Written for the Mirror of Erised Competition by lost in my design over on the HP Challenges forum. My character was Lily Evans (Potter) i hope i did her justice. Three chapters.

This is my first ever fanfic so i hope you like it and please give some constructive reviews.

Thanks for reading and Enjoy :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, J.K Rowling owns it all.

'Freak'
That word echoed though Lily's head. She could not stop thinking about her sister and how she spat that last word at her before she left, leaving Lily to board the train while tears streaked down her cheeks.

Was she a freak? She didn't think so, but maybe she was and they were actually sending her away for the safety of others, away to be with people like her. Lily was glad she had Severus to comfort her on the train so that her tears eventually started to stop and her breathing slowed.

Severus explained everything she wanted to know about the world of magic and it became even more magical the more he talked.

But Severus was on the other side of the castle now. He had been sorted into Slytherin and Lily had been sorted into Gryffindor- the two opposites.

So there sat Lily, her face red and botchy with tear tracks visible on her cheeks in one of the squashy armchairs of the Gryffindor common room. She didn't feel like sleeping, her eyes were wide-awake and her brain was mulling over the day she had.

Lily of all people wasn't one to sit around and considering she had no chance of sleeping, she decided to explore. Yes, Lily knew that she shouldn't be leaving the common room at this time and she also knew that she had no way of getting herself back here should she become lost. So dismissing these thoughts she convinced herself that a walk was maybe all she needed to clear her head. Lily got up quietly from the chair, walked over to the portrait hole, let herself out and ignored the Fat Lady's cries of warnings as she walked down the corridor.

She had no idea where she was going and she tried to memorise where she had come from but her head was full of other things and was not up for remembering if she turned right or left at the end of the second corridor she walked down. She walked further and further around the castle listening to the sounds her feet made against the stone floor as she walked. She was surprised she hadn't met anyone whilst walking, Severus had told her about Filch and his mad cat and about Peeves who liked nothing better than causing havoc.

Her legs were getting tired after about the hundredth staircase she had climbed. Lily was now getting anxious about not being able to find the way back, although she still didn't care about it too much. She sat down on a window ledge, pulled her legs up so she could hug them with her arms and looked out across the grounds. The grounds were so peaceful yet so alive, the lake always rippling and birds flying high above the forbidden forest. She wished Petunia were here to see what she could see, but as soon as she though of this wish tears fell thick and fast and blurred her vision of the grounds.

'Freak'… 'Its for our safety'… 'Weirdos, that's what you two are'…

She heard something make a swishing noise behind her and she whipped her head around to see who was but no one was there, only the large, curved ornamental door that was there before was behind her. Wait, was it there before? She looked closely at it now. Wiping the tears from underneath her eyes as she stood and walked to the door cautiously. She placed her hand on its handle and immediately had every urge to turn it. And so she did.

Lily peered around the doors edge and she saw herself peering right back.
It was a mirror.
Lily closed the door behind her; it clicked into place and made the same swishing noise it had when she arrived as soon as her hand left the handle. She stood facing the door for a moment and then turned on her heels to face the mirror once more. Lily found herself in the tiniest room. Tall windows occupied the walls that the door and mirror didn't, allowing moonlight to flood in. She stared at the mirror and slowly revolved her head around its delicately carved frame. It was quite handsome yet it looked so old, it was as tall as the room itself and had large curved top inscribed with the phase: Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on woshi.

As soon as Lily peeled her eyes off the strange words and looked into the mirror she saw that she wasn't standing in the room alone. Two people stood on either side of her: Petunia and Severus. Both were smiling and laughing and both holding her hands.

Lily looked at her hands and couldn't see fingers intertwined with them, she looked right and left, but neither Severus nor Petunia could be seen laughing and smiling beside her. She stuck out her hands, if they were invisible she would be able to feel them, thought how ever hard she tried she couldn't.

What kind of mirror was this? Maybe she was hallucinating? But something told her this was magic. Beautiful, beautiful magic.