A/N: I know there are a lot of younger-generation HP fanfics out there, so I apologize in advance if you think this one is boring… God knows I've read more than half of them. :) So, here it is! There're a couple of things I changed – like James being one year older than Albus; I believe he's actually two – and a couple I'm not sure about – like what color eyes Lily Luna has and if James has red hair or black. I'd always imagined all the Potter men having black hair and the Potter women having red, but I dunno if that's just me. Tell me your opinions, though, I'd really love to hear them!

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, although I would really love to. :)

Prologue – The Pact

Ever since I began at Hogwarts, I have always been associated with my family. Before that, even – since birth. Teddy says that no one was surprised when Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron married, and even less so when Mum and Dad did. Accordingly, no one was surprised when both couples produced multiple children, nor that many of Mum's and Uncle Ron's siblings did the same. They are Weasleys, after all.

Being the youngest of twelve cousins, I fervently idolized every single one of them. I wanted to go to Hogwarts so incredibly much. By the time I was nine, everyone had been except for me and Hugo. And although Hugo was wonderful, he was shy, and when the older ones would cut us out of their discussions about Hogwarts, Hugo was quick to let them. After two terribly long years, during which family get-togethers were full of listening at keyholes, I was finally, finally on the Hogwarts Express. I was free.

At first, it was everything I'd dreamt it would be. But soon enough my older cousins began to grow tired of the younger ones, and once again I was on my own. To teachers I was "another Weasley", even though I was of only three of my cousins with the surname Potter – it didn't matter either way; my red hair put me in my place. To my peers I was a celebrity for only the first two weeks – everyone older than me had heard the entire Harry Potter saga from either Albus or James, and those my age didn't wish to hear it more than once. In short, my first year was miserable.

It got better, though. During my second year, having broken free of my family, I made friends. I started fully understanding magic, and all of the wonderful things I could do with it. I did pretty well and Defense Against the Dark Arts, but my favorite class by far was Potions. I loved the mixing and measuring and combining… I didn't actually show promise until one day, when Professor Slughorn instructed us to create a Shrinking Solution during that class period. My hands kind of took over, at that point, and all I remember is, fifteen minutes later, standing behind a cauldron full of a gaseous pink liquid. Professor Slughorn strode over, took a whiff of it, and promptly sat down in a chair and bawled like a baby. "Just… like… your… grandmother!" he had said between gasps.

And, after four long years, my cousins began to warm up to me. They smiled at me in the corridors now that I no longer tagged along behind them. I was included in their discussions about teachers and arguments about Quidditch. In fact, I was accepted so much so that one night during the summer before my fourth year, when James, Rose, Albus, Hugo, Louis, Lucy, Roxanne and I were sprawled on various couches, sleepy from an excess of butterbeer while the adults were talking in the next room, James suggested something moderately shocking.

"As you are all aware," he began, and immediately I was scared, "this will be my last year at Hogwarts. And while I know that over the years we haven't exactly bonded at school –" he pointedly avoided my gaze "-I'd like to suggest something. Some of our group – " he stared down Roxanne, who looked everywhere around her except for where James was, as if she didn't notice him looking at her "-have taken to living life on the edge. This is not acceptable." Albus glanced at me, and neither of us deigned it an opportune time to inform James that he lives his life on the edge daily. "Because of this," my brother continued, "I would hereby like to invoke a pact among us cousins that remain at Hogwarts. We Potter and Weasleys have to look out for each other. So by agreeing to this pact, you agree to help any and every cousin in need, whether it be defending them from a teacher or fighting a Slytherin. Deal?"

Hugo, Louis, Lucy and Roxanne all mumbled their "yeses", but I was too busy thinking. I was pretty positive that James defending one of us meant he would get a hot head. And if there was one thing that James inherited from Dad's parents, it was their tempers.

Rose and Albus agreed to the pact as well.

"Lily?" They all looked expectantly at me.

I swallowed. "Okay."

Hope you like it! Yes, Slughorn will be ancient by now… I intend to remedy that shortly. And I'm going to be annoying and ask… Review? :)