodded. “Lily’s a witch?” she asked.
“Yes,” McGonagall nodded. “She is a Muggle-born witch. A Muggle is someone who doesn’t have any magical abilities. The school starts teaching around the age of eleven and prepares them for a life in the Wizarding World.”
Mr. Evans nodded. “Do you teach normal subjects like she would learn at school here?”
“No. They aren’t needed in our world. Lily would be able to come back to visit during Christmas, Easter, and summer vacations. She can owl you to keep in touch,” McGonagall continued telling her about the Platform that led to the Hogwarts terminal and the wall that led to where she could get her schools things and the money the Wizarding world used.
“Lily, what do you think?” Mr. Evans turned to his youngest daughter.
“It sounds…,” Lily began, trying to figure out how to word her thoughts. She wanted to go with everything in her. It sounded like a place where she would actually fit. Rachel would fit there too, but… She glanced over at where Rachel’s house was before asking McGonagall a question. Rachel managed to make strange things happen just like she did. “Are there any other witches around here?” she asked. Rachel had to be one too. How could she not be?
“I believe that Rachel Mooney probably just got her letter,” McGonagall smiled for the first time. It was a smile that seemed as if it was rarely given. Lily’s face broke into a smile as she turned to her dad.
“Dad, can I go?” Lily asked. She knew her mother would be fine with it, which left her father. The scientist. The one who was trying desperately to wrap his mind around the idea of magic.
Hogwarts sounded like a place where she would belong. Unlike the high school she was about to attend. “Please, Dad?” she begged.
“I don’t know,” He said, turning to his wife. “Gloria?” Lily knew what he was doing. He had done it many times before. He asked his wife to give himself time to think. She grinned inwardly. When he did that, his answer was almost always yes.
“I don’t have a problem with it, Jason,” Gloria said, looking at Professor McGonagall.
“Then I guess so,” He said, turning back to the strict Professor. “So, how do we get her books and things again?”
Lily bit her to lip to stop the grin that was begging to spread across her face as the professor told them about a pub called the Leaky Cauldron that led to Diagon Alley. “Just ask the bartender, Tom. He will show you,” McGonagall said handing Lily a ticket for the train. She explained about the hidden barrier and was gone in just a few minutes.
“I’m a witch,” she whispered, staring out the window until she saw McGonagall leave Rachel’s house. And then she ran outside, meeting her best friend on the grassy lawn.
~*~*~
James Potter wasn’t at all surprised when the letter came for him in the mail. He had been waiting for it all summer and could hardly believe that soon he would be going to Hogwarts. He read the letter at least a hundred times, folding it over and over until it looked as if it had survived almost everything. His mother, Olivia Potter, watched each time with a look of amusement on her face. His father, Harold, watched with a look of pride. His only son was about to go off to school.
Sirius Black was in the same boat. He had known that he was a wizard and hadn’t been surprised at all when the owl landed on his dinner table. He only hoped that he wouldn’t be in Slytherin like every other member of his family. He hated them and their pureblood mania even though he was only an eleven-year-old boy.
Remus Lupin meanwhile did not expect the letter to come. Each day that brought that day closer caused him to feel more and more aggravated. His parents noticed but felt powerless to do anything. Remus was a werewolf, and werewolves weren’t allowed at school. No werewolf had ever been admitted. He had been bitten when he was six, and his life had been terrible since. His parents were amazing. They had built a boarded up shack that he couldn’t get out of during his terrible transformations on the full moon. And they treated him the way they would have if he hadn’t been bitten. He knew they had given up so much. Mrs. Lupin had always wanted a large family, but they had decided they couldn’t have another child. Remus was too dangerous.
Remus hid in his room, the week that the letters were known to arrive until his mother called him downstairs on an extremely hot Friday night.
“Remus!” she yelled up the stairs.
“Coming, Mum,” he said, standing up and moving towards the stairs. He froze when he entered the small living area. (They weren’t rich and didn’t have a lot of money. Their house was extremely small, but as there were only three of them they didn’t need much more.) Professor Albus Dumbledore stood there. Remus would recognize him anywhere even though he had never met him. The professor had been a teacher at Hogwarts although and this was his first year as the Headmaster. Remus had heard that Professor McGonagall had taken his position as Transfiguration teacher.
“Professor?” he said, questioningly noticing the way that the elderly professor with the crooked nose studied him.
“Hello, Remus,” Dumbledore said, holding a letter in his hand. He handed it over to the boy who ripped it open, trying not to get his hope up. He read the first sentence silently. Dear, Mr. Lupin, We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry”it said. Remus looked up, his eyes meeting the clear blue eyes of the professor.
“But…” he said, not sure how to word what he wanted to say. He was a werewolf. He was dangerous to the other students. How could he go to school there?
“I have made some safety precautions. There is a tree that was built called the Whomping Willow. The Whomping Willow will not allow anyone at all close to the tree,” Dumbledore said as Remus at down across from him on the couch. “At the bottom of the tree, there is a knot that only you and I know about. Oh, and Madam Pomfrey, the school nurse has agreed to help. By pressing the knot, the tree will be stilled. Under the tree, there is a path that leads to a boarded up house where you will stay during your transformations. You will not be able to hurt anyone, and you will be able to attend school.”
Remus felt like he was in a dream. Could this be possible? He was going to Hogwarts even though he was an eleven-year-old monster once a month. “Are you serious?” he had to ask. The professor nodded, and Remus’ face broke into a grin. He was going to Hogwarts.
Peter Pettigrew felt the same way. He had at times wondered if he wasn’t magic enough to come to the school. Sometimes, he wondered if he was a Squib. But the letter came.
Lily Evans, Rachel Mooney, James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew were going to Hogwarts where they would form an impenetrable bond that could not be broken. Or maybe it could. Who knew? All they knew was that this was the letter that would change their lives.