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The First Four Years by hermione278
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The First Four Years

hermione278

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Harry Potter world (although I wish I did), which was created by the brilliant J.K. Rowling. However, I do own any characters and concepts unfamiliar to you.

A/N: Two chapters in one day. Wow! (and this one is much longer) You'll see why if you read the A/N at the end, and I would really appreciate it if you did read it, it would mean a lot to me.

Chapter Five: Plan in Action

It was ten o'clock in the morning, and William, Christine, and Lily were ready to put their plan into action. Christine had already been informed of the plan, and although she wasn't one for pranks, she felt that it was high time that James was taught a lesson. Playing ticks on friends were one thing, but pranking a girl that the Potters were supposed to ease into the wizarding world was completely unacceptable.

Lily asked James to show her around Diagon Alley, since they still had half and hour befor they had to leave. James, being the egotistical prat that he was, thought that Lily liked him, and was asking him out, so he happily obliged. Mr and Mrs Potter had told her to seek out a store called Quality Quidditch Supplies, and ask James what it was. Lily found the store, and before she could say "Quidditch", she was being dragged to the store.

"JAMES POTTER!" Lily shouted, furious about being dragged halfway across Diagon Alley like she was a dead cow (and happily, because it was furthering the plan), "You come back here right now!"

James was to engrossed looking at the new Shooting Star 560, which was the best broom in the world, to even notice Lily shouting furiously at him.

Lily stomped off angrily, and walked back to the Leaky Cauldron.

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William and Christine were back at the Leaky Cauldron waiting for Lily. When she got back, her face was bright red, and she was furious.

"He completely ignored me!" she exploded, "That Quidditch Freak! I don't even know what the bloody hell Quidditch is!"

William's eyes were twinkling, and he was shaking with silent laughter.

Christine hit him lightly, "William, stop that! You're almost as bad as James sometimes," she chastised, "Now Lily, go hide in that corner until we come back, okay?"

"Okay, Mrs Potter," Lily replied.

"Christine," she corrected Lily. "Call me Christine. Don't make me feel older than I already am."

"Yes, Christine," Lily amended.

"Christine and William walked into Diagon Alley to find James.

"You know, Lily and James are acting just like we did back at school. James has admitted that he likes Lily, and Lily has shown absolute loathing for James," Christine noticed.

"You are absolutely right, as usual, my lady," William replied with a slight bow, "I noticed that myself.

"Of course you did, dear," Christine responded teasingly, "Oh! Look! There's James!"

William looked at where his wife's finder was pointing, at a very worried looking carbon copy of him, except that he had his mother's hazel eyes.

"Mum, dad!" he called anxiously, "Have you seen Lily? We were walking around Diagon Alley, and then I went into Quality Quidditch Supplies to look at the new Shooting Star, and when I came out, she was gone!"

This was exactly what the plan called for James to say, so everything was going along perfectly.

"No, James, I haven't seen her since you were running away from her this morning," William replied smoothly.

"I wasn't running away from her. I was merely putting some space between us," he said defensively, crossing his arms over his chest, scowling.

"If you say so, darling," Christine said, smiling.

"Now, back to Lily. It's ten o'clock right now. We're leaving at half past ten. Be back here with Lily at a quarter past. This should give you plenty of time. If you aren't back in time, we are leaving without you. This should teach you that you don't run off when you are with someone just because you see a new broomstick in the window of Quality Quidditch Supplies, or that Honeydukes has a new kind of chocolate. Especially when that person has never been in Diagon Alley, or any other part of the Wizarding World before!" William lectured, completely out of character, "Do you understand me?"

"Yes, dad," James mumble, rolling his eyes. He had never seen his dad this serious before, so he didn't know what to think.

James ran off to find Lily, while William and Christine headed back to the girl in question, who was currently hiding behind the bar of the Leaky Cauldron, where Tom the bartender was serving drinks.

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While Lily was getting revenge, back in Bristol, Petunia Evans was getting revenge on her eleven year old sister, who had left the previous day to go to freak school, as Petunia liked to call it. Lily would have started to cry, and mum would have gotten mad at me if I had called it that. I'm supposed to call it Hogwarts. Who in their right mind would call a school Hogwarts? Petunia wondered. Only a freak would.

Petunia and Lily used to be really close until Lily was 9, and Petunia accidentally sat on Lily's favorite toy. Lily was madder than a bull, and somehow, Petunia's hair managed to catch fire amidst the chaos, and she blamed it on Lily. The two sisters had hated each other ever since. Now Lily had gotten a letter from an owl saying that she was a witch, and that she got to go to a special magic school. Their parent were so proud of her, oh, "Isn't Lily wonderful?" or "We always knew you were special!" or something to that effect. Why can't they ever be proud of me? Petunia wondered to herself as her eyes started to tear. Maybe, since Lily is going to that school, they'll start paying more attention.

Suddenly, there was a loud bang downstairs, and the sound of breaking glass. Petunia got really scared because she was home alone since her parents had gone shopping. Then, everything went black.

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Back at the Leaky Cauldron, it was twenty past ten, and Lily was sitting at a table reading one her favorite muggle plays, The Taming of the Shrew, when suddenly, James burst in, looking around wildly for his parents.

"Hey, Lily! Have you seen my mum and dad?" he called to her, out of breath from running.

Lily started to giggle. "Yes, I did, but they left. They said that they would be back at ten-thirty, and if you weren't here with your trunk, owl, and what ever other things you're bringing, then you wouldn't be going to Hogwarts on the train this year, if you went at all."

"But dad said to find you and bring you back here by ten-fifteen, since you stormed off-"

"James-" Lily tried to interrupt him, but he was too engrossed in his own rant.

"-at Quality Quidditch Supplies," he finished, looking overly satisfied with himself.

"So now I have to go find y-" James broke off, looking rather confused, "Wait! I found! You didn't get lost! I'm not going to get punish-"

"I don't know about that, James," William interrupted, with a slight grin on his face.

But, but! What are you talking about? I didn't do anything wrong! Wait . . . did I?" he sat down, pondering the answer to his own question.

Christine decided to interrupt her son's thoughts, "James, honey, you left Lily in the middle of Diagon Alley."

Oops. Sorry, Lils," he winked at her, "But wait. How did you know about that? You couldn't know. Unless, unless, wait! You set me up for that, didn't you?" looking quite satisfied with himself for answering his own question.

"That is completely besides the point! You dumped a bucket of ICE COLD WATER on my HEAD at eight o'clock in the morning, and said we were leaving in an hour, when we weren't leaving for another two and a half hours, and DON'T CALL ME LILS!" Lily burst out angrily, her face bright red.

"Guys, it's almost eleven. We should head over to Kings Cross, because I don't think that you would be happy if you missed the train. You can't apparate to Hogwarts, you know!" Christine but in, hoping to prevent an argument, but her warnings went unheeded by the two bickering children. She turned to William, "Shall we do this the hard way?" She asked, grinning madly.

William winked, "I do believe we shall. On three?" He raised his wand, and Christine did the same. "Accio trunks!" they whispered together. Lily and James belongings came bumping down the stairs. Christine grabbed Lily and her belongings, and William grabbed James and his belongings, and they side-along apparated onto Platform 9 ¾. They, along with their luggage, landed with a loud THUMP! and a surprised look on Lily's part, until she saw James, and the bickering continued. However, at that moment, the whistle on the Hogwarts Express sounded, signaling the last boarding call, and James finally stopped talking, grabbed Lily's hand and all of their stuff, said "Good-bye" to his parents as Lily waved to them, and they waved back, and he then proceeded to drag Lily on the train, with her sputtering angrily the whole time.

A/N: I think that was a bit longer than the other chapters. What do you think? Anyways, I know I haven't posted for a while, as I said in the A/N at the top, and I'm super sorry! I want to dedicate this chapter to my cousin Casey, because I loved him tremendously, and he died Wednesday morning (3/22/06) and I miss him so much. The funeral was today, and we were basically remembering all the great things about him that happened during the terrific 95 years that he was alive. So there you go. I don't know when I'll update again, as I'm really overwhelmed with school, and I'm really upset. I just wanted to get this chapter out for Casey as a tribute to his terrific life. Please review for Casey.