The Horrors of Holidaying: Prologue

Disclaimer: Much to my dismay I do not own any characters except Hayley (and any other characters you do not recognize._ All other characters belong to J.K.R, unfortunately.

A.N: This Prologue is set at Christmas; where as the rest of the story is set in the summer holidays just to let you know, also there may be some grammar mistakes and some of my dates/facts may be wrong for example I know Lily and James started going out in their 7th year but for the purpose of the story the may do in the holiday (though this may change over the duration I write this) so I apologize beforehand.

Lily Evans eyes darted back and forth over her sister, Petunia's old encyclopedia of the world. It had been an unwanted birthday present from a distant Aunt; Petunia had not been impressed with the present because she had been hoping to receive the new Beatles CD. So the encyclopedia was thrust under Petunia's bed never to be seen again until today, after Lily fished it out.

It was the first day of the Christmas holidays, she had returned from her school, Hogwarts School for Witch Craft and Wizardry the previous day and was hoping that with Petunia's six-form school not finishing for another two days she would get to try and persuade her parents to give her permission to go on holiday with her best friend Hayley Robinson in the up-coming summer holidays before returning to school for her 7th and final year.

Lily and Hayley had decided after much consideration that if they were allowed they would travel to Spain all they had to do was get their parents to agree with their plans, that was the hard bit. Lily placed the encyclopedia back exactly where she had found it or else Petunia would have a fit that 'The Freak' as she called Lily had actually been in her room and had touched her 'precious' stuff.

Lily stood up and was turning towards the door when an owl swooped in through the open window and dropped a letter on her head; wincing slightly as she massaged her head, she opened the letter and grinned at what Hayley had written;

'Hey lils have you asked you parents yet? I've asked mine, they said maybe!! And that they would have to talk to your parents before they say yes, so it's pretty much a done deal, Result!!!

Love Hayley x

P.S. Can you feed Tony? Mum will kill me if I use her owl and don't feed it. He's got your present as well, bought it yesterday, its pretty cool if I must say so my self. Reply ASAP x'

Lily groaned, it all rested on what her parents said, and they really wanted this holiday! Lily left the room and started to make her way downstairs, she paused slightly as she heard her parents chatting about the headline in the paper about two families being murdered a few towns away, while her mum prepared dinner, she frowned slightly, reading the paper earlier, she had got the sensation that it was the work of a wizard, the situation was too odd not to be, and she was sure it had something to do with Voldermort, everyone was terrified of him, including herself, though they had good reason to. He preyed on muggle-borns (and some half bloods) also there had been case after case of innocent muggle families being slaughtered.

She glanced in the hallway mirror idly seeing the troubled look in her eyes she tried to push it back to her mind; sighing she pushed open the kitchen door and smiled her wide smile at her parents.

"Hey Lily Kins" said her father, giving her a big hug he'd just finished work for the holidays.

"Hey Daddy, how was work?" she replied trying to sweeten him up before she asked them the big question, that was always was a good plan.

"Lily darling can you give me a hand with these vegetables?" her mum asked, Lily nodded and with a smile she picked up a knife and started too cut up red peppers into little squares.

They worked in silence for a minute or so before Lily finally spoke out

"Mum, Daddy do you trust me?" she asked. Lily's parents looked up in surprise; they thought Lily would have realized that by now.

"Of course we do Lily, What have you done? Because you know you can tell us!" her mother said starting to look worried, this was not like Lily.

"Oh its nothing like that, it's just…." Lily's voice trailed off quietly.

"What then?" Her father asked curiously, though he had a faint idea of what was coming, he had seen one of Hayley's letters lying around.

"I wanted to ask you if I could go on holiday with Hayley this summer, to Spain." She burst out before quickly adding "Alone." Her parents were silent for a few moments before her mother spoke up "Lily darling, I don't know…. Give us 5 minutes while we talk about this." She nodded placing her knife on the chopping board she swiftly retreated out of the room to sit on the stairs. She could hear faint mumbling and took it as a bad sign.

"Lily-pad you can come back in now" her mother called. She sprang off the stairs and walked back into the kitchen pondering hard about what was coming. They are going to say no I know it; Hayley will be so disappointed, so will I for that matter….

"Lily we have decided that….. The answer is yes…." Her father paused while Lily instinctively gave them both hug before carrying on

"As long as Petty comes with you." Lily's face dropped instantly.

"But why? you know she will never say yes, she won't go on holiday for two weeks with 'The Freaks'." Her parents glanced at each other quickly before replying,

"Lily you are not old enough to go gallivanting off on your own yet, your only 16, so we have decided that we will not tell Petunia that Hayley is coming till as late as possible to avoid arguments." Lily felt her temper rising, but she had to keep it down, she knew fine well if she flared up her parents would rethink even letting her go on holiday.

"But Mum when we go I will be 17, I'll be of age then and I'll be able to protect myself USING magic, so will Hayley!" Her mother nodded.

"I know Lily but I just don't know if I will be comfortable with you going alone."

"I agree with your mother Lily" her father added but he winked at her behind Lily's mothers back. She grinned and said;

"Ok Mum, Petunia can come; I won't kick up a fuss about it, promise."

Unbeknown to Mrs Evans, Lily already had a plan forming in her head, involving Hayley's 'skills'. Her mother moved forward to give her a hug "Thanks Lily-Pad, I love you, and I suppose you better go and send a letter to Hayley" Lily smiled and charged up the stairs.

'Haylz

Guess what?

Parents said yes!

Ill get them to owl your parents to decide where we are going to stay and all that stuff after Christmas. Promise!

There is one downside, Petunia has to come

Yeah, I know its bad but I have an idea (I think it's a pretty good one too!), but if it fails and she has to come we can ditch her and do our own thing, it will all be sweet ;]

Can't wait!

Love Lily ox

P.S. I've fed Tony, so your mum should be happy, can you feed Amaryllis for me, she'll be hungry after the journey (the parcel is your Christmas present by the way, you will love it :P) x'

A week later after Christmas

Lily and her parents travelled down to Hayley's house in Carlisle to make all the arrangements, Petunia was still in the dark about the Hayley coming, she just assumed she was going with Lily (they all agreed that this was the best way to avoid a big drama) When her parents had sat her down the next day to explain the situation she was a bit stubborn, calling Lily a freak and what not, but after a moments consideration she decided to go, though reluctant to having endure two weeks alone (or so she thought) with Lily, she was excited at the prospect of a tan, all the beaches and what not, and the fact she wasn't paying.

Lily's parents being muggles booked the holiday to a Hotel called the Binimar in Cala'n Forcat on the island of Minorca. Both Lily and Hayley were ecstatic, it was perfect, and they had booked a great room overlooking the pool and sea, it was set for one month into the summer holidays, just after Lily's birthday (Hannah being the oldest girl in the year would have been 17 for two weeks).

The holidays soon passed and school restarted. Lily continued to be pestered by the infuriating James Potter until he took it too far on the last week of the year and she lost it with him, he had avoided her for the rest of term, much to her delight. Their exams came and went, both girls felt they had done well and it finally was the end of year. They boarded the Hogwarts Express joyfully and quickly found a compartment, contently they started planning their suitcases; little did they know similar plans were being made next door by four boys…..

A.N. How do you like it? Would love some reviews! Before I post the next chapter, oh and also some people may have read a similar like this story before called the Horrors of Vactioning, the reason for this is I had an old account which I forgot the password before and while I was trying to remeber this the story recieved some positve reviews so I recently decided to upload it from this account x.