ғᴀᴍɪʟʏ ʜɪsᴛᴏʀʏ
*trigger warnings for alcoholism, mentions of death, and neglectÂ
When Lily was born, she was the apple of her parents eyes. Born to William and Aileen Evans, their family was picture perfect. William was a real estate agent with a never ending amount of dreams. A man that believed any dream was possible if one believed hard enough, Lily was always closest to him. Her mother was a practical and rational woman that had little time for whimsy. A lawyer that saw the world in black and white, Lily had a difficult time relating to her.
It was purely coincidence, but Lily started showing signs of magic right around the time her father started drinking too much. The perfect picture their family had painted was starting to blend, and Lily was an easy person to blame. Despite her father’s drinking, he was always loving to her. When he lost his job, when he and her mother fought, when Petunia looked at him with scorn, Lily could only see the best in him. William always told her that her magic was the most beautiful thing about her; that she should never lose it.Â
For Petunia and Aileen it was different. Aileen had come from a family that valued normalcy, status, despite not having any of their own. For a brief moment she believed she had it, until she didn’t. Her husband drank too much, gambled their money away, and couldn’t keep a job. All his promises of grander collapsed out from under her, and the life she thought was guaranteed had become a far off fantasy. Petunia had followed her mother around from the time she could walk, and had taken after her in almost every way. Her world was falling apart, and she needed someone to blame.Â
William was the obvious choice, until the alcoholism caught up with him. Left with a dying father & husband, it was hard to put the blame on him. Lily, however, was convenient. She had started showing signs of magic more strongly, and her abnormalities were more apparent than ever. A wild child full of dreams, whimsy, and magic - everything her mother and sister despised. Twisting the narrative, they told her she was why he had started drinking to begin with. While William was still alive, Lily found it rather easy to ignore their claims.Â
However, by the age of seven William had passed, and the one person that believed in her was gone. Lily had been devastated, and while her mother and sister were moving on and picking up the pieces of the last several years, Lily was being left behind. The more frequently they blamed her, the harder it was not to believe them. They were never overly cruel, but it was clear they despised her magic and everything different about her.Â
Being treated as though she had a disease that they could catch, Lily grew up lonely. She felt isolated by her family, and at school her sister had perpetuated the idea that she was a freak. Lily stuck to her books, and held onto the memories of her father that she did have. McGonagall showing up on her eleventh birthday had been her saving grace. For the first time since her father’s death, she was validated. McGonagall gave a name to her differences and explained that there was a place just for people like her. Despite her mother’s fears about magic and her daughter’s oddities, she was glad to have the little girl out of her hair.Â
Most of her summers were spent at friends’ houses and away from her mother and sister. The Potter’s had always welcomed her during the summer months. Usually she spent time with Alice as well, and for that, she was grateful. Having people she could stay with kept her from spending three months of the year with a mother and sister that couldn’t stand to be near her.Â