Lily woke up slightly annoyed. Sunlight was streaming through her window and making it impossible to sleep any longer. That didn’t mean that Lily admitted defeat and got out of bed; she simply rolled over, closed her eyes and tried to fall asleep again. She was definitely not a morning person.
After five minutes of this it occurred to Lily precisely why it was now definitely impossible to fall asleep. There was a tapping noise on her window. Finally admitting defeat, she got up and walked to her window. She wondered a bit on the way over why her desk was clean, but then she remembered the events from the night before.
Phew, that sure was a close one… she thought before hurrying to open the window. A large tawny owl flied through it and sat down on her desk. It had a letter that Lily hurried to take from it.
She had recognized it immediately; it was a Hogwarts owl that delivered her school letter. Lily could feel her mood lighten at once. This was what she had been waiting for! Something from the magical world!
After having released the owl from it’s burden, it took off extremely fast. But Lily didn’t really mind. She had her school letter. This meant she was going to Diagon Alley pretty soon to buy her school supplies. And as always, she couldn’t wait to get to walk down that street again.
She ripped the letter open and hoped that there was something interesting in it besides her supply list. It weighed slightly more than usual. She turned the envelope upside-down and something fell out. She caught a glimpse of something small and shiny.
Could it be? It is! Yes! It is, it is, it is! I’m a prefect!
She jumped around on her bed in excitement but quickly came to her senses; the mattress wasn’t made for jumping on. She picked up the badge and put it on her desk.
She then got dressed and headed out in the kitchen. Her parents and Petunia were already seated around the table eating breakfast. Lily was used to it though; she usually got out of bed two hours later than everyone else. This meant that they had time to shower, make breakfast and set the table. And then she would get up and eat breakfast.
Her parents greeted her with a ‘good morning’, which she responded. Petunia didn’t say anything.
She sat down at the table, grinning as she did so, and while she buttered her toast she waited for her parents to ask her what she was so excited about. It didn’t take long for her mother to ask that. Good thing too, because Lily simply couldn’t keep her mouth shut about these things.
“I’m a prefect! They made me a prefect!” she said while smiling widely. Her parents immediately smiled as well.
“That’s great Lily! Good job!” her mother said and her father gave his compliments as well. She wasn’t expecting Petunia to say anything at all, and would rather keep it that way than get a nasty comment thrown in her face. Her lucky stars were certainly not with her.
“So, I guess you’re good at something after all. Who would’ve guessed?” Petunia spat while glaring at Lily like she was the foulest creature she had ever laid eyes on. Lily wanted to return the comment with something just as nasty, but before she could speak, her father beat her to it.
“There now, Petunia, cant we just please have a normal family breakfast for once? And please do not say that to your sis--“ he managed to say before Petunia once again started to rant.
“Really, I wonder why you even want to a prefect at that school of yours,” she said while spitting the word school out with as much disgust as Lily thought possible for a human being. And it made her angry.
She had ignored Petunia’s first comment. If her sister ever said something about Lily being a witch, she expected it to be something like that. It always was. But this was going too far. Petunia had no idea what Lily wanted with her life; she never had before she went to Hogwarts and she certainly didn’t know it now. Lily watched Petunia in silence, anger building up inside her. Petunia took a sip of tea from her mug. Their parents looked from one daughter to the other, not knowing what to say. Petunia seemed to think it was her job to continue the conversation.
“Then again, it doesn’t surprise me that school of yours made you a prefect. I’ve always thought they were freaks. They must be out of their minds,” she said while carefully waiting for Lily’s reaction.
Lily was now extremely angry. She was furious. How dared she say that? She wanted to get back at Petunia. She didn’t have any right to say stuff like that at all! As a way of calming herself Lily began counting to fifty; she was hoping that she wouldn’t explode if she did that. One “ still mad “ two “ still mad “ three “ still mad… This was supposed to be helping she thought desperately. She noticed Petunia take yet another sip of tea. Lily found herself hoping her sister would burn her tongue on it. But Petunia simply continued insulting her, still holding the mug in her hand.
“Of course, so are you, so you fit in quite well with them…” she let her words trail off into the air. Petunia still didn’t put the mug down on the table. She just held it barely five inches from her mouth, as if deciding whether or not she was going to take another sip of tea. At this point in her little monologue, however, their parents seemed to decide that they should say something now, before this argument got too far.
“Petunia, apologise to your sister right now! That is no way to speak to her!” their mother said dangerously. Petunia seemed to ignore the comment and Lily too tuned out her mother. She was staring at the mug. It had once been her favourite mug. Now she hated it. It had pictures of little mice on half of it; the other half was painted to be one big fat mouse. The colours were grey and dirty brown. Lily had somehow always imagined mice to be grey and brown. She had once thought they were very adorable animals. Now she hated them. They always reminded her of rats now and she thought rats were disgusting.
Petunia looked at their mother with an expression that clearly said she gave up after about two minutes of their mother’s death glare. Then she began talking to Lily again.
“Sorry Lily, for telling you the truth about what your little… abnormality is all about,” she sighed. She sounded as though she had just been forced to do something completely unfair.
Lily could feel twice the amount of anger than before swell up inside of her. Was that supposed to be an apology? And Petunia just sat there, drinking her tea. She had just taken another sip from her mug and lowered it three inches from her mouth. Lily was concentrating all her anger on that little annoying mouse.
Suddenly Petunia screamed and jumped up from her chair, throwing the mug in the air and running from kitchen. Lily was horrified when she saw the mug flying toward her mother’s face. But that was just it. The mug was gone. In its place, an extremely fat rat flew right through the remaining space between itself and her mother (who ever knew rats could fly?); and then, with a sickening splattering sound, it collided with her face.
Her mother screamed, jumped off the chair and hurried to run after Petunia. Lily was still looking at the rat with the utmost horror. It was by now on the table beside all the bread.
Then, replacing her first shocked reaction, Lily realised she needed to catch the rat before it could disappear in the kitchen.
She made a grab for it, but the rat moved just in time to avoid her hands. Her father then also realised that the rat needed to be caught. But this was one lucky rat. Just as her father made a grab for it, it seemed to think it wanted to move again. And thus it managed to yet again escape.
Lily glanced up at her fathers face. She knew he wasn’t particularly fond of rats, but he didn’t seem scared. She guessed he just didn’t want the rat to disappear right under his nose.
Lily, however, was not the least bit frightened. She was used to them at Hogwarts because some people liked to keep them as pets. These some people also resembled a rat in Lily’s opinion, so she wasn’t surprised at the boy’s choice of pet. And now she had one in her kitchen. Oh joy.
Finally, after two minutes of frantically trying to catch the rat, Lily stood up with a triumphant “Yes! I’ve got it Dad!”
Then an owl tried to take the rat from her. Luck was definitely not on Lily’s side today.
“Where the hell did that owl come from?” her father yelled.
Lily was asking herself the very same question, until she saw that it held a letter addressed to her. She gave the rat to her father and took the letter from the owl.
“Umm, Dad you could give the rat to the owl if you want…” she suggested, hoping that he would because it would be an easy way to get rid of it.
“But isn’t it a mug? I mean wont it change back into a mug some time?” her father said with a concerned look on his face.
“No, not unless someone change it back, and I can’t do that seeing as we’re not really allowed to… to do magic… in the summer holidays,” she said, gulping as realization hit her. How could she not have realised? She had transfigured that mug to a rat. And she wasn’t allowed to do that. So obviously, the letter had to be from the ministry. She opened it slowly. What would it say?
Dear Ms Evans
We have received intelligence that a transfiguring spell was used at your place of residence this morning at ten minutes past nine.
As you know, underage wizards and witches are not permitted to perform spells outside school, and further spellwork on your part may lead to expulsion from said school (Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage sorcery, 1875, Paragraph C).
We would also ask you to remember that any magical activity which risks notice by members of the non-magical community (Muggles) is a serious offence, under section 13 of the International Confederation of Warlocks’ Statue of Secrecy.
Enjoy your holidays!
Yours sincerely,
Mafalda Hopkirk
Improper Use of Magic Office
Ministry of Magic *
Relief washed over her as she read the letter. She hadn’t been expelled! She was sure the minute she had opened that letter that it would tell her not to return to Hogwarts, but it hadn’t. It had been a simple warning. Besides, it wasn’t like she had transfigured the mug on purpose. It had been an accident.
“What does that letter say?” her father asked. Lily gave the letter to him, seeing as there was no way to avoid it.
“Well, care to explain why you transfigured that mug into a rat?” her father asked. Lily had never seen him so deadly serious. It was quite frightening.
“I… er… I was angry at Petunia and… er… well it was an accident! I didn’t mean to do it; I just couldn’t control my temper! I’m sorry,” she said, looking down at her feet. Her father looked at her with a twinkle in his eyes.
“Well, since Petunia did say some very rude things to you, there are two options for me. Either I make the both of you apologise or none of you. I don’t think I will force you to apologise to one another, you have to decide that on your own. And I don’t think I will punish you either. But please do try and control your temper, will you?” he asked. Lily nodded and left the kitchen. She headed straight for her room and sat down on her bed. This week is definitely not my week she concluded.
*****
Three days after the disastrous morning things still weren’t back to normal. Lily and Petunia still avoided each other. If they happened to be in the same room, Petunia would either leave or send Lily suspicious glares, as if Lily would make dozens of rats appear right in Petunias face. Lily would actually very much like to do that, but she couldn’t, and she didn’t think Petunia would ever forgive her if she did. One good thing had happened though; Phoenix had returned with a letter from Diana.
Hi Lily
I’m so sorry I haven’t written to you earlier. You know these Muggles who live next door to us? The ones my parents are friends with? Well, apparently my parents and them decided that a trip to Sweden would be just a dream come true.
Honestly, of course they don’t know we are wizards, so I couldn’t very well bring my owl could I? And what’s worse, it’s not even a pleasurable vacation. They happened to think it would be “fun” to go on a sort of survival holiday. Where do Muggles come up with these things? We have to live in a tent! IT SUCKS! I can’t use my owl, I can’t fly on my broom, and Charlie thinks it is fun to tear my stuff apart.
And the first time you wrote to me, Phoenix appeared in the middle of the day! The Muggles thought it was really weird that an owl would show itself in broad daylight, so I couldn’t say, “hey that’s Lily’s owl! That letter is for me!” So sorry about that, but it just wasn’t possible for me to write back… This time he appeared when it was dark though, so I could write back without the Muggles noticing… Have you talked to Arietta yet? Anyways, I have to go, cause Charlie now thinks he’s allowed to destroy my sleeping bag. I can’t see how I’m going to survive this year, since Charlie is now starting at Hogwarts! I hope he’ll leave me alone most of the time…
Diana
Ps: If I don’t talk to you before then, I’ll see you at the Hogwarts Express!
Lily smiled when she read the letter. Mostly because she now knew why at least one of her friends hadn’t written to her all summer, but also because she knew Diana loved spending time with her brother, regardless of how much she complained about his behaviour. It would be interesting to see which house he was put in. Lily had only met him once, but she knew he was a kind boy who was crazy about Quidditch.
Lily had also begun counting the days before she was due to return to Hogwarts. She always did that at the end of the summer holidays; she even crossed out the days on her calendar. Not long now…
* Recognize this letter? It is from Chamber of Secrets, page 21.
Forbidden Forest? Who Said Forbidden? by Rikku
Chapter Notes:
All right, listen to this:
So then I was like AVADA KEDAVRA
and he was like *dead*
- Voldemort
I laughed so hard when I heard it. Anyway, here is chapter two.. Enjoy!