Chapter 11

Bonus chap for every 100 powerstones

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"So your parents want to talk to my mother?" I asked Lily. I had arrived at the park to meet Lily and also take her to Eileen.

But as it turned out, Lily had told her parents about me and they wanted to meet me and Eileen.

"Well..yes. They said they want to ask her about magic...so will you ask her?"

"Sure...besides mother also wanted to meet you. Since we aren't in a hurry, we could go meet up with my mother and then we can all leave for your house? How does that sound?"

Lily nodded and with that, we began walking towards my house. She walked curiously looking around. She was new to the town so she didn't know most of the places.

Before long, we arrived in front of my house. The muggle repelling charm was still in place and no people wandered around the house. Of course, Lily was a witch so she had no troubles.

"Wow...this is your house?" Lily asked in wonder.

I could understand her reaction. Compared to the other houses in the neighbourhood, mine looked better.

Eileen had completely renovated it and used magic to make it look new and the garden was well maintained and trimmed too so it looked pleasing to the eye, to say the least.

"You like it?" I asked her.

"Of course I like it, it looks so pretty."

"Right...do you want to just keep standing there or do you want to come inside too?"

Lily blushed in embarrassment and came up to me. I lead her into the house and Eileen came to greet us.

"Ah...Severus, you are back quite soon.." She began before her eyes fell on Lily.

"So you must be Lily." She said looking at Lily.

"Y-yes...Mrs. Prince. Good morning."

Eileen smiled, "You don't have to be so formal dear. Just call me Eileen."

Seeing her friendliness, Lily didn't refuse.

"Lily, Severus told me that you can use magic? Is that true?" Eileen asked.

I went inside my room to get some books I had already finished reading more than once. I picked them up and came back to see Lily interacting with Eileen.

It seemed that Eileen had taken a liking to her. Well, Lily did have high charisma stats, she had that well-behaved temperament that parents loved and her cheery attitude also helped.

"Here are some books that might get you started on magic history." I handed the books over to Lily who grabbed them quickly and started going through them.

"Thanks, Severus, I can't wait to read them. These books seem so cool and old." She said.

"They are over 20 years old after all.." I answered.

After that Lily asked Eileen whether she could teach her magic but Eileen disagreed since she wouldn't be home often and thus couldn't supervise her.

I offered to teach too but she refused. It was understandable though as a nine-year-old teaching another nine-year-old was not something you could believe. Moreover, it was magic that I was teaching which was dangerous if done wrong.

Even grown wizards ended up injured or dead because they uttered a wrong spell so Eileen wasn't taking any chances.

Lily was a bit bummed but Eileen agreed to lend her more books which Lily didn't refuse.

We talked for a while and Eileen questioned Lily about her magic. Lily narrated her experiences of her accidental magic.

After an hour or so of talking, we left for Lily's house. I wondered how her parents were. I was not looking forward to meeting Petunia though. From what I heard from Lily, she was already on the way to become like her canon self.

I could see why she would be envious of Lily having powers but I felt the hate towards her was unwarranted. If I had been in her place, I would have been envious too if a sibling could do things I couldn't ever do.

But I wouldn't hate them for it. In fact, I would maintain a good relationship with them. I would stay on the muggle side but I could ask them to get me magic items and then use those to lead a comfortable life on the muggle side.

Petunia on the other hand hated Lily. I guess she blamed Lily for all her insecurities. But I didn't concluded yet as I hadn't met her yet. I only had Lily's one-sided experience.

Even in canon, Lily had fought Snape, it hadn't been only her fault. Severus too had been hanging out with death eaters be and he had no hesitation joining the death eaters.

Besides I didn't see any use for Petunia except for using her as development for Lily maybe…

.....

Harold Evans didn't know what he was expecting when he thought of meeting an actual witch but this was not what he had been expecting.

The witch had introduced herself as Eileen Prince.

'A pompous name' he had thought inwardly, it was probably her maiden name as he found it hard to believe that a name like that existed in the 'normal' world.

He was pleasantly surprised by her demeanour. She looked young, he couldn't believe at first that she had a son the same age as his Lily but the way she carried herself made him overlook her age.

Speaking of her son, he was worried when he learnt that Lily had befriended a boy like every father but seeing the boy eased some of his worries. The boy too had a mature vibe to him and he didn't dress like the hooligans on the street.

He was dressed in clean ironed clothes and he had well-kept hair reaching his nape. The boy Severus had introduced himself perfectly and seemed calm all the while.

Inwardly he was pleased with his demeanour and had relaxed around him.

Rose Evans was a fashionable woman and seeing Eileen come into their house wearing the dress she had seen in the tele, her eyes shone.

She just greeted her and brought her and her son to her husband who was waiting in the guest room.

When she had first seen Eileen, she had been surprised to see how young she was. The way she carried herself too was noble and was pleasing to the eye.

Rose inwardly decided that she would try to befriend Eileen. They had moved to this town recently and she had not made any proper acquaintances.

Then came the boy her little Lily had befriended. He kept a calm face, almost stoic even. He had only shown a little smile when greeting her.

She liked the boy. He was polite and reserved. His dress sense was a bit old fashioned but he pulled it off well. Her husband seemed to like it at the very least.

She was glad Petunia was still asleep in her room. She didn't know who she would react to seeing Eileen so she let her sleep more.

"So...Ms. Prince, I would like to begin by first apologizing for asking you to come on such short notice...I believe that I was a bit hasty in asking Lily to get you to come here. It's just that we want to know more about Lily's powers or magic as you call it .."

"Ah..no need to apologize, Mr Evans, I wanted to meet you as well. Muggleborns are so rare and to find one living in the same neighbourhood was unexpected. Besides I can understand how you feel...Magic is something you don't understand and naturally, you want to learn more about it."

"Muggleborns?" Asked Harold, noticing the word. It felt odd as he said it. He wondered if it was slang for something.

"Oh...Muggleborns are just what we call wizards or witches born in non-magical families. It is widely believed that they inherited magic from a distant magical ancestor or because of a squib marrying a muggle. A squib is a person who is born into a magical family but can't use magic." Eileen explained.

Harold listened with interest.

"Let's get your questions over with first," Eileen suggested.

Harold didn't have a problem with that. He proceeded to ask her about magic and what it exactly was.

Eileen hadn't brushed up on magic theory in a long time so she just gave him a basic explanation and it seemed he was satisfied with it.

"So you are saying that one of us had a magical ancestor?" he asked, pointing at his wife.

Eileen nodded. "Most probably or you descended from a squib. Either is likely. Magic usually resurfaces in such families."

"I see….what about Petunia, she is my other daughter. Is there a possibility of her being magical too?" he asked.

"I am afraid not. She would have shown signs of it otherwise. I have heard of people being late bloomers but they all usually show signs of it before 11...how old is she again?"

"She will be turning 13 soon…" he answered.

"I see then I think she is not a witch," Eileen said.

Harold sighed. He had mixed feelings about this. He knew how much Petunia wanted to be like her sister but he also didn't want her to leave him. He took a deep breath and asked a question that had been worrying him.

" Lily mentioned a school for magic... Is it mandatory that she must attend?" Harold asked the most pressing question. As much as he wanted Lily to know more about her powers, he wasn't fully committed to the idea that she stop her current studies to go to some magical school.

Eileen knew this was a tricky question, she took a deep breath and began, "Well you could have her not attend Hogwarts but I would advise not to do that….For starters, Lily won't be able to get a wand, a tracker will be placed on her because she won't know how to use her magic and she can accidentally cause problems."

'And they will erase your memories to uphold the statute of secrecy...' she said inside her head. From the few sci-fi movies Severus had shown her in the tele, she knew muggles did not take anything messing with her head.

She felt a little guilty not telling the parents this but she didn't want to make them paranoid. All she was doing now was giving them a brief explanation of the magical world.

She didn't want to scare them away and even if she gave an explanation, they needed to see it to truly come to a decision. She just wanted to see if they were good people.

She was already satisfied with them. They both seemed to love and cherish their daughter so it seemed unlikely they would ostracize her because of her magic.

Harold was deep in thought after hearing Eileen's reply. He weighed the pros and cons of sending Lily to the magic school. In the end, he finally decided.

"Very well...we will send Lily to the school.." he answered.

"A wise choice.", Eileen said, showing a relieved smile. She felt happy that they were willing.

After learning that Lily could be in danger if she didn't learn to control her powers, he just had to send her there. He was a bit disappointed as he had plans for her but he just had to deal with it. He still had his other daughter after all.

But he also couldn't help but ask, "Can Lily continue her studies here?"

"Hmm...she can but only if it doesn't conflict with her magic studies. I recommend her self studying and giving exams privately instead otherwise it will be too troublesome."

"I...see." he looked at Rose, his wife and they both decided to discuss Lily's studies later.

"So...what can Lily do with magic once she learns it?"

"The question would be what can't she do, Mr Evans," Eileen answered. "Magic is a wonderful thing and you can do pretty much everything you want with it."

"There are many fields in magic and I won't be able to explain them all as it would take far too long to explain everything but I can give a brief introduction."

"That would be acceptable," Rose said as she brought some cookies she had finished baking.

"Here, Ms Prince, I made some cookies and I wish you would try them," Rose said.

Eileen had not eaten breakfast so she nodded. "Thank you and you can just call me Eileen."

She picked one up and took a bite.

'It's so good..'

The cookies were delicious and were very well baked.

'Severus will like them...Maybe I should ask her how she made them later.' she thought. She had noticed that he liked eating food.

She knew her cooking skills were not great so she wanted to get better. Tasting Rose's cookies made her consider asking her to teach her some cooking.

"These are wonderful Mrs Evans. You must teach me how you made these..." Eileen complimented. She blushed after realising what she had said.

'Merlin's beard….now they must think I am some gluttonous woman.'

Rose blushed to see such a sincere compliment. "Oh...thank you Eileen and you can also just call me Rose."

Inwardly Rose was pleased too. She sensed a place to start their friendship. She decided to ask her about her fashion later.

"Okay.."

"Here Dear, have some tea." Rose then poured tea for her husband.

After eating the cookies, Eileen explained the various fields of magic to them.

She told them about charms, transfiguration, runes, potions and other fields. She kept it brief and didn't tell them much about curses and other dark magic.

Muggles had always associated witches with it so she wanted to break that image in their eyes.