Disclaimer: All recognizable places and characters in the story do not belong to me.

"You prat. There is no such thing as magic," the older boy exclaimed. The girl frowned.

"Yes there is, Alex. I can do magic," she insisted. The boy smiled mockingly.

"All right then, Sarah. Do some magic for me. Right now," he demanded, gesturing around him. Now Sarah became nervous.

"Well, I can't really-" Alex smiled triumphantly, jumping from the monkey bars down to the ground. Sarah didn't follow. She was afraid of heights, and not big enough to make such a jump.

"I knew it," he hooted. "Liar, liar, liar," he sang running around the playground and kicking up dirt as he went along. The sun shone down, making the Alex's blonde hair look like a halo around his head.

"I am not!" Sarah shouted, her bottom lip starting to tremble and her eyes filling with tears. Alex looked at her in surprise, and his entire demeanor changed. He gave her a gentle smile and held out his arms so she could jump off the monkey bars. Sarah glared at him and stubbornly hung there until he grabbed her about the waist and set her down on the gravel. They walked over to a bench, and Alex grabbed her hand as they sat down.

"I'm sorry, Sarah. I didn't mean to make you cry. But you can't go around fibbing like that," he told her. Sarah snatched her hand away and leaped up from the bench.

"I. Am. Not. Lying!" she yelled, stomping her foot after each word. On the last stomp though, something happened. All of the rage that had only a moment ago been aimed at Alex and her inability to do magic while he was around was gone, and a spark crackled near Alex's hand. A second ago there had been soft tanned skin. Now there was a small cut near his thumb, bleeding steadily. Both children looked at each other in horror, before Sarah finally spoke.

"Alex. I didn't mean to. Really, I didn't. I'm so sorry!" she told him tearfully. The boy snatched his hand away from her and got to his feet, shaking his head.

"Stay away from me," he told her. His eyes wide with fear. Sarah tried to explain, but he cut her off and pointed a finger at her. "Don't come near me, anymore! I mean it, you weirdo!" With that, he took off down the gravel road, leaving the little girl standing in the middle of the play ground by herself. The sun was starting to set by the time Sarah sniffed and wiped away her tears, so she began the trek to her home, three neighborhoods away.

She decided that she didn't like England. The air was heavier, it rained a lot, and the other children in her class mocked her American accent. She thought about how wonderful it would have been if her real father were still alive. He had died in a car accident when Sarah was four. And then, last year, her mother became engaged to a man from Surrey who had been visiting America. In only two weeks, her mother had become Mrs. Jonathan Abernathy and moved them all to Jonathan's house in a small town called Godrics Hollow. Sarah did like Jonathan. He was very nice and played games with her and made dinner (her mother was a terrible cook). But he wasn't her real father, and was now the whole reason that she had lost one of her only friends. If he hadn't convinced her mother to move to England, she wouldn't have made friends with Alex, and she wouldn't have hurt him. Lost in her thoughts, she didn't watch where she was going, and ran into someone. Hard.

"Oomph," they both said out loud on impact. She looked up to see a girl about her own age with long red hair and brown eyes staring back at her. She tried to place who this familiar girl was, and suddenly recognized her as one of the Potter children a few blocks from her own home.

"Sorry," she said, and then frowned, "Are you crying?" Sarah shook her head and wiped a hand across her eyes. Only then did she notice that she had walked in the completely opposite direction when she had meant to go home. The area did not look familiar to her. The girl recognized the lost look on Sarah's face. She reached out and grabbed Sarah's hand, then started leading Sarah down the street. She looked at the girl in surprise.

"Come to my house. Daddy can call your parents and Mummy can make us some cocoa," the girl insisted. Sarah watched her warily, then broke into a wide smile.

"Okay. I'm Sarah," she told the girl.

"I'm Lily."

The two girls continued to skip down the street, swinging arms and giggling as they jumped over cracks in the road and chased passing squirrels and birds. The night air was warm, but not humid like usual. There was a pleasant scent of flowers and baking. The houses were all quaint two level cottages, a decent size, although it looked a bit cramped for more than four people. Lily stopped outside of one. It had a wooden fence and long gravel driveway in which was parked a small green van. In the front yard was a pretty red haired woman in jeans and an airy blue blouse. She saw Sarah and Lily come up the driveway, and ran down to meet them.

"Oh thank goodness you're okay!" she cried as she ran down the driveway. Lily rolled her eyes.

"I'm fine, Mummy. Honest," she insisted. The woman stopped in front of them and pulled Lily into a huge bear hug. Sarah stood aside and watched. Suddenly, the woman pulled back from Lily and grabbed her shoulders, the look on her face and tone of her voice heated.

"Don't you ever do that again, Lily Ginevra Potter! You know you aren't allowed to run around after dark!" she said. "What if something had happened to you? What if you had DIED?" she shouted. Sarah was shocked at how worried Lily's mother was, but the little girl looked as though she got this every other day. She tapped her foot impatiently and crossed her arms over her chest.

"I'm sorry, Mum. I would have been home on time, but then I found Sarah, and she was lost, so I told her to come home with me so we could call her Mum and Dad to come pick her up," Lily explained impatiently. Her mother looked around in confusion, and her gaze finally lighted on Sarah. She smiled gently, and then sighed.

"All right, Lily. Since you have a good reason you won't be punished. But this is the only time I will allow it," she said. Lily grinned and nodded her head, then grabbed Sarah's hand and led her inside. Just as they opened the door, Lily's mother stepped in front of them. "I'll tell your father you are home." Sarah made to follow her inside, but Lily pulled her back to the lawn, looking a bit worried.

"What's wrong?" Sarah asked her new friend. Lily pointed to a wooden crate with mesh screening on the front side of it.

"My mum got me a bunny. Do you want to see him?" Sarah nodded excitedly, and they squealed and cooed over how cute it was. It was tiny and black, with a white cottony tail. When they put their faces up to the mesh, it sniffed at their noses and it's whiskers tickled. Lily's mother called them both inside and both girls ran back to the house. Sarah thought the cottage was as lovely on the inside as it was on the outside. It looked like something out of a story book. The oak floors, cheery yellow walls, and large bay windows made the house comfortable and warm.

"Lily! You're home!" called a male voice. Out of a nearby doorway stepped a tall, lean man with jet black hair and jewel green eyes. He was followed closely by Lily's mother. Lily rolled her eyes, but allowed herself to be pulled into her father's embrace. After being berated for a second time about wandering after dark, the adults led the two children into the kitchen. Lily and Sarah took seats at the table.

"Hello. I'm sorry you had to sit through both mine and Ginny's lectures. We tend to get a little over anxious about our girl," he grinned fondly at Lily.

"It's all right. I don't mind," Sarah muttered shyly.

"I'm Harry Potter, and this is my wife, Ginny," the man said, indicating first himself, and then the woman at the stove. She gave the Sarah a rather distracted smile, and then stared in confusion at the stove. She was still holding the pot of water, as if she didn't know what to do with it.

"You're in Mrs. Weston's class, aren't you?" Sarah's attention was drawn away from Ginny, and Harry, who had gone over to help his wife, and back to Lily's attentive gaze. "Sarah's in year 5, like me," she explained to her parents.

"That's wonderful. If Sarah likes maths, maybe she can help you bring up your marks," Ginny responded. Lily just laughed. Suddenly, the little girl sobered up. "Why were you crying when I saw you in the park?"

Sarah hesitated. She really wanted to trust Lily, but she didn't want Lily to get scared and run away like Alex had. She tried to blink back her tears, but the story broke out of her before she could stop herself. When she was finished, she realized that Harry was staring at her with his mouth wide open, Ginny had dropped one of the mugs of hot chocolate with a loud crash, and Lily looked positively delighted. She ran over to Sarah and hugged her. Too shocked to do anything else, Sarah hugged her back. This was not the reaction she had been expecting.

"Oh you're just like us! I'm so glad, Sarah, I really am! Now you can meet my cousins, and maybe we'll even go to Hogwarts together-"

"Lily!"

The red-head quickly stopped speaking, and sent a nervous glance at her father. He looked positively livid, as did Ginny. Sarah looked from Lily, to her parents, utterly confused.

"Like you? What are you talking about? And what is a Hogwarts?" Ginny marched over to Lily, and told her to leave.

"Go to your room. You can see Sarah some other time. Harry, can you call Sarah's parents to come pick her up?" Screaming about how unfair it was that she was getting in trouble, Lily stomped out of the room. She could hear her on the upper level, stomping to her room, and there was a sound of a door slamming. The kitchen was silent, until Ginny handed Sarah a mug of hot chocolate.

"Here you go, darling." Sarah wiped a hand across her face to dry away her tears and sniffed.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get Lily in trouble." Ginny smiled. It was obvious where Lily had gotten her stunning looks. She was the picture of her mother, the same fiery red hair, brown eyes, freckles and high cheekbones.

"You didn't do anything wrong," Ginny assured the girl. Sarah shook her head, her chestnut curls bouncing as she did so.

"I hurt Alex. And now Lily is going to be mad at me because she is being punished." Ginny studied Sarah carefully, and then sighed.

"Lily won't be mad at you. Trust me. As for what happened with Alex, I can tell you this: you aren't alone." Now Sarah was surprised.

"But…what do you mean?"

"Sarah, there are not many people that will understand your story. Let me ask you: have you ever made things happen? It doesn't have to be hurting someone, like you did to Alex, but have you ever accidentally made something happen that you can't explain when you were really angry or really happy?" Sarah tried to think hard.

There had been a few times. There was the time when she was seven when she saw that rock video on the TV. She asked her mom if she could get pretty pink hair like the woman on TV, but she said no. The next day, Sarah woke up, her hair hot pink. Or when she and Alex had been playing tag. She had always been slow, and ever time he tried to get up to chase her, he would trip over something on the ground and fall on his face. There was never anything in front of him to cause him to trip. Ginny watched Sarah as she sorted through all of the strange things that had happened to her without any explanation. She smiled and nodded. Sarah was ecstatic.

"So I'm not weird like Alex said!" she shouted happily. Ginny laughed.

"No, love. You are far from weird. I think you are a very special girl, and very sweet." Sarah's face lit up and she threw herself at Ginny, wrapping her arms around the woman's neck. Ginny hugged her back, and called Harry back into the room. "Did you call her parents?" Harry nodded and pushed his messy hair out of his face.

"Yes. They were very worried about her, but I explained the situation and they were very relieved. I also asked if Sarah could stay for dinner, and they said of course. I'll drive you home, if you do want to stay," he added to Sarah. She smiled and thanked him enthusiastically. He walked out of the room, but not before she noticed something on his forehead. It was a very noticeable scar in the shape of a lightning bolt. He noticed where she was looking and blushed, his hand automatically going up to cover the blemish. Sarah started to apologize for staring, but Harry stopped her.

"That's a story that you'll get to hear another time, I'm sure," Harry said kindly, pointing at the scar and leaving. Ginny told Sarah that she could take her hot chocolate to the living room, and Lily could come back down. As Sarah was led into the living room, a door slammed at the back of the house, and tons of yelling could be heard. Ginny shook her head and muttered something under her breath, then walked off to meet the voices. Sarah showed herself into the living room. Inside, there was a long brown leather couch, an oak coffee table, and a TV. On the shelves were little bowls of candy, and lots of pictures.

There were a few family portraits, Lily and her brothers, one of whom she recognized as a year ahead of them. The other brother looked almost exactly like Lily, but did have Harry's thin face and messy hair, though his was red instead of black. There was a wedding portrait of Ginny and Harry. Others were harder to place. There was an older boy with sandy blonde hair and black eyes, wearing a very odd graduation robe and standing with his arm around Harry's shoulders. A larger portrait showed Lily, her brothers, and many other children.

"Those are my cousins," said a voice from behind Sarah. She jumped out of surprise and turned to face Lily, who had pulled the picture down from the wall and was pointing at each face. "Fred, Delia and Roxanne are all Uncle George and Auntie Angie's kids. Victoire, Dominique, and Louis are Uncle Bill's and Aunt Fleur's children. Uncle Charlie and Aunt Rachel have Sandra, Helen, Jane, and Christopher, and Uncle Percy and Aunt Audrey have Molly and Lucy. And those two are Rose and Hugo. You'll meet them tonight. They're having dinner with us tonight since Albus and James have been at their house all day." Sarah stared at Lily, her mouth wide open.

"Wow, you sure have a lot of family," she said enviously. Lily grinned and shrugged.

"Yeah. But it isn't as great as it sounds. This is the quietest this house has been sine the school year ended." Sarah studied the picture carefully, and then pointed to the sandy haired boy that was in the other picture with Harry.

"Who is that, then?" she asked Lily. The little girl's face brightened. "That's Teddy."

"Is he your cousin too?" Lily's face lost some of the shine it had, and she shook her head somberly.

"No. He's my god brother. My dad helped his grandmother raise Teddy after his parents died. He thinks of my dad as his dad too. He'll be coming over later too."

"Or maybe he's already here…" Both girls looked to the doorway. Teddy was leaning on the doorjamb, brushing his blonde hair away from his face and grinning brilliantly. Lily squealed and shot over to him, enveloping him in a huge hug. Teddy laughed and ruffled the girl's hair.

"Hey there, squirt. What have you been up to?" he asked.

Lily shook her head. "Nothing. This is my new friend, Sarah," she said, pointing at Sarah from Teddy's arms. Teddy put her down and walked over to Sarah.

"Nice to meet you," he said, holding out his hand. Sarah looked down at the floor, too shy to look the handsome boy directly in the eye. But she did take his hand.

"You too," she mumbled. A cough was heard from the doorway. Another squeal was heard from Lily.

"Victoire!" In the doorway was possibly the most beautiful girl Sarah had ever seen. She looked to be Teddy's age, and she had long, silver hair and beautiful sapphire eyes. Her lean figure rivaled that of any supermodel Sarah had ever seen in the magazines, but she had the glow of a perfectly healthy young girl.

Victoire laughed and kissed Lily on both cheeks. "Hello, Lily dear. I hope you do not mind that I'll be joining you all for dinner as well." Victoire's accent had a different ring to it, another accent underlying that of the common British or Irish accents that Sarah heard at school or around the town. Her consonants were sharper and she did not fully pronounce her "R's". Lily happily shouted that she did not mind and introduced Sarah.

"She and Teddy are boyfriend and girlfriend," Lily whispered loudly to Sarah. Both teens flushed and muttered something about not having said hi or Harry or Ginny. The little girls laughed for awhile after the two had left. When they finally calmed down and their giggles subsided, they thought about what they could play until dinner was ready. Sarah had an idea.

"What about hide-and-go-seek?" Sarah suggested. A puzzled frown crossed Lily's face.

"What is that?" Just as Sarah was about to explain, Ginny entered. This time she had four more children in tow. The two eldest boys Sarah recognized as Lily's brothers, and her cousins Rose and Hugo. The introductions were made all over again, and Ginny left the children to their own devices. Teddy and Victoire entered only seconds after Ginny left. Sarah soon decided that the Potter household was a very busy and confusing place. People were always coming and going. It turned out that Teddy and Victoire were both bored and wanted to see what the younger ones were doing.

"Sarah is going to teach us how to play hide-and-go-seek!" Hugo exclaimed. Seven pairs of eyes focused on her, waiting for her to explain the rules to the game. Sarah couldn't believe that none of them knew how to play, although they all seemed excited when they found out what they had to do. Sarah was especially confused by Victoire and Teddy. She had older cousins, but whenever they came to visit, they just wanted to do boring adult stuff. Victoire and Teddy seemed to genuinely take an interest in hanging out with their cousins. Sarah desperately wished that her family was like the Potter family.

Sarah elected herself to be Seeker so that the other kids could familiarize themselves with the rules of the game. But when Sarah got to fifty and turned around, she remembered that they hadn't set boundaries. She realized that she was going to have to search the entire house for the seven kids. Sarah set about the task quickly. Judging by the shouts and scuffling heard while she was counting, there was nobody in the living room. She first checked the kitchen. Harry and Ginny were in there with two other adults. They introduced themselves as Ron and Hermione Weasley, Rose and Hugo's parents. They all laughed while Sarah scoured the room for any of the children. A subtle cough and nod toward one of the cabinets from Harry led Sarah to Rose. She pulled a sour face and laughed when Sarah pulled open the cabinet, and then helped Sarah locate the rest of them.

They spent the next hour and a half playing the game. They soon found out the Victoire and Teddy were much too good at it, and after spending a half hour looking for them in the third round, they unofficially kicked the two out of the game. Sarah loved playing with the Potters and Weasleys. She told Lily countless times that her family was way cool.

Dinner was much the same as playing tag. Everyone was loud and there was lots of laughter. There was only one moment of silence during all of dinner, when James asked his dad if they could go see the Quidditch world cup. Harry dropped his fork and glared at his son, and Ron received much the same look from his wife when he exclaimed that it would be a brilliant idea.

"What?" they both whined. Hermione subtly nodded at Sarah. A look of realization settled on Ron's and James' faces and they both grinned and shrugged.

"What is Quidditch?" Sarah asked. Ginny shifted uneasily.

"Well," she began, spearing a piece of broccoli on her fork, "it's a sport."

Hermione snorted. "A very pointless one," she added. Everyone in the room glared daggers at her and she laughed. "You see what it does to people?" she said to Sarah. The girl giggled as Ron complained that it was not a stupid sport.

"I've never heard of it. It must be really popular here in England," she said. Harry shrugged. Albus turned wide eyes to Sarah.

"That's right! You're the American girl!" he said. Ginny reached over and ruffled his hair.

Among his protests of "Mum, stop it!" Ginny said, "That's rude, Albus! You know better than that!" James and the other kids cracked up and Albus' face turned bright red. Only Sarah stopped laughing when she saw that he was very embarrassed. He smiled gratefully at her and she grinned back shyly. James watched the exchange, remembering, Sarah was sure, to tease him about it later, judging by the mischievous gleam in his eye.

"Where did you live before?" Rose asked. Sarah took a bite of potatoes.

"I was born in Salem, and then I moved to Seattle after my dad died." Harry's eyes softened.

"I'm very sorry." Sarah shrugged.

"It's okay. I don't remember him much, and I really like my stepdad. He's really fun," she explained. "I just wish I could've gotten to know my real dad better." Harry smiled at her.

"I know what you mean. Both of my parents died when I was very young also." There was a clatter of forks. All of the children had stopped eating and were watching Harry eagerly. He noticed this and cleared his throat. "Luckily, I had the Weasleys. They took me in like I was their own, and I'm very grateful for it." The adults all exchanged dark looks with each other, and then turned to the kids. "Why don't you all run along and play? We'll tell you when dessert is ready." All of the children except for Sarah complained loudly at being sent away, and even Teddy and Victoire were told, to their surprise, that they could not stay. The younger ones left the room, and before they could turn around the door had slammed shut behind them. Sarah made to go into the living room, but stopped when she realized nobody was following. Instead, all of them were huddled around the door and whispering quietly.

Sarah tapped Rose on the shoulder. "What's going on?" Rose rolled her eyes and grinned at Sarah.

"What does it look like? Uncle Harry almost let something slip. Him and Mum and Dad and Auntie Gin never talk about when they were kids, and you almost made him say something. They're probably in there saying all sorts of stuff we would never find out if we don't listen." Sarah shrugged and joined the group. Teddy shushed them all and pulled out a long, thin piece of wood.

"Teddy, no!" Hugo whispered fervently, his eyes wide with panic. "She's a Muggle! We'll get in trouble with the Ministry and you'll have landed yourself a cell in Azkaban!" Lily smacked Hugo in the arm, causing him to wince.

"Do you honestly think he would perform magic in front of her if she were a Muggle? She's one of us." All of the children instantly faced Sarah, who was completely awed by everything they were saying.

"Magic? You can do magic, too?" she asked. Teddy looked taken aback.

"Yes." Sarah studied him hard, figuring out how to phrase her next question. The other kids were starting to get anxious and asking Teddy to do something to the door.

"Then why can't I do it when other people are around? Whenever I want to do magic I can't, but when I get really mad, all of a sudden it pops out of nowhere?" Lily laid a hand on her shoulder.

"Because you don't know how to use it. Muggle-borns usually don't. I have a toy wand, but it can't really do anything big. And it's okay to do magic, just not in front of Muggles, or outside of school after you start getting trained," she explained. Sarah felt a ball of warmth growing inside her stomach. She wasn't weird. And she was doing real magic! She pushed back her curly hair and tried to ask Lily something else, but the girl shushed her quickly. They all stared at Teddy, who pointed the stick at the door and mumbled something. They all pressed their ears to the door. Before, they could all hear nothing. After Teddy pocketed the piece of wood, they could hear the adults talking loudly. It wasn't even necessary for them to put their ears to the door.

"Think they have a right to know about now! Harry, we can't protect them any longer. Teddy and Victoire are going to find out soon, they both want to join the Ministry. James will be going into his third year, Albus and Rose their second, and Lily and Hugo will both be starting this year!"

"I know, Gin! But the point is, they don't know yet. As long as we can keep it quiet."

"Oh, but Harry, Ginny is right! Rose has been asking questions. Someone at school even asked Albus if he would sign an autograph and neither of them knew why."

"Mate, I'm going to have to agree with the women on this one. Ouch! Don't hit me, you banshee!"

"Ronald, stop arguing with your sister and concentrate! Harry, the point is, tell your kids what you want, but soon we won't be able to hide the facts from our anymore. Do you really think it would change anything?"

"Yes, it would. To the kids now, I'm just Dad or Uncle Harry. I work at the Ministry. I take care of them when they're sick and play Quidditch with them. I already get enough attention from people in the wizarding community. I don't want the children knowing what this scar means!"

"Darling-"

"No! I won't have it! When I was a kid, I was either a loony because nobody believed me that Voldemort was back, or I was a hero because once again I had defeated him. And I hated that! I have this thing on my forehead to remind me of that every time I look into a mirror. I don't need those memories reflected in the faces of those kids."

There was a long silence , and the kids could hear someone softly crying inside the kitchen. And then, "You're absolutely right, Harry. We're sorry. We won't tell Rose and Hugo anything if you don't want us to. But remember what we said about Teddy and Victoire." There was another long pause.

"No. You don't have to be sorry. You guys are right. I'll tell the kids, all of them, soon. But first I need top figure out what to tell them. Mind you, I won't mention the Horcruxs, or the Pensieve. A lot of it they won't understand till they're older. Most of it is better left unsaid. But they do need to hear some of it. You're right about that."

"So what do you want to do?"

"I'll tell Teddy and the kids first. Then I'll send owl to the rest of the family letting you guys know it's okay to discuss it with your children."

Someone laughed. "Owl? Mate, you better Floo me directly after you've done it."

The conversation started to die off. The adults started to talk about things at the Ministry and household chatter, and the kids listlessly trooped upstairs. Sarah, even more confused than before, followed. They all went into a large room with blue walls, a fluffy green bed, and other objects scattered around it. All of the kids sat close together on the floor. Sarah noticed that all of them looked extremely pale and wore an expression of faint shock. Nobody had said anything, and Sarah felt uncomfortable and wanted to break the heavy silence, but she waited for someone else to do it. Finally, Albus lifted his bright green eyes to the rest of the family.

"Dad is Harry Potter," he whispered hoarsely. "The Harry Potter! How could he have not told us?" Victoire shook her head sadly.

"Don't you see? How awful it must have been, though? To grow up in such a scary time, and have You-Know-Who after you all the time, and everybody making him out to be mad for that. It's no wonder he never told us!" Hugo's bottom lip trembled, and his sister put an arm around him.

"Uncle Fred, he died in the Second War. D-d-do you think it's because he was a Weasley? Uncle Harry said that the Weasleys were practically family to him. Maybe You-Know-Who got 'im?" Everybody else shrugged, still too awed to say anything. Sarah curled a lock of hair around her finger, wondering if she should ask.

"Um," she began tentatively. All eyes looked in her general direction, but nobody was looking specifically at her. "Who is You-Know-Who?" she asked. Teddy sighed and got even farther away, if it was even possible.

"Lord Voldemort. He was a Dark Wizard. The absolute worst. Bent on enslaving the Muggles, wiping out Muggle born wizards and Half-Bloods, and making Purebloods the supreme race. But it was said that he tried to kill a little boy, Harry Potter, on Halloween night, a really long time ago, because of some prophecy, but the curse he tried to kill the kid with rebounded onto him. And then, fourteen years later, he came back. He hatched his same plan, and again Harry Potter came back, and he was gone for good after that." Sarah listened, wide eyed, to teddy tell the story.

"Wow," she breathed, "Mr. Potter must be really powerful then!" All of the kids nodded vaguely in her direction. She wanted to question them more about their world, the wizarding world, which would soon be her world, too. Sarah could barely contain her excitement. She was a wizard! Or witch, more likely. And she would go to a school for witches and wizards, and learn to do magic, and she would have Lily and Albus and James and the entire Weasley clan there to help her!

Ginny called up the stairs to Sarah that Harry was ready to take her home, and Lily jumped, then volunteered to ride along. As they descended down the steps, Lily asked her most burning question. "Lily, how do you get in? To that school?" Lily looked at her in surprise. It seemed it was going to take awhile for this new information about her father to sink in with her.

"Oh, that? Someone from the school will deliver you your acceptance letter around your eleventh birthday-"

"Eleventh birthday?" Sarah shrieked. Lily winced and her hands went up to her ears. Both girls laughed. "Sorry. It's just, I turn eleven in two days." Lily's brown eyes lit up and she grabbed both of Sarah's hands. The girls giggled and hugged each other. When they broke apart, Lily jumped up and down excitedly.

"Oh, Sarah! You have to tell me absolutely everything when you get it!" Sarah promised without hesitation and the girls raced out to the awaiting van. They chattered idly about unimportant things, mostly Lily asking questions about what America had been like and Sarah questioning Lily on the rest of her family.

"I have more cousins," Lily explained. "On Daddy's side. Karen and Juliette. But they're both really obnoxious." Harry turned around and frowned at her when they came to a red light.

"Lils, don't say that. They're your family. And do you even know what that word means?" he scolded. Lily ignored him.

"But Uncle Dudley and Aunt Lucy are all right. They're nice, and they give really good Christmas and birthday gifts." Sarah saw Harry make a sour face in the mirror. Sarah ventured what she knew was probably going to be an uncomfortable question.

"Mr. Potter, who did you stay with if your parents died when you were little.?" Harry's expression was blank, guarded.

"I lived with my aunt and uncle. It wasn't the ideal place to live, but it was my home all the same. I appreciate it a little more than I did when I was a kid." Sarah nodded.

"And we would like it if you called us Ginny and Harry," Ginny put in warmly from the passenger seat. Sarah grinned. She couldn't believe she had made such wonderful new friends!

When they reached Sarah's house, the Potters walked her to her door. Johnathan answered, followed closely by her mother. They both enveloped Sarah in a spinec-rushing hug, thanking the Potters for bringing her home.

"I'm sorry," Tami abenrathy said, smiling at the Potters, "I'm Tami Abernathy and this is my husband Jonathan. Thank you so much for bringing our girl home, and for letting her stay at your house for dinner."

Ginny returned her cheery grin and shook Tami's hand. "I'm Ginny Potter, and this is Harry. And really, it was no problem at all. Sarah is a very sweet girl, and we loved having her. Both of us, and all of our children, and Lily's cousins, hope to see her again very soon." The men talked amongst themselves, and Tami invited Ginny to stay for coffee.

"I would love to, but we still have six children left at the house with my brother nad his wife, and I want to take the kids off their hands so they can go home and rest," Ginny explained, "They ahd my sons all day, so I owe it to them," she laughed. The adutls all said goodbye, and Lily whispered to Sarah that she would send an owl. Then she followed her parenst out the door.

Sarah couldn't describe how ecstatic she felt. She only knew that she couldn't wait until her letter came!