1) “You're a freak!” I hit Lily’s hand that contained a flower she made from thin air. That is not a natural thing. My sister was a freak! “I’m going to tell mom!” She ran and I ran after her. Finally, mother will love me better. I knew she couldn't stand to have a freak in the family. Lily would be sent to an institute, and I will be the favorite again. I knew she couldn’t be the perfect girl everyone thought she was.
We ran up a hill that contained a hollow tree. I didn’t notice it at first but something inside of the tree started to move as Lily ran up to it. Lily stopped as a greasy long haired boy stepped out of the hark hole. He smiled and looked at Lily, picked up a twig and made it fly towards her. I panicked. I ran. What else could I do? There were two freaks now. I quickly ran home, looking back occasionally to see if Lily was following me back. She wasn’t. She was gone.
2) “Who is that freak you go and see all the time?” I scrunched my nose thinking of the two of them by the pond doing all sorts of unnatural things.
“Tuney, don’t call him that! He isn't a freak! He knows a lot about people like me. There is a whole world for those like me and he is going to show it to me. In fact, we have both been accepted into the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but he comes from a family of wizards.” Lily was so proud. And so were our parents. Their excitement told me ‘we have a witch in the family’ makes me want to vomit. How can they say that and smile? How are they not disgusted by the thought? At least they still have one normal daughter. If only they would notice.
“Then why don’t you stay in that world and don't come back. You don’t belong here. You should go live with that boy and his freak family and never come back.” I turned to walk away from her. I could feel angry tears burning in my eyes.
“You're just jealous, Tuney, and you know it!” Lily, clearly upset, turned away from her sister and walked in the opposite direction.
“You both are freaks. I can’t believe you would even want to go to a school full of witchcraft!” I yelled back at her. I didn’t know what I would do without her when she left. She stopped and turned around to look at me. I could see tears running down her face.
“Well, we both are going! Maybe if you had a friend you wouldn't be so mean!” Lily ran out the door, most likely going to see the magic boy.
3) “Are you sure you really want to go? You could stay and go to school with me. You always have.” I said as we got out of the car. Dad grabbed her trunk from the back of the car.
“Of course, Tuney, why wouldn’t I? It’s going to be a great experience for me! We always wondered why I accidentally caused strange things to happen and now I will be able to control it! I will come back as a fully trained witch. Oh, how exciting! I’ll be back for Christmas and I will tell you all about it!” Lily held the biggest smile I had ever seen. She was practically jumping up and down. Not even afraid of where she is going or what type of people those wizards and witches would be. We made our way to her platform. 9 ¾. My heart ached and I felt like I was going to puke. She really was going to leave.
“Darling, we are so proud of you! Oh, to have a witch in the family has turned out to be such a great blessing! Who knew it was even possible!” Our mother praised Lily. Her eyes were full of love for Lily. She never looked at me like that. At least now after Lily was born. Maybe when Lily leaves, she will. They will see me for the perfectly normal child they have and praise me for not being strange like her. Maybe I will learn that song mom likes on the piano. That might get her attention. And I could learn the rules of football with dad. Football’s dreadfully boring but he might like it since he doesn’t have a son.
I tried to make living without Lily sound like a miracle. But as we watched her follow the other kids as they disappeared into the wall, I knew nothing would be the same. Although I couldn't decide if I wanted her to never come back through or if I wanted to see what was on the other side of the brick wall myself.
4) When it was time to go back to school shopping, our mother insisted on going to Diagon Alley to get all of Lily’s magic supplies she would need. Mom didn’t want to bring me along with them. She said I would not take well to the crowd that goes there. I knew she was right. It’s bad enough to have Lily learn magic, but to go into a town full of them sounds like a nightmare. Lily, however, thought otherwise.
“Mom, please can Tuney come. She might find something of interest there and I could introduce her to my friends.” Lily looked up at their mother pleading with her to let me come. My heart began to beat quickly. I knew mother could never say no to Lily and that means I would be able to come. But Diagon Alley is not where I want to spend my afternoon. Full of weird people in cloaks waving sticks everywhere. There’s probably talking animals and homeless people. I had to get out of going.
“Meet your freakish friends? Why, so you can curse me? Or explain how special you all are. Hard pass.” I walked out of the room and walked down the hallway to my room. Before I closed the door I could hear mom talking to Lily.
“Don’t worry about her sweetie. She is going through something right now. Let’s get on the road. Maybe we will stop at that candy store on Diagon Alley, sounds good?”
I didn’t hear Lily’s response before I closed my door.
While they were gone, I was alone. Dad was at work and wouldn't be home till later that night. I was used to being home alone, so it didn’t bother me much. I walked out of my room and saw that Lily’s door was open and her trunk was on the bed halfway packed. I never step foot in her room. What if she bewitched something and it attacked me? But something about the half packed trunk made me curious. I stepped through the doorway and saw her room covered in red posters with a lion drawing on it and weird phrases along with the Hogwarts crest. I couldn’t help but wonder what the wizard world would be like. I wish I was so stubborn against it sometimes.
5) Lily must have had her baby by now. She married a freak named James Potter. I guess his family came from a long line of wizards. How odd that we have no witches in our bloodline and Lily is one. I guess she wasn’t born in the right family. I guess neither was I.
Vernon came into the living room with the mail. “Guess who had the nerve to send you a letter? Lily Potter!” he threw his arms in the air, not giving me the chance to answer.
“Oh, what does she want?” my aggressive tone did not match the wonder I had deep down. How is the baby? Is it a witch too? Or a wizard? Where were they living? What’s the baby’s name?
Vernon opened the letter and read it briefly to himself.
“She wants you to go visit her! How dare she even speak to you after marrying that unemployed wizard.”
“I can’t believe it.” I said softly, I sat down in the chair and Vernon stared at my change of character. She invited me to go see her. I couldn’t believe it.
“You aren't actually thinking about it?” Vernon walked over to the chair I was sitting in and began waving the letter. “You really are thinking about going and spending an evening with these people?? You've told me enough about them for me to know they are nothing but trouble!”
“I suppose you're right darling, I don’t know what got into me.” I didn’t know what else to say. There was no way I could possibly visit her, even if it was the first invitation I had gotten from her since she invited me to Diagon Alley.
+1 We didn’t go. We didn’t even reply to the letter. I just watched as Vernon threw it away. That was over a year ago. And we haven't heard from her since. I hadn't even given it much thought. Maybe she finally decided to leave me alone for good. Allow me to forget I had a little sister and forget that she turned into a freak who got all the family’s love. It wasn't until the doorbell rang one evening that I truly regretted not writing back to her. On the doorstep we found a baby. I saw Lily's eyes stare at me while I stared at her son wrapped up in a blanket on the front step. I picked up the letter attached to him and began to read it when I heard Vernon come down the stairs.
“What’s going on? We can’t have people ringing our bell in the middle of the night, how is Dudley ever going to sleep!” Vernon came downstairs and saw the baby and the note I was reading. I looked at him, trying to hide my tears from him.
“Lily and James got themselves killed. I knew it, the wizard people are terrible and cruel! We are to raise this boy and make sure that he never learns about those awful people!” I spoke quickly as I grabbed the boy and walked back inside, ignoring Vernon’s shocked expression. I must protect this boy from the world that took Lily, he will never leave here, and no one will be able to know he lives here now. I will make sure he does not show signs of having magic. I'm sure they will try to take him but if we keep him hidden they won’t find him.