EARLY HISTORY (BIRTH - FOUR) Lily Valla Isis Sedgwick was born to Andrew and Larissa Sedgwick on the twenty-sixth of July, 2029. She grew up in Germany, in a large village. Her birth occurred at home as her mother had already bluntly refused the idea of going to a hospital, for want of avoiding too greater audience. Lily was a very active little girl, walking and talking quite soon, and surprising both her parents with her extensive vocabulary by the age of two. She learnt to formulate sentences and grew rather talkative, much to the amusement of her father who would share half-babbled conversations with her. Her favourite pastimes were eating jelly, and listening to her parents read her bedtime stories.
During her time growing up, Lily witnessed the difficulties between her mother and father, and the love that the marriage seemed to lack on her mother's behalf. She started getting used to it just being her and her father at home, as her mother would occasionally disappear off the face of the earth for weeks or even months on end, or just struggle to show her face in the mornings as a side effect of her depression. Andrew Sedgwick would have to find a way to balance his work life with his family life, in Larissa's absence. This would normally involve inviting his parents to visit, or asking friends and work colleagues to babysit when they were free. Larissa, though mostly at home, did once disappear for almost an entire year between the fourth of August, 2031, and the seventeenth of April, 2032. This sparked a number of questions within the family, though Andrew finally learnt to accept that Larissa had no intention of telling him, and moved on with family life.
On the 24th of December, 2032, the Sedgwick family were granted a surprise visit, and semi-permanent stay, from notorious dark wizard, Grakul Gellantara. The man who had once been Larissa's step-father, had spent ten years in Azkaban for his crimes but was now free on proven good behaviour. He was pushed into community service and made to live with his closest surviving 'relatives'. Lily immediately bonded to the man she came to love and know as 'grandfather'. Larissa was even more trusting of Grakul than she was of Andrew, and allowed him to frequently take Lily out to the park.
In spite of all that went on, Lily Sedgwick was very happy throughout her early childhood, and did not seem in any way hurt by her mother's erratic behaviour. Larissa still refused to allow Lily to openly socialise with other children, unless she had vetted them first. However, Andrew managed to convince Larissa to let him take Lily out for long walks in the park, and to the local pond to see the wildlife. It was during several of these outings that Lily would meet other young children playing by the pond, and while Andrew would not let her out of his sight, he was more than happy to let her play with the other children, and teach her about the natural world. The whole scenario was, of course, kept a secret from Larissa to prevent further rows. Even at that age, Lily was very good at keeping quiet about her and her father's little adventures up to the pond.
When Lily reached her third year of life, so much in the relationship between her mother and father had changed: Larissa no longer seemed to get angry at anything Andrew did or said, and would often turn to baking or knitting when she seemed down. She still spent a lot of her time up in the study, writing her letters to people her father would no longer bother to question the identity of. Lily's bedroom was converted from an anemic-yellow nursery-come-study, to a clean and tastefully colourful little bedroom-study. The desk that her mother so commonly used to write at, remained in the room to encourage Larissa and Lily to have more bonding time while both present. It was also a wonderful way for Andrew to regain some free time of his own.
Just prior to her fourth birthday, Lily began to take great interest in painting, preferring mostly to cover her hands with paint and leave mucky little prints around the house, on the walls, and on the carpet. Much to Larissa's annoyance. The little family grew much stronger and bonded ever closer. Larissa had found out about the trips to the pond, but not about the other children, and had finally resigned to allowing Andrew to risk some socialisation, though she always warned him to be careful in case their little girl showed signs of her magical identity. Lily started to try and learn to read wizarding children's books, but got caught up in the moving pictures, and would make up stories of her own to 'read' to her father. All seemed well to little Lily, and when her father mentioned and explained the possibility of her attending a muggle infant school, she was over the moon. While Larissa disagreed with the idea, by the time Lily turned four and displayed great intellect for her age, she felt pushed to let her little girl try out school for herself, all the time promising to take her out the second anything went wrong.
CHILDHOOD HISTORY (FIVE - TWELVE) In the year of Lily's fourth birthday, she began her attendance of the local muggle infant school. She was a keen learner and succeeded in completing any homework without the aid of her parents. Lily was very fond of art, and would often come home covered with multi-coloured paints, much to her mother's irritation. Lily was also very good at attracting friends, and became one of the most popular children in her year. This caused her mother some concern for the family's safety within the wizarding world, and she moved Lily out of the school, and into one slightly further afield. When Lily was five, she met a set of new friends, ones she became close to and, one of whom, happened to be a young boy of wizarding blood named Brynjarr-Manfred Roux. The two friends were permitted, with Larissa's blessing, to spend time together, and they would often be taken out by Grakul or Andrew for long walks to the park where they could safely play, both without realisation of what their blood meant.
As Lily grew, she began to show signs of magic, and her time at school became more difficult. Still a little confused as to why she was not allowed to play with the muggle children (which she still made a point of doing in secret as some of her best long-term friends were muggles), Lily turned more withdrawn and quiet. Her mother put her shyness down to difficulties at school with bullying, as that was what Andrew had suggested may be happening. In fact, Lily became to discreet and un-telling of her meetings with muggle children, that her parents were concerned that she was turning friendless with age. The only person Lily would ever confide in within the family was Grakul, who promised never to break her silence, and never did. Lily's life at home was scarcely turbulent, and her mother seemed to be calming and settling into the lifestyle of parenthood. Grakul continued to support Lily, and was more involved with family life with each passing day.
In August of 2036, Larissa was offered a job, with much higher pay and better family-time opportunities, back in New Zealand. She had always longed for an excuse to go back to the place she had grown up and gone to school in, and so it was that Andrew transferred his job, also, and the family upped and moved to New Zealand, Grakul in tow. Lily pined frequently for her friends in the first months of the move, but kept in contact via post. She would often retire to her bedroom after school to do her homework and begin drafting a letter or two to those she held close back in Germany. By 2037, Lily had become more observant, and her powers in the realms of magic had changed significantly; she now had developed the habit of accidentally blowing up vases when she was upset. Lily had also become an evermore beautiful young girl, her veela blood traces showing out.
