Of Chocolate and Raindrops

You know that moment when everything changes? The moment where you are faced with an option. You could turn your back, stick with what you know, but for the rest of your life you are pestered with thoughts of self doubt; what if? Or, you could leap, and nothing will ever be the same again.

...

Lily Evans stared through the window of the Hogwarts Express, watching the raindrops hit the window and then fall, gliding gracefully down the glass, pushed away by other drops. She was waiting for her best friend, Marlene McKinnon. She had boarded the train earlier than everyone else, and Lily had opted out of meeting her friends on the platform. For some reason, she didn't really feel like seeing other people she knew by accident. She also knew that Marlene wouldn't mind.

The red head glanced at her watched. In about ten minutes and 37 seconds, she would have to be in the prefects compartment, to meet the Head Boy (the male counterpart of Lily's job, Head Girl) and to have a prefects meeting discussing the patrols. She was definitely looking forward to meeting the Head Boy; she might as well get to know the boy she'd be sharing a dorm with for the year. She remembered the day she received her badge.

She had sat down for breakfast with her mum, dad, and Petunia. Petunia had been visiting for the week, instead of staying in her apartment, and Lily was trying to be nice around Petunia, but her sister was making it awfully hard, dropping snide comments about how much of a freak Lily was. That morning, Lily's mother had made vegetable omelets to suit Petunia's rather sophisticated taste. Lily wasn't fond of them, so she mainly was poking her food around when she saw a rather odd shaped blob outside the window of their dining room.

"I have an announcement," Petunia had began, setting her fork ever so carefully on the table.

Lily groaned inwardly. She didn't know what Petunia was going to say, but she figured it wasn't going to be good. She returned her gaze out to the window, and immediately swore under her breath. The weird shape she had seen merely a few seconds ago had been an owl, and that owl was about to break through her window. She had no time to get up and open it, so in one deft move, she slid her wand out of her pocket. "Alohomora," and then she flicked the thin wooden stick upward. The window obeyed.

"Lily, what-" her mother was cut short by the owl crashing into the dining room table, cracking her mother's china, and sliding to a stop on Petunia's breakfast. She shrieked and began to smack the bird with her spoon, before Lily could grab it out of her reach. Sliding the familiar envelope out of the owl's claws, she perched the bird on her shoulder as she gently ripped the letter open. Before she even managed to get her letter out, a badge slipped out of it and onto the floor. Confused, she had picked it up to discover that a golden HG had been embossed on it.

Petunia cleared her throat. "Lily, please sit down. I am not finished,"

Rolling her eyes, Lily sat back in her seat on the opposite side of the table, holding her tongue about the Head Girl badge, even though she was absolutely ecstatic.

Petunia nodded stiffly before continuing. "I am going to be married!" she waggled the left hand, showing off the big diamond ring adorning her ring finger.

The wedding was to be in December. She was marrying her boyfriend of thirteen months, Vernon Dursley, who was a whale of a man who only liked to talk about himself, drills, and money. Lily and her father thought he was an absolute bore. Lily suspected that her mother felt the same way, even though she didn't let on. Whenever Vernon came over, he always ignored Lily, since Petunia had told him about Lily's "abnormality," when he proposed. He felt the same way Petunia did about magic.

Lily sighed, her warm breath fogging up the glass. Her entire summer had basically about Petunia and her boyfriend after that. Not that the first part of her summer had been great, but still.