Hello this is my first fanfic!!!! Hope you like it. Even if youdon't like it, please go to my feedback page and give me constructive criticism. Thanks!

Chapter One-Showing Signs of Magic

June 10th was turning out to be the warmest day of the year, despite the fact that it was hardly even summer. Godric’s Hallow Elementary School had just finished its last day of the school year. It was humid and the air was hazy, almost everyone had gone home to start their summer vacation. Only one girl was still outside. Her name was Lily Potter.


She was sitting on a bike rack next to the front entrance. She was waiting for her mother to come pick her up


Lily looked up at the school and sighed. Everybody else she knew was a sixth grader now, except for Lily. Lily was a first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.


The anticipation was so great she could hardly stand it. It had been almost three years before when Lily saw her brother James head off to Hogwarts on the Hogwarts Express. The next year, Albus had gone off with James, too. Lily had been mesmerized by the great red train and the billowing gray steam, growing smaller and smaller as it left Platform 9 3/4.


Slowly, those three years had almost passed, and in just a few months’ time, she would be on the train as it left, alongside her brothers.


As all three children grew up, their father had told them all the stories of his years at Hogwarts, and of how he had saved the Sorcerer’s Stone from Lord Voldemort, battled a Basilisk in the depths of Slytherin’s chamber. How he had played in the dangerous Tri-wizard Tournament, been into the Department of Mysteries, how he had taken private lessons with the greatest headmaster Hogwarts had ever seen. He, as they got older, told them about what he called the ‘gory details’; the Horcruxes, and the power of the Cruciatus Curse. It was a routine around the Potter family dinner table.


There was much more than defeating Voldemort and surviving the Tri-wizard Tournament. Harry Potter told his children about tea with Hagrid and Hagrid’s rock cakes, dreary Divination classes up in the stuffy North Tower, nighttime excursions with the Invisibility Cloak, the Room of Requirement, and the many secrets of the Marauder’s Map.


Lily loved the stories. It was almost as though she had actually been there with her father throughout those seven years. She even had created her own calendar to tack up on her wall to count of the days until September 1st, just as her father had.


Lily kicked her shoe off. It sat on its side, and Lily nudged it with her toe. It levitated, about half a foot off the ground, and then fell again. Every time she nudged it with her toe, it levitated a little further off the ground.


“Wingardium Leviosa!” she whispered to herself, thinking of a giant troll.


Lily fell back into her thoughts and was just entering a daydream about herself battling a giant troll, saving James, who was whimpering in a corner. Lily smiled.


BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP.


“Lily!” her mother, Ginny, called from the driver’s seat. “Lily!” Ginny had been literally leaning on the horn.


Lily rushed to the car, slipping her backpack over her shoulder.


“Sorry, Mom!” she told her mother, opening the car door.


“Another daydream?”


“Yes.”


“Well, how was your last day?”


“It was OK.”


“Well, I suppose OK is good.” Ginny smiled.


“When are Albus and James getting home?”


“The twenty-third, I think. We’ll need to go pick them up at about three-thirty...”


“Hey Mom?”


“Hmm?”


“You know that smoke charm?”


“Yes....”


“Could you try that on these papers?” Lily held up the old papers from her binder.


Ginny smiled and pulled a wand from her purse. Looking around, she took her eyes from the road and pointed her wand at the papers.


“Esmoce” she whispered, and a light blue stream of light shot out from her mother’s wand. Ginny carefully put the wand back and looked back at the road.


Lily took each paper, and, one-by-one, let them fly out the window, until all of them vanished into smoke and rose with the summer heat.


OK, leave feedback, please, I really need to know if I'm doing OK!

EDIT: Thank you to Hilly for helping me out with putting my fanfic on VTM. Thanks, Hilly!

Another thing: People usually say this at the beginning of their thread, so here it is:

I don't own the characters in the HP books, only the characters that I created and that you have never seen in the books. Thanks!

Hello! I"m here with Chapter 2. I've only gotten three replies on my feedback thread, and I know I just started, but if you read this story, leave feedback! Even if you hate it!

Here it is...it's longer than Chapter 1!

Chapter Two- Received Hogwarts Letter

The following days were, if possible, even warmer. On June 23rd, Lily and her parents drove to King's Cross Station to meet Albus and James, coming off the Hogwarts Express.

"Dad?" Lily asked her father, just as they were parking outside the station.

"Yes, Lily?"

"Can I go through the barrier this time? To meet Al?"

"What about James?"

"Yeah, sure, him too," Lily said hastily. "Can I?"

"I don't know..." Harry looked to Ginny for assistance.

"Lily, why don't you wait? It's going to be packed in there, and if you miss Al and James coming out, we'll have to go through the barrier to find you too! Let's just wait outside for them."

"Okay..." Lily said, disappointed. She didn't care about meeting her brothers; she wanted to see the train.

"Everybody out!" said Harry as he maneuvered the car into a parking space.

King's Cross Station was already full, but with all the young witches and wizards suddenly appearing between platforms nine and ten it was even busier now. Owls were hooting and trolleys were accidentally bumping into people and running over their toes. Families stood expectantly next to the barrier waiting for their children.

After about five minutes of waiting, they saw Albus walking out of the barrier.

"Al!" Lily yelled, waving.

After hugging and kissing and saying hello to Al, they had to wait another ten minutes before James appeared. He was rolling his trolley quickly and looking around furtively. Lily didn't realize what was wrong until he came closer.

"James, your hair!" she cackled.

James' hair was a foot longer, and his normally jet black hair was blonde.

"James! What on earth did you do to your hair?!" Ginny shrieked.

Albus and Harry were laughing.

"It was Stebbins!" James shouted furiously. "He SNEEZED in the middle of his Hair-Lengthening Charm!"

Now everybody, except James, who had a murderous look on his face, was laughing. James was getting strange looks from other people passing by. Wheeling his trolley around, he walked with as much dignity as he could muster out of the station, his owl hooting softly.

When Albus, Lily and their parents arrived back at their car, James was crouching inside it, out of view of the windows.

"Why would you trust Stebbins to do a Hair-Lengthening Charm?" Albus asked, chuckling and examining James's hair.

"Why would you even want to do a Hair-Lengthening Charm in the first place?" Lily asked.

"Yes, James, why don't you tell us the whole story?" Harry asked, getting into the car. Lily could tell by his voice that he was amused.

"You know, James, I think it's almost as long as my hair now...isn't it, Al?" Both of them, seated next to each other in the backseat, laughed.

"What am I supposed to say? After Mom nearly sheared my hair off after break it wouldn't grow back! Not a centimeter! I told Stebbins I was going to find someone to do a Hair-Lengthening Charm, and as I walked away he tried to get me with the charm and ended up sneezing!" James was practically shouting by now, and his eyebrows were furrowed and his mouth looked pinched.

"It didn't grow back?" Ginny asked, turning around.

"No, it did not!" James said indignantly. "That was Christmas break! Half a year and it still hadn't grown at all! Why is that? Why? What did you do?!" he demanded of his mother.

"I didn't do anything!" Ginny looked surprised. "I cut it like normal!"

"Calm down, James, I'm sure we can fix your hair." Harry told his son.

"Elene–ACHOO!–seth!" Albus imitated from the backseat.

Lily cackled.

After the Potters got back to their mansion in Godric's Hollow, James stomped up the stairs and sat down with a bang on the bathroom counter top.

"Mother!" he shouted.

Ginny came upstairs with her wand out. "Just a minute, James, I need to put my jacket away".

She walked across the landing, the floor creaked slightly as she went. She rounded the corner into the hallway and found Albus and Lily crouched in the shadows, holding a camera.

"Shhh!" Lily whispered. Ginny winked and walked on. As she did so, she could hear Lily and Albus starting to creep closer to the bathroom.

"Homenum Revelio!" she whispered. It was a routine charm that Ginny would cast every time she arrived home. Her husband did that often enough, too. It was a very useful charm, and Godric's Hollow was a very popular place for wizards, their house was right next to Harry's parent's house, destroyed but visible to the magical eye.

BANG!


Click-Click!

"NO! GET BACK HERE!" James' bellow echoed through the halls. Lily and Albus shot past Ginny and into Albus's bedroom, slamming the door with a tremendous slam.

James came hurtling into the hallway and collided with Ginny.

"Mom!" he shouted, gasping for breath, his oddly cut and colored hair covering his face. "THEY TOOK A PICTURE! Destroy it, destroy it, please, mother...mom..."

"Let's just fix your hair, alright?" Ginny led a protesting James back into the bathroom.

Within minutes, James's hair was back to normal, just a few inches longer than when Ginny had cut it almost all off during Christmas vacation.

Minutes, however, was the only time it took for Lily and Albus to develop hundreds of pictures of James. When it was taken, James had just realized what they were going to do. In the picture, James had one hand stretched out, his mouth was open in a perfect 'O' and his hair was flying behind him as he tried to snatch the camera.

Albus had stuck a picture to James's door, taken a whole stack and hid them in various places, put a few in his trunk just in case James bugged him at Hogwarts, and gave the rest to Lily to do whatever she pleased with them.

It was much more difficult to develop the picture without magic, it would've only taken seconds for her parents to develop photos and print them from thin air. Ginny and Harry believed that their children should grow up knowing about the Muggle world, and being able to live like Muggles did. They had a computer with all the programs Muggles had. They drove a car with no Expansion Jinx on the trunk, no Cushioning Spells to make the seats even more comfortable. James, Albus, and Lily complained, but Harry and Ginny insisted that they knew how much harder Muggles had it than wizards did.

As soon as James's hair had been finished, he stomped flat-footed to Albus's room and wrenched the door open.

"Give me those pictures!" he shouted at Lily and Albus, who were lounging comfortably on Albus's bed. "What did you do with them?"

Albus sat up. "I hid a few, gave a few to Lils..." he smiled, thinking of something else that would make James mad. "Sent a few to my friends...oh, yes, and also to Christy Fawcett."

"You did WHAT?" he shouted, infuriated. Then he blushed as Lily and Albus chorused "Oooo...." and then collapsed on the bed in laughter.

James backed out of the room, slammed the door shut, and made his way to his own room.

He was angry at himself for blowing up when they mentioned Christy...he didn't know if they had found the picture under his pillow...even more humiliating than his hair, that would be...That was the second reason he had been the last off the train...it was beyond humiliation to have people see him like that.

He ran his fingers through his newly cut hair, moved over to his mirror and stared at his reflection, his long, thin, Snitch-catching Seeker fingers snaking through his untidy black hair, just like his father's. He looked like his grandfather, whom he had seen pictures of in photo albums. The only difference between James, his father Harry, and his grandfather James was the thin, now slightly faded scar on Harry's forehead. All three had been Seekers on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. He wished he could have met his Grandfather James...Harry and his father's lives had been tangled and interwoven into Voldemort's, and there's almost no hope for most people if that is what has happened to your life.

It sure was fun, sometimes, being famous Harry Potter's son; people often looked at him and told him 'You look just like your father'. His own father said he got comments like that a lot when he was younger...for him it was always 'You look just like your father, but you've got your mother's eyes'.

James lay back on his back and sighed. Another summer back in Godric's Hollow...

* * *

Albus was staring, smiling, remembering, at James' picture that he had taken with Lily. About a month ago, that was. It was July 21st .

July had been one of the longest months.In the summer, he spent a lot of time out in the sun, and his skin was now brown. His black hair was getting longer and longer, but he refrained from getting it cut. He did not want his hair to stop growing for six months... No, it was much more fun to tease James about his hair catastrophe.

Albus whipped his glasses off and cleaned them on his T-shirt. Lately they kept getting fogged up, very suddenly, about three times a day.

He couldn't wait to go back to Hogwarts. Finally, after two years, Lily would be at Hogwarts. Lily and Albus always got along well with each other, especially when they were thwarting James. James, being almost fifteen years old, had always been cocky and always wanted to be impressive, like the James Potter he was named after.

He had always been the smart one. In three years, he would be taking his O.W.L.s and everybody told him that if he did well on those, which he would, he could do anything he wanted to after Hogwarts. Harry had always told him and James that if he had named James Albus and Albus James, it wouldn't have matched. Albus, being the smart boy he was, reminded Harry of Albus Dumbledore, the greatest headmaster Hogwarts had ever seen...

And his middle name! Severus! Harry told him he was named after one of the bravest men he knew... Albus had heard the stories. Severus, a fantastic Occlumens, a powerful wizard, working as a double agent, probably one of the most dangerous things you could do at the time.

Albus suddenly felt like he had a lot to live up too, named after brave people, both of whom were killed with a wand. Albus shuddered.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! AL! AL! COME QUICK! JAMES! MOM! DAD!" Lily's scream rattled the house.

"Lil?!" Albus shouted. He snatched up his wand from his bedside table and hurtled out of the room.

He found Lily standing in the kitchen, a trembling hand holding three envelopes. Three owls were sitting on the kitchen table.

"LETTERS!" she shouted happily. James skidded into the room, he too with a wand.

"Silly!" she said, flinging their letters to each of them like a Frisbee. "And you thought I was in trouble!"

James, with his Seeker reflexes, snatched up his enveloped and jumped up onto the counter to sit. Albus had to jump in the air for his, which had been floating away up towards the fan.

Lily looked at her envelope.


"Miss L. Potter
The Smallest Bedroom
Godric's Hollow"


Lily flipped it over to find the Hogwarts crest sealing the envelope. She ran her fingers over the crest. The snake for Slytherin; the badger for Hufflepuff; the raven for Ravenclaw; and the (Lily smiled) lion for Gryffindor.


Being careful not to rip the seal, Lily opened the envelope.

"HOGWARTS SCHOOL
of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY
~~~~~~
Headmaster: Professor Flitwick

Dear Miss Potter,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.
Yours sincerely,

Neville Longbottom
Deputy Headmaster"

Lily reached into the envelope again and pulled out another sheet of paper.

"Uniform
First-year students will require:
1 .Three sets of plain work robes (black
2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear
3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)
4. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)



Please note that all pupils' clothing should carry name tags

Course books:
All students should have a copy of each of the following:

1. The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk

2. A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot

3. Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling

4. A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch

5. One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore

6. Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger

7. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander

8. The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble





Other Equipment:

1. 1 wand

2. 1 cauldron(pewter, standard size 2)

3. 1 set glass or crystal phials

4. 1 telescope

5. 1 set brass scales



Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad"



Lily was disappointed when she read the last sentence.

"PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS. "


But that didn't matter. What did matter is that she was going to Hogwarts. Finally she could ride away on the Hogwarts Express with her brothers; she could get her own wand. Finally, she could become a witch.

Lily looked up. Everyone was watching her.

"Yes!" she shouted. Everyone laughed as she ran to hug her parents.

That night, in her dreams, she was on the Hogwarts Express, sitting in a compartment with what looked like her mother as an eleven year old. Lily had mounds of candy sitting beside her on the seat, and she was looking at a Chocolate Frog card with her face on it. Lily Potter, Hogwarts Student it said below her picture.

Lily smiled slightly. Harry, passing her doorway to go to his bed, saw her
and smiled back.

---------------


OK, so that's Chapter 2...I just wrote out the entire plot to my story just this afternoon, and I need to wait until August 9th when Hilly gets back from vacation to send her my next chapter to beta for me. In the meantime...

Leave feedback please!

Hey everybody! I'm here with Chapter 3. Hilly just PMed me the chapter...I know it's about six days later than I thought, but I had extra time to write more!! And also, please leave feedback if you read my story!!!! Even to tell me it's awful! I don't mind, just give me feedback, give me suggestions, I have a vague plot, but how should I improve my writing? (Better than what my beta does) Please leave FEEDBACK!!!!

Anyways, here it is!!!

------------------------------------------------------------------

CHAPTER THREE

It had been two weeks since Lily had gotten her letter from Hogwarts. She knew by heart all the books she needed and all the equipment, too.

James usually ruined his supplies by either breaking them or drawing on them. Albus usually took good care of his Hogwarts supplies and gave Lily his ‘pointed hat, black, for day wear’. He gave Lily the First Year books that he had not lost and that he didn’t need.

But her father had the best surprise of all. He took her up to the garage attic and dug around in the dust for a few minutes, finally pulling out an old trunk.

“This was my trunk when I went to Hogwarts. I thought you might want to use it,” he told her.



“Dad! Thanks!” Lily cried excitedly.

Just a half hour later, her father’s old trunk was sitting open at the end of Lily’s bed, and Lily was kneeling and putting Albus’ books in her trunk. Just as she was about to stand up, she saw a glimmer of something in the bottom of the trunk.

Curious, Lily reached in and pulled out a shard of glass. Lily thought she knew where it had come from.

It had been the two-way mirror that her father’s godfather had given to him, so he could talk to him. Sirius Black. Lily wished she could’ve met him, she remembered how he was murdered by his own cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange. There was nobody on her father’s side who was still alive. Parents: murdered. Grandparents: dead. Godfather: murdered.

It didn’t make her feel any better. It made her feel worse to know that those people who were murdered were killed by either Voldemort himself or his Death Eaters. Lily couldn’t even understand what it had been like for her father as a child, with the burden of his parents, Lord Voldemort, and the scar on his forehead.

Lily looked at the mirror and saw her own green eye staring back at her. Then she remembered Aberforth, and Dumbledore, and their piercing blue eyes.

So many stories... So many terrible memories that family was a part of it...

“Lils?” Albus said, leaning in her doorway. Lily was kneeling, but that made him seem even taller than Lily; even when Lily was standing, Albus towered over her.

At first she thought that Albus was her father. Albus looked even more like Harry than James did. Lily, however, had flaming red hair just like her mother, but her eyes she had gotten from Harry.

“Lils?” Albus said again.

“Uh? Sorry, Al....what was it?”

“I found The Standard Book of Spells,” he told her, holding up a copy.

“Oh! Thanks, Al....” she took the book from him and set it in her trunk. Then, realizing she still had the piece of mirror in her hand, she set it on a shelf above her bed.

“Lily!” She turned around again as she heard her voice called. Albus had already left her room.

“Albus! James! Lily!” her mother called again. “Kitchen!”

Lily left her room, closing the door on her way. Her room was the very first off the landing, and she was the first downstairs.

“It’s only a few more weeks until you three are going off to Hogwarts.” she told her three children. Lily smiled.

“So I thought we should go to Diagon Alley... Tomorrow?” she asked.

“Can’t,” James replied. “I’ll be gone at... At a friend’s.”

“How about the next day?” Ginny asked.

“YES!” Lily yelled when Albus and James nodded.

“Whose house are you going to?” Albus then asked James suspiciously.

“A friend’s,” James repeated.

“What friend’s? Christy’s?” Albus taunted.

“Stebbins! Okay?”

“STEBBINS?” Albus asked incredulously, laughing.

James turned red and left the room.

“What’s been up with him? No retort? No comeback? Nothing?” Albus shouted at James’s back.

“But seriously, what is up with him?” Albus asked Lily and Ginny, frowning.

“I don’t know, sweetie.” Ginny tousled Albus’s hair. “You need a haircut, Al.”

“No!” Albus yelled, ducking under his mother’s arm and turning around. “No way!”

Ginny smiled and walked outside. She began pulling laundry off the line.

“Now, I’m serious.” Albus rounded on Lily. “He’s not himself. He hasn’t said anything mean to me since... Since I was still at Hogwarts.”

“Oh, who cares?” Lily flapped her hand at the door where James had left. “Why do you care so much, anyways?”

“I don’t know...” Albus was left to his thoughts as Lily walked outside.



* * *

Two days seemed to pass slowly for Lily. James stayed in his room, Albus read books outside on the back patio, and Lily spent her days wandering around the house, sitting down on a chair and getting up immediately after, turning on music and turning it off again.

If only she had her wand... She could still practice magic, since she hadn’t gone to Hogwarts yet. She could practice all the spells in The Standard Book of Spells: Grade 1.

“Wingardium Leviosa. Wingardium Leviosa,” she murmured to herself.



* * *

Lily was sitting on the kitchen counter. She perched her sunglasses on top of her head and swung her wallet on the chain it was on.

“Can we GO?” she shouted to the house.

“Just a minute!”

“Just WAIT!”

“Hold on, honey!”

“Be right there!”

James came down the steps, wearing jeans and a black T-shirt with an un-tucked, button-up shirt. Lily could faintly see his wand sticking out of his back pocket.

“Why do you have your wand?” she asked curiously.

“What?” he asked, distracted.

“Here I am!” Albus jumped into the kitchen doorway. He was wearing almost the exact same thing as James.

“Hey, buddy!” Albus said an annoying, singsong voice, running to put an arm around James. “Nice shirt!”

“Stop it,” James said, staring at the wood floor.

“Well, sheesh!” Albus said. “No reaction...” he muttered to himself.

“Let’s go!” Harry and Ginny appeared in the doorway, Ginny clutching a purse and an umbrella.

“What’s the umbrella for?” Lily asked her mother.

“It has my wand in it,” Ginny whispered to her. “I have no pockets!”

“Oh, right.”

Harry parked their car right outside the Leaky Cauldron.

Lily hopped out and opened the door of the Leaky Cauldron, her family steps behind her.

There was a strong smell of Firewhisky and smoke. Many eyes followed the Potter family as they walked towards the brick wall in the back room.

“Can I try?” Lily asked her Mom, motioning to the umbrella, as soon as they reached the brick wall.

Ginny slowly pulled her wand out of her umbrella and handed it to Lily. Harry instructed Lily on what to do, and as Lily pulled her mother’s wand away, the bricks melted away to form a doorway.

Lily stepped forward through the brick. As her family did the same, the brick melted away to form the same brick wall.

Lily gazed at all the wizards and witches, all walking through the streets laden with shopping bags and carrying wands.

“Mom! Dad! Madam Malkins’s Robes!” she gestured to a little shop, the third from the right side of the street.

“Wait! First, split up. Harry, why don’t you take Al and James, and I’ll take Lily,” Ginny said. We’ll meet back here in...” she consulted her watch. “Forty-five minutes to get Lily’s wand, okay?”

Harry took James and Albus into the Potions Supplies Store. Lily dragged her mother into Madam Malkin’s Robe Shop.

Madam Malkin, a short, plump woman with a kind face was already fitting robes onto a young girl standing like a statue on a stool. Lily and her mother wandered around the store for a while. Lily found a pair of robes that were silver with big purple stars that flashed every three seconds.

After five minutes, Madam Malkin shuffled over to Lily.

“New at Hogwarts?” she asked knowingly. Lily nodded. “Right this way, sweetie, I’ll just fit you into your new robes.”

Lily stood still with her arms spread out as Madam Malkin pinned up her sleeves and the hem and then took the robes off and began to sew them up with her wand.

Lily hopped off the stool. There was a pile of newspapers on a rack. Her parents got this newspaper every day, “The Better Daily Prophet”. It was run by an old classmate of her father’s, Seamus Finnigan.

Her mother had picked up a copy and was reading the front cover with raised eyebrows. Ginny shook her head and lowered the newspaper.

“Dear? Your robes are ready,” Madam Malkin handed Lily her robes in a package.

As her mother bought the robes, she bought The Better Daily Prophet , too.

After they had left the store, Lily tried to grab the newspaper.

“What does it say?” Lily asked.

“Oh, the usual.” Ginny waved a hand airily. “What do you think was in it?”

“Nothing... Just your expression while reading...” Lily trailed off. Her mother wasn’t listening anyways.

They picked up potion ingredients and Lily’s cloak and other books. Flourish and Blott’s was packed and all the crowds were gathered around a book that Lily never got to see. People were buying copies of the books and then hiding them in other shopping bags. Ginny saw the people and rushed Lily out of the store, and she never saw the books.

To her great disappointment, she couldn’t get her owl. The store was closed down; the letters ‘RELOCATED’ were spread across the window in purple letters.

Forty-five minutes were almost up and Ginny and Lily were walking to Ollivander’s.

“Oh, Mom!” Lily gasped. “Weasley’s Wizard Wheeze’s!”

Weasley’s Wizard Wheeze’s had been, ever since it opened, one of the main attractions in Diagon Alley. The store had been closed down for a few months after one of the co-owners had died in the great fight against Voldemort, but then George Weasley reopened the shop and had been inventing his best products yet for almost nineteen years.

The display cases had been charmed to reflect more light than usual. The brightness of the shop was like a neon sign in the darkness.

Lily could see people crowding around displays through the window in the door.

“Mom, can we please go inside? Oh, please?” She asked her mother.

“Well... I suppose... Just to have a look around,” Ginny agreed reluctantly.

Lily opened the door of the shop, the bells tinkling overhead. The store was packed with chattering people, digging through cauldrons of trick wands, examining the Decoy Detonators on display.

“Uncle George!” Lily shouted, weaving through the crowd.

George Weasley turned around.

“It’s Lily!” he said, hugging her. “How are you? Where’s your Mom?”

Lily had never gotten fully used to her uncle having only one ear. He made plenty of jokes about it, though, and didn’t seem to mind it anymore.

Just then Angelina Johnson came through the back room door.

“Auntie!” Lily hugged her too.

“How are you?” Angelina asked Lily.

“Good, I’m about to get my wand!” she told her aunt excitedly.

“That’s great! Where’s your Mom?” she asked.

“Over there...” Lily muttered, pointing. Angelina hurried off. “What is the big deal?” she murmured to herself, as Angelina and George talked to their Mom, all three looking very concerned. Her mom held up the newspaper and pointed out a line. George shook his head.

Lily walked over to the newspapers George was selling by the counter in the back. The rack for The Better Daily Prophet was empty; every single copy had been bought. Turning around, she saw that her Mom was watching her eyeing the rack, and Lily walked away.

When Lily and her Mom left the store, Lily had a huge shopping bag full of supplies from Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes. Decoy Detonators, Extendable Ears, a handful of fake wands, and, something that her Mom didn’t know that she bought: a love potion. She didn’t have plans to use it for anything, but it would be good to have, she had thought as she was buying it.

When Lily and Ginny got to the front of Ollivander’s, James, Albus, and Harry were waiting for them. Lily watched her parents closely to see if Ginny showed Harry the mysterious newspaper, but she didn’t do so.

Once again, a bell tinkled above Lily’s head as she walked into the shop. It was dark and dusty; the shelves were covered lopsided, thin brown boxes. In the center of the small room was an enormous wooden desk. Behind the desk was Ollivander.

He was old. Very, very old. He was very frail looking, and moved very slowly towards the Potter family.

“Harry Potter...” he murmured, shaking Harry’s hand. “Harry Potter, holly with phoenix core, am I right?” he asked.

“Yes.” Harry told him, smiling.

Mr. Ollivander turned to Ginny.

“Ginny Weasley, birch, unicorn hair, nine inches?” Ginny nodded. “James Potter, maple, hippogriff feather, ten and a fourth inches? And Albus Potter, ivy, ten inches, with Chimaera scale?”

Lily could almost see her reflection in Ollivander’s eyes. “And you... You need a wand yet. What will choose you?” He asked mysteriously.

Ollivander flicked his own wand and a measuring tape soared across the room and began measuring Lily. Meanwhile, Ollivander walked back and forth among the shelves, running his finger along the boxes, occasionally pulling one out and examining it. He disappeared along a hallway behind his desk for a moment and then appeared with four boxes. He set them on his desk and beckoned Lily over.

“Dogwood, core of demiguise hair, eleven and a half inches. Unyielding,” he professionally told Lily, handing her the wand.

Lily took it and was about to bring it up in the air when Ollivander snatched it right out of her hands. “No, no, no... Not quite right, how about this? Cherry, hippogriff talon, eight and five sixth inches...” he handed it to Lily.

Once again, Lily had barely touched the wand when Ollivander grabbed it and placed it back in the box, tossing it aside.

“Aha! Here .Try this one... Rosewood, with the hair from a Thestral. Eight inches, nice and flexible...” he said, eyeing the wand.

Lily took it. Warmth spread from her fingers all the way down to her toes. Lily swished the wand through the air and gave it a quick flick. Golden-red sparks shot out of the wand, twisting and exploding into little gold stars.

Harry, James, and Albus were clapping.

“Oh, bravo!” Ollivander cheered, taking the wand back from her and placing it carefully into the little brown box.

Harry paid for the wand and the five Potters walked out of Ollivander’s. Lily kept the box in her hands all the way through the crowded streets of Diagon Alley, beaming at everyone she passed.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OK, everybody! How did you like it!! Not quite interesting yet? Just wait, I have some bigger plans for my story...it's just building up.

As I stressed up at the top of my post, I need that feedback!! Thank you to the people who have (BRoyals, Lily/JamesForever...rach...all you guys, thanks! (I know there were more!))

Chapter four should be up soon!

TA-DA!!! Chapter Four is here! Kel, they came to Hogwarts! *cheers in the background* OK, Chapter 5 is where it gets interesting, though, so just you wait!!


CHAPTER FOUR

For the following weeks, Lily didn’t go anywhere without her wand. It was in the back pocket of her shorts nearly all the time. Rosewood, with the hair from a thestral, eight inches, nice and flexible. It was nice, short and seemed to be molded to fit Lily’s grip around it. For long periods of time every day she’d pore over her textbooks and try the different spells. She had even gotten a summoning charm to work once. She had been sitting at her desk, and had tried to summon The Standard Book of Spells Grade 1 from her trunk. She waved her wand and pointed her it at the trunk. The book nearly smacked her in the face, but it was good enough for Lily.

Lily especially liked her Potions book. The different types potions intrigued her, and she was desperate to try and make one. Her grandmother had been a talented potion-maker, and so had Severus Snape. Her father still had his sixth-year potions book that he had written in sitting on the living room bookshelf.

The night of August 31st, Lily was walking around the house with her wand out, sitting down only to get back up again, opening and closing her trunk. Tomorrow she would be at Hogwarts. At Hogwarts! After all this time! Lily ironed her robes and put them on top of the neatly organized supplies in her trunk. She laid the skirt and blouse she was wearing under her robes over a chair.

After hours of restlessness, Lily climbed into her bed.

“Nine o’clock, Mom!” she told the portrait above her bed. The moving picture of her parents woke her up every morning after she told them the exact time the night before. Lily settled into bed and picked up her wand. She tried to move things around her room with the Summoning Charm for almost half an hour. She then heard Ginny coming up the stairs to make sure her children weren’t still up. In her hurry get settled down more comfortably, she forgot about the light. Desperately, she flicked her wand at the door.

The light flicked off and the room was dark. Beaming, Lily fell asleep.

Lily had many dreams that night; she wove in an out of scenes of the Room of Requirement filled with Chocolate Frogs, the inside of the Hogwarts Express and Gryffindor common room.

* * *

“Lily, sweetie, wake up!”

“Time to go to Hogwarts!”

“Lily!”

“LILY!” The portrait on the wall was attempting to coax her awake.

“Lily! Today you go to Hogwarts!”

Lily sprang up.

Her parents were looking out of the portrait anxiously. “Come on, Lily, dear!” They urged.

“I’m going, I’m going!” she cried, snatching the clothes off of her chair and dashing into the bathroom. As she crossed the doorway into the bathroom, the picture became silent and her parents just waved and smiled merrily, wandering idly in and out of the frame.

Thirty minutes later, Lily emerged from the bathroom. Her long, red hair was wet and she was dressed in Muggle attire: a khaki skirt, white blouse, and brown shoes. She carefully picked up her wand and put it beneath her robes in her trunk. She carried her trunk out into the hallway.

After she was completely done wandering around the room, opening drawers that were nearly empty, making sure that all her books, robes, and equipment were packed, she made sure that she had taken all her pictures of her family and her clock. Satisfied that she had everything, she went downstairs to eat breakfast.

The Potters had a very small kitchen. There was a counter lining the wall with the sink, toaster, microwave, and cabinets. In the middle of the room was another counter with five stools around it. James and Albus were choking down buttered toast and tall glasses of orange juice next to their plates.

Harry was scrambling eggs by the stove, and Ginny had five knives each cutting up a cantaloupe, a watermelon, and three apples.

“Eggs?” Harry asked as Lily sat down at a stool.

“Yes, Dad.” She told him.

“Eggs are disgusting.” Albus said with his mouth full of toast.

“Fruit?” Ginny asked Albus and Lily, holding a container with the fruit she had been cutting up.

“Yes, Mom.” Albus responded.

“Fruit is disgusting!” Ginny poked Albus with her wand and he took a scoop of fruit.

“What time do we need to be at King’s Cross Station?” Harry asked as he took a bite of eggs.

“10:42.” Lily answered this immediately. “I figure that it will take us five minutes to get into the station, one minute to get to Platform 9 3/4, five minutes to load our stuff onto the train and say our first goodbyes. Then the remaining time we have to say our last goodbyes and get on the train.”

Harry chuckled. “That sounds about right, Lils.”

“Are we meeting Aunt Fleur and Uncle Bill there? And Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron? What about Uncle Percy and Aunt Audrey? And Uncle George and Aunt Angelina? Are they coming?” Lily asked anxiously.

“Let’s see... Percy and Audrey will be there, because Molly and Lucy are starting their first year. So we’ll see them...” Ginny thought for a moment. “Bill and Fleur will be there. Victoire is now two years out of Hogwarts, but Dominique is in sixth year and Louis is in fourth... And who else? George and Angelina... Let me think, Roxanne is in her fourth year and Fred is in third... So yes, they’ll all be there.”

Lily nodded, chewing on her eggs. Then she saw the time and nearly choked

“MOM!” she shouted, standing up. “We need to go! It’s 10:36!”

Ginny turned around. “Harry, would you put the trunks in the car?” She tucked her wand in her purse. “Everyone in the car!” She ordered.

Everyone hurried outside and into the car. It was only two minutes, and then the Potters were heading off to King’s Cross Station.

The station was packed with people. There were mostly witches and wizards dragging trunks and owl cages towards Platforms 9 and 10. Curious Muggles stared after them. Families stood in clusters around the barrier, trying to look as though they were not about to walk through the brick wall.

Standing in a smaller cluster were Ron, Hermione, Rose, and Hugo. They waved as the Potters approached. Ron clapped Harry on the back.

“Good to see you, mate!” he told Harry, grinning. “Lily! Excited?”

“YES!” Lily cried, hurling herself at Hermione. “Hello, Aunt Hermione!”

“Everybody needs to get through the– ” Ginny lowered her voice “–barrier! James, you go first.”

James wheeled his trunk in front of the Potters and the Weasleys, starting to run, his head tilted cockily at them. Moments later, he disappeared into Platform 9 3/4.


“Rose and Albus now, here you are...” and after they went through, “Yes, and Ron and Hermione with Hugo.” Ginny directed.

Hugo’s face was flushed as he stepped up and then ran right through, his parents tailing after him.

“Okay, Lily, your turn!” Harry smiled at her. “We’ll be right behind you.”

Determined, Lily wheeled the trunk around and started to run; fast, before she could think about it. Just moments away from the barrier her trunk was going faster and faster. And she couldn’t stop it... No, she was going to hit the barrier!

Moments later, Lily opened her eyes, she hadn’t even realized she had closed them. She felt a warm hand on her shoulder.

“You did it!” Ginny told her softly, having just come through the behind her. Lily smiled.

In front of them was the Hogwarts Express, the great red sooty Hogwarts Express. Lily gazed up at it. In just a matter of minutes, she would be on it! The Hogwarts Express. She was shivering with excitement.

All around them, people were opening the doors and helping their children get their trunks inside. James came walking off the train.

“Found my compartment already, mother.” he told Ginny.

“Lily!” Rose and Albus were calling to her.

“Hugo! Come on!” They said.

Rose was one of Lily’s closest friends. Despite the two-year age difference, they always hung out together when Ron and Hermione came to visit the Potter family.

“Come on, Lils! Sit with us!” Rose told Lily. “Here, let me help you with your trunk.”

Two minutes later, Lily and Hugo stood next to each other on the platform, staring in great amazement at the Hogwarts Express.

“What house do you want to be in?” Hugo asked Lily.

“Gryffindor.” She answered without a moment’s thought.

“Me too....” Hugo trailed off absently.

“Good-bye!” Ginny was making rounds on hugs, Albus, then James, then Lily.

“You’ll do great, I promise!” she whispered in Lily’s ear.

After many hugs, kisses, and farewells, the adults shooed the children onto the train.

Lily stuck her head out the window waving. And then...

Ca-chika-chicka. Ca-chicka-chicka.

The train was moving away. Lily waved even harder, an enormous grin breaking onto her face. Cachickachicka.Cachikachika. Faster now, around the corner, still faster! And out of sight.

Lily fell back into her seat. She couldn’t contain her wide grin.

“Excited?” Rose asked her again.

“YES!” Hugo and Lily cried together.

Only fifteen minutes after the train had left King’s Cross Station, a short, slender girl with long, dark blond hair opened their compartment door.

“I’m sorry,” she said. Her voice was quiet, but sounded pleasant. “I’m Marie Brown. Would you mind if I sat in this compartment? Everywhere else is... Well, full.”


“Sure!” Rose popped out of her seat, eager to show kindness to younger first years. “Nice to meet you, Marie. This is Albus, my age. And here’s Lily and Hugo, they’re first years like you.”

It was a bit awkward after Marie sat down. She sat in the corner of the seat, trying to pretend like she wasn’t interested in their conversations.

Things improved when the food trolley came up.

“Anything from the trolley, dears?” the lady asked them, slightly breathless.

“Yes!” Hugo said. “Chocolate Frogs, Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans, Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes. And... anyone else want more of anything?”

Rose, Albus, and Lily put in their orders. “Do you want anything, Marie?” Rose asked her. Marie shook her head.

They piled the candy on the seat next to Marie. Lily pulled open a Chocolate Frog.

“Hey, look! I got my Dad!” Lily laughed.

“Your Dad is Harry Potter?”

Lily turned around, surprised. Marie was looking right at her.

“Um....yes...well... Um, yes, he is.” Lily told her, blushing.

“My Mom knew Harry Potter. She...um...dated his best friend.”

Lily looked questioningly at her.

“Lavender Brown,” Marie confessed. “That’s my Mom.”

“OH!” Rose exclaimed in recognition. “My dad is Harry Potter’s best friend, Ron Weasley.”

“Right.” Marie nodded to herself.

“Chocolate Frog?” Albus offered to Marie.

“Sure, thanks!” She accepted it with a smile.

* * *

Hours later, Compartment W was getting restless. Marie, Rose, Albus, Hugo and Lily had changed into their school robes. Hugo and Lily were nervous, though, along as restless. Lily had retrieved her wand from her trunk and was banging it against her knee. Hugo kept getting up to look out the window.

“Ouch! Hugo, sit down!” Rose cried. “Just sit by the window then!” She started massaging her stomped-on foot.

Hugo yelped. “Lily! Marie! I see it! It’s Hogwarts!”

Excitement coursing through her, Lily got up and peeked out the foggy window. Looming ahead of them was Hogwarts castle. On the black walls, lights twinkled in the windows and it looked impressive, silhouetted against the colored sky.

“Wow...” Lily murmured to herself. “It’s amazing.”

Suddenly the compartment door banged open. James walked in, hair tousled and robe slightly wrinkled.

“‘Scuse me!” he pushed past Marie and sat down next to Lily.

He seemed like himself again, though Albus was watching him with narrow eyes.

“So? Are you going to be a Slytherin this year? Albus disappointed me, but will you?” He asked his little sister.

“You’re a Gryffindor,” Lily said, confused.

“So? I want a Slytherin in the family!” He told her.

Rose scoffed at James. “James, go waste your breath on your girlfriend... Fawcett, right? Go away. Lily’s going to be a Gryffindor.” She determined proudly.

“Just needed to warn her.” James pushed past Marie and slammed the compartment door.

“How did you know… that James… likes Fawcett?” Albus was cracking up.

Rose laughed. “Because he’s sitting in a compartment with her, dummy!”

They all smiled.

“We’re getting closer! I think we’re slowing down!” Hugo screeched.

“You look like you’re hyperventilating!” Lily and Marie cackled as Hugo turned away from the window to look at them. Everybody laughed.

Ten minutes later, the train came to a full stop. Noises could be heard in the corridors of the train from students pushing past each other to get off. Rose opened the door, but they were the last to get out, as students were jumping past the door, leaving no room for anybody to move.

As they waited, Lily and Hugo were looking out the window. They were in Hogsmeade, but the castle was still clear through the foggy window and the clouds.

“Lily! Hugo! Come on!” Rose beckoned them out into the corridor. Silently they walked off the Hogwarts Express.

“First years! First years, over here, please!” A pleasant male’s voice cut out over the chattering students.

Lily grabbed Hugo’s arm and Marie’s hand so she wouldn’t get lost in the crowd, and they all made their way together over to the person yelling for them.

“Hello, Lily,” Neville Longbottom said pleasantly. “How are you, Hugo?”

“Hi!” Lily said breathlessly. “Neville, this is Marie Brown.”

“Wonderful to meet you!” he said, smiling. “Excuse me, kids.” He walked a little farther from them to yell, “First years, over here, please!”

In just a short time, a line of nervous first years were all crowded around Neville.

“Hello! Welcome to Hogwarts!” Neville beamed at the students. “Follow me, students!” He led them out of Hogsmeade and around the corner at the edge of town. There were gasps as the school came into view.

It was taller than ever, even more impressive. Lily tipped her head back looked up at the towers, following them to the top. It was dark now, and the lake in front of them glittered with the lights from the castle.


“Four per boat! Everybody in!” Neville called out. Lily, Hugo, and Marie got into one of the first boats, and they were soon joined by a small, skinny boy with black hair.

“Hi!” he told them in a squeaky voice. “I’m Lore.”

They had no time to answer, as Neville called “We’re off!” and the little fleet of boats pushed off as they crossed the river.

Lily couldn’t stop looking at the castle. She wanted to explore it right away, it was so beautiful. She wanted to sit next to the fire in Gryffindor Tower. She wanted to use her wand!

One by one, the boats bumped against the opposite side of the river. It was a nice night. Slightly chilly (Lily shivered), but the night was clear.

Neville arranged the first years in a single-file line and marched them up to the door. He slammed a huge knocker on the wooden door, and it opened

Lily tried see who was behind the door, she didn’t see anyone. She did, though, hear a squeaky voicek not unlike Lore’s, call out “Welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I am Professor Flitwick, your headmaster here at Hogwarts. The school is ready and assembled for the Sorting to begin.”

The mass of students started moving forward, through the doors. Lily was impressed by the Entrance Hall. The floors shone and the ceiling stretched up so far Lily couldn’t see it. She looked at the pair of great wooden doors led into the Great Hall.

“Single file!” Neville ordered as the students walked into the Great Hall.

Lily gasped. She hadn’t asked about the Hall, but she wished that she would have. The ceiling was enchanted as it was outside, and floating candles hung in the air. All the students turned their heads to the center of the room to watch the first years. Lily looked down at her feet, nervous.

It took forever to reach the head of the room. The house tables were long, but at the end of the tables was a battered old black hat, perched on a stool. The Sorting Hat.

After the first years were assembled in front, the Sorting Hat burst into song. It was simple song, just about the houses and traits. It didn’t have much else to say, but nevertheless the whole Hall burst into applause when it fell silent.

Still shivering (although this time it didn’t have to do with the Hall or temperature), Lily waited patiently as first years were sorted.

“Marie Brown!” Neville called.

Marie stepped up and sat on the stool. Neville placed the Hat on her head.

“GRYFFINDOR!” shouted the Hat. Lily clapped as Marie stumbled down to Gryffindor table, looking dazed.

After what seemed like hours, Lily’s name was called.

She didn’t hear the students whispering, “Isn’t that Harry Potter’s daughter? Isn’t it?” Her ears had stopped working. Just as Neville was slipping the Hat over her ears, she caught Albus’s face beaming at her from Gryffindor table.

“Lily Potter. Daughter of the famous Harry Potter, where should I put you?” the Hat said in her ear. “You are kind... Trustworthy. And you are smart. Yes, smart with a wand, you’ll be. You want to be like your father, don’t you? You have a lot of ambition.”

Lily clutched the stool. What about bravery? She thought desperately.

“Bravery?” the Hat replied. “Yes, you are brave. Courageous, too. So where do you want to go, Lily Potter?”

“Gryffindor.” Lily whispered the word.

“Gryffindor...” the Hat said. “You will do great there.” It whispered to here. Before screaming the single word she was dying to hear: “GRYFFINDOR!”

As the hat was lifted off of her head, Lily saw Albus and James, cheering loudly at the Gryffindor table.

She couldn’t believe it. She was a Gryffindor. Finally. She was at Hogwarts. Finally.

As she sat down next to Marie, beaming at all the other students, she thought, “It doesn’t get much better than this.”


---------------------------------------

Voíla! What do you guys think? As always, feedback is GREATLY APPRECIATED. I only got four feedback replies from my faithful feedback-ers.. no one new, though!!! Darn. Maybe this chapter.

Hope you liked it! I'm working hard on Chapter 5!

Also- Sorry that this is probably pretty long. I wanted to fit it all in so that I can get to the 'interesting thing' in Chapter 5. *wink*

EDIT: rach, thank you for spotting my mistake!!!! (Marie Brown instead of Marie Chang. Thanks!)

Chapter 5 is here!!!! The one, the only ,the greatly anticipated Chapter 5!! Haha, I told all my feedbackers that this would be an interesting chapter...

Hope you guys like it!!

Chapter Five: Strange Magic

Lily had never had more fun in her entire life. Hogwarts was amazing. It only took her two days and three night-time wanderings under James’s cloak (passed down from Harry) with Albus for her to know her way around Hogwarts.

The classes were exciting, too. But Lily had to admit to herself: Potions and Charms were by far the best. After James heard about Lily’s first potion, he told her she would be just like her grandmother, a Potion-whiz.

In Charms, Lily mastered the Summoning Charm and quickly moved on. Rose told her that her Mom might’ve been the only one smarter than her when she had been eleven.

There was only one thing that Lily liked better than all of those things: eating in the Great Hall. Breakfast was great. She never had so many different kinds of foods to choose one, and Pumpkin Juice was always delicious.

And then the owls came. That was fun, too. Hundreds and hundreds of owls came swooping in through the roof, dropping packages all along the table.

On the fourth day at Hogwarts, Lily received a package from her parents. It was wrapped in brown paper with pink polka dots on it, Lily’s favorite color. She opened the letter on top.

Dear Lily,


How are you? Do you like Hogwarts? I’ve never had all three of my children gone for one school year; I keep calling out for you to come and help me with lunch and realize you’re not here! I can’t wait to see you again, you may or may not be coming home for Christmas vacation, so I’m not sure when I’ll see you next.

Just send a reply back with Burno, he’s a very fast flier. Luna sent him to us. She gives you, Albus, and James her love.

Of course, Dad sends his love too. He’s at work right now, he’s been working overtime now that you guys are gone...and he’s Head Auror, but all the same...

I love you very much, Lily. Have fun, be smart, and don’t get caught out at night!

Love, Mom

Lily smiled. She told Burno to go up to the Owlery and she’d write a letter to her Mother later.

Just as Lily was about to settle into her scrambled eggs, another package, this one small and thin, fell into her lap. She looked up, but she couldn’t see the owl. It had already joined all the other owls on their way up to the rafters again.

She opened the package. It was the Better Daily Prophet. Lily looked at the date.

That was the day we were in Diagon Alley! Lily thought. Was this the newspaper her Mom had showed George and Angelina? Who had sent this to her?

Lily hurriedly looked through the table of contents. She moved her finger down the page numbers, finally stopping at ‘TROUBLE AT THE MINISTRY.....page FIVE’

Trouble at the Ministry. Was this what her Mom had been reading? She flipped to page five. There it was: a short, little article.

“TROUBLE AT THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC
by Seamus Finnigan, Better Daily Prophet reporter

Trouble has been stirring up in the Ministry of Magic. Just days ago Ministry worker Terry Boot had been discovered under the Imperius Curse. When released from the curse, Boot couldn’t tell Ministry officials what had happened to him or whom had put him under the curse. Officials suspected that he has also been Confunded along with being placed under the Imperius Curse. Workers in Boot’s department reported that he had been acting normally; nothing strange seemed to be going on. “It doesn’t make any sense” Terry’s boss, Hermione Granger told reporters last Friday. “I’m in his office and he just sits there all day working! This is rather strange indeed.” Boot’s desk was searched as well as his house, but nothing was found to be considered suspicious. Ministry wizards are trying to puzzle out the mystery. Meanwhile, Boot has continued his work with his Department, under careful watch of his colleagues.”

That was where the article had ended. Lily looked up. Terry Boot? Terry Boot had come over to their house for dinner numerous times that summer. And Aunt Hermione worked with him, too! Who would Imperius Terry Boot? Why would you if he wasn’t supposed to do anything? Questions swam through Lily’s head.

Suddenly a shriek came from down the table. Lily looked over. She saw her cousin, Fred Weasley, mopping up the pumpkin juice he had spilled on Rose. Rose was laughing now.

Rose! Did Rose know about Terry Boot!

“ROSE!” Lily shouted. “Come here!” After drying herself off, she came over to Lily.

“Lily?” she asked. “What’s wrong?”

“This!” Lily thrust the newspaper under Rose’s nose. Rose read the article.

“Oh, no!” Rose whispered, horrified, while she read the news. “I know Terry Boot, and so do you? Who Imperiused him?”

“I don’t know!” Lily whispered. “And he was working with your Mom!”

Just then the benches scraped as students got up to go to their first classes, and Lily was swept away in the crowd with one last look at Rose’s troubled face.

Lily wasn’t paying attention in Herbology and got a sharp bite from the Imps they were supposed to be taking care of. On her way up to the hospital wing, she saw Albus walking down the corridor.

“Al!” Lily shouted.



Albus, who had been looking down at his feet, jerked his head up, surprised.

“Lily! What happened to your hand?” Albus cried, coming over to Lily.

“Imp.”

“Oh, stupid Imps.”

“Al, did you get the Daily Prophet?”

“No, I don’t... I don’t want to pay for it,” he told her, slightly confused.

“Here.” Lily dug around in her bag and pulled out the crumpled newspaper. She pushed Albus into an empty classroom as he was reading it, and then checked on her bleeding hand again as Albus read the article.

“Whoa! He was working with– ”

“Aunt Hermione! I know! But the thing is, Al, I saw Mom reading that newspaper when we were in Diagon Alley! She was really worried –wouldn’t even show it to me– and was talking to Uncle George and Aunt Angelina about it!”

Albus frowned. “That’s not good, Lily. Nobody’s been Imperiused for over nineteen years! Nobody has threatened the well-being of the magical world since Lord Voldemort!”

“Shhhhh!” Lily whispered. “Don’t talk to loud....but I know!! It Mom is worried, most likely Dad is too, and that means that we should be worried!”

“Calm down, Lils,” Albus told her. “Maybe this will turn out to be a complete accident. Just watch the other Daily Prophets for more news. How on Earth did you get a hold of this one, anyways?” Albus asked, brandishing the newspaper.

“I don’t...know...” Lily trailed off. How did she get the newspaper? “A....an owl dropped it onto my plate, but it was gone before I looked up. Already flying away with the others...”

“Burno?” Albus asked, thinking of the family owl.

“No...Burno had already given me a note...”

“Note? Oh shoot! Lily, I gotta go! I was supposed to deliver a message to Professor McGonagall.” He made for the door. “Talk to you tonight in the common room!”

Lily stared for a moment at the newspaper article Albus had set on the desk, then picked it back up, sighed, and made her way up to the Hospital wing.

* * *

Ginny and Harry were sitting together in their living room that same morning. Harry had a cup of coffee in his hands, a cup of tea in Ginny’s.

“Glad it was a late day to work.” Harry murmured, taking a gulp of hot coffee. “Jenson of Magical Maintenance started a thunder storm in the Auror department... Accidentally, but all the same—”

“I’m not sure how you’d even manage that.” Ginny nodded her head, smiling slightly. “Well, thanks to Jenson you have a morning off. And I’m waiting for Blithers to get back to me on when I can pick up again in my department.”

“Cheers.” Harry held up his mug to Ginny, and they clinked glasses.

Whoof!

The fireplace in front of them came to life with bright green fire, and out of their fire stepped Kingsley Shacklebolt.

“Kingsley!” Ginny said invitingly, getting up from the recliner.

“Good morning, Ginny.” The minister nodded at her. “Morning, Potter,” after a moment correcting “…Harry.”

Harry stood up. “Morning, Kingsley.” He was slightly confused, seeing as his boss had just Floo Powdered himself into their house and greeted them politely.

“I’m sorry, this is no light visit. I have some important business that cannot be discussed at the Ministry.”

“Please sit down!” Ginny gestured to the couch. “Coffee?” she waved her wand and a mug appeared in the air.

“Thank you.” Kingsley accepted the mug and sat down.

“So what is this about?” Harry asked after Kingsley had sat down.

“We have an Unspeakable in the Department of Mysteries who has brought to light a prophecy that she has come upon. The prophecy goes as such:


‘As trouble stirs
Great magic under a great name
Unexpectedly, will thwart the growing evil
Great magic under a great name
Holds up the well being of the wizarding world.’


The farthest I can detect, a powerful witch or wizard, the daughter or son of a great name, will thwart the growing evil... I assume you heard about the Imperiusing of Terry Boot?”

“Wait. So you think the great name is...?” Harry trailed off.

“Harry Potter. You, yes.”

“Oh, no.” Ginny shook her head. “Do you know who or what the growing evil is?”

“I have suspicions. Eruthe Emerell is Gellert Grindelwald’s second cousin’s daughter’s niece’s son. Emerell wants to take control of Muggles, and witches and wizards born to Muggle-borns, to work as slaves.”

“That’s exactly what Voldemort wanted years ago,” Harry said slowly. “Voldemort, Grindelwald, and Emerell have the same ideas.”

“Yes. Emerell admired the courage and strength of Grindelwald, and learned from the evil man’s mistakes. That means danger for our world now.” Kingsley shook his head sadly.

Ginny frowned. “Great magic under a great name? That would mean our kids!”

“It would.” Kingsley agreed.

Ginny cried, “Albus, James, and Lily need protection.”

“Ah!” Kingsley said. “Not Lily! Lily has not even had one full year of training at Hogwarts. She would be no threat to Emerell.”

“Are you sure?” Harry asked uncertainly.

“If you were Emerell or Grindelwald, would you find a first year student to be a great threat?” Kingsley asked him, slightly amused.

Harry didn’t say anything.

“But James and Albus!” Ginny cried again. “They need protection! What would Emerell do to them to keep them out of his way?!”

“We don’t know, but we have protection on its Hogwarts soon. They will keep an eye on James and Albus, and although James and Albus will not know it, they will be protected from anything Emerell wants to do to them.”

“Protection? What kind of protection?” Ginny asked, sitting up a little straighter.

“I’m sorry, Ginny, I cannot tell you that. But I can tell you that your children will be well protected when my help gets here.” Kingsley reassured her.

* * * * *
The next few days passed by rather slowly. Lily was still practicing wand movements in Charms and Transfiguration, learning the ingredients in Potions, and Lily was slightly bored. She was sitting in the Common Room with a toothpick in front of her and a wand in her hand.

“Emoro Vaccino!” she murmured under her breath. The end of the toothpick grew sharper.

“Emoro Vaccino!” she said louder.

“Here.” Rose came over. “You’re trying to turn it into a needle? Try this. Flick it more, don’t jab it. Like this. Emoro Vaccino!” the toothpick became a sharp, glittering needle.

“Thanks! Let me try to turn it back. Emora Vaccina!” Lily flicked her wand and the needle grew back into a toothpick. Lily smiled.

“Lily Potter! James Potter!” Professor McGonagall was standing in the porthole door, looking concerned. “Please come outside for a moment.”

Where’s Albus? Lily thought as she stood up. Why is she only calling James and me?

They followed McGonagall through the door.

“Lily. James. I am so sorry. You brother is not well.”

Lily could feel her heart hammering. “What happened?” she asked in a quavering voice.

“Outside of the castle...he...he was attacked. We don’t know what it was, but he is now in St. Mungo’s.”

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AHHH!! What do you guys think!!!! I was gonna add it in Chapter 6, but I wanted to drop a cliffhanger...it's what authors do best, you know!!!

Feedback, please!! I need it!