Chapter 1: Prologue

~How can we not talk about family when family's all that we got~

The initial pinkish rays of the sun entered through the window of the ivy house. The redhead groaned in her pillow and curled into a ball on her bed. Yes, Lily Evans was not a morning person. On the contrary, she quite liked sleeping and believed that all her problems drowned when she was in the state of slumber.

But today, she was distressed more than usual as she had again got into a fight with her sister the night before. One would think that after going through the same routine every summer holiday, she would get used to it but no such luck. It was the usual; her sister, Petunia, making jabs on Lily's abnormality, Lily losing her patience, their parents trying to make peace and failing, lots of screaming from both the girls and one of them storming out of the house in fury. It was Petunia who reached the peak first this time.

They weren't always like this, Lily and Petunia. They used to be the ideal sisters, the best of friends. They used to braid each other's hair, they used to play in the park every evening, they used to make doll houses, they used to be happy together.

What happened? You may ask.

Magic. Magic is what happened.

Lily still remembered vividly how she had met Severus Snape, a greasy-haired hook-nosed boy who lived in Spinner's End, a narrow cobbled street not too away from her house. She had first seen him when she was playing on the swings with Petunia in a nearly deserted playground. She had shown Tuney (her nickname for Petunia) how she could open and close the petals of a flower sitting on her palm without touching it. Petunia had freaked out and that's when Severus had revealed himself from the bush he was lurking behind. He had told Lily that she was a witch. He had told her all about Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and how magic people, like Severus and her, were taught how to control and correctly use their magical powers.

Petunia hadn't liked that, obviously. She was the kind of person who wanted things to go normally in their life. And anything out of normalcy was frowned upon by her. She had tried to convince Lily to stay away from Snape and not listen to him but Lily had always been stubborn and curious, so she had ignored Petunia and learned all about the wizarding world from Severus, who had been as much eager to introduce Lily to magic as she was to know about it.

And then, Lily still remembered the date, on 29th July of 1971, Lily had been playing in her backyard when she had seen an owl perched on the windowsill of her room. Intrigued, she had ran upto her room and seen that the owl had a letter with it. The envelope had been thick and heavy and it was made of yellow-ish parchment. On it, she had seen a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger and a snake, surrounding a large capital H. On the other side, in green ink, had been written Lily's address with the exact location of her room!

Along with the owl, had arrived a short-heightened man adorning robes that were a little too large for him. He had introduced himself as Filius Flitwick, a professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Although Lily had already known much about magic and Hogwarts, thanks to Sev, she had listened to Professor Flitwick with her total concentration. Her parents had been shocked and disagreeing at first, but then they realised how Lily had done some pretty weird things in the past and all the pieces fell into place. They had been happy to realise that Lily was not psychotic, witchy was okay.

Back to present, it has been 6 years since the Evanses discovered that Lily was a witch and Petunia still hated her. And Lily was tired and fed up of it now. It wasn't her fault that she was a witch. Sometimes, she pondered whether embracing her magical side was worth giving up her intricate relation with her sister. Would it have been so bad if —

"Lily flower!"

Lily's train of thoughts came to a stop as her mother called her from downstairs.

"Marlene has graced us with her wonderful presence this fine morning! Come down fast and at least attempt to tame your hair before coming," shouted Lily's mother with sarcasm dripping from her mouth. Her mother has always been that way. A fun and loving person to hang out with. And Lily knew that her mother absolutely adored Marlene McKinnon even though she refused it many times. Understandable, because once you get to know Marlene, you can't not love her.

Marlene McKinnon, also known as Marls, Marly and McKitten (only one extra obnoxious person can call her McKitten. No one else can, unless they want to experience Marlene's wrath) was Lily's best friend since forever. Lily doesn't remember a day in Hogwarts when she hadn't heard Marly's whining about too much school work and her long self-debates on whether mint chocolate deserves Azkaban (the wizard prison) or not. She was a pureblood, i.e., a person who is born in a family who have no Muggles or Muggle-borns (Muggles are people who cannot do magic and muggle-borns being those witches or wizards born to Muggles) in their family tree. Being the fourth out of five siblings and the only girl, Marlene was as rebellious, mischievous and chirpy as one can be. And with her straight blonde hair and electric blue eyes, she was probably the most beautiful witch Lily had ever met.

"Lily! Stop thinking over the meaning of life in your bed and get your ass here before I blow shit up!"

Yeah, that's Marlene McKinnon for you.

•

So guys! That's the first chapter! I have been thinking about writing a Jily fic from a long long time but my procrastinating ass is as stubborn as always. Anyroad, the chapter's here now! And... maybe the next chap will be in James' POV but no promises.

Yours,
Dee