*******Author's Notes*******

I don't like to change things that happened in-universe, so this story takes place when Harry's youngest daughter starts at Hogwarts. It'll be hard to bring in some of the characters from the books, but I am trying my best. I plan on bringing some of the dead back as ghosts, but it's a matter of who would and wouldn't hang around Hogwarts. And of course, there's the portraits in the Headmaster's office. ;)

I haven't decided yet if Al and Jas will be in this fanfic. If they will, it will be in later chapters. I do take suggestions if any of you have any good ones.

It was a rather dreary afternoon for mid August. Clouds hung overhead as though a downpour could happen any minute. The winds weren't harsh, but they weren't calm either. The grounds seemed deserted when he arrived. He was dressed in dark robes of blue and black, trimmed with gold. On his head, he wore a blue and grey turban with a garnet in the center, and on his right hand, he wore a brown gauntlet. His complexion was rather pale, suggesting that he came from a place that got little sunlight. He walked quickly, his steps full of purpose as he reached the castle-a large dark castle somewhere in Scotland. If he hadn't been a wizard, he would've seen a bunch of ruins surrounded by "Warning" and "Danger" signs. Nearby, a grey eel flew, darting in and out of trees, and looking around before following his master.

As he neared the entrance of the castle, he was greeted by a man twice his height with dark messy hair-now peppered with grey-and a full beard. "Ye must be Mozenrath," he said.

Mozenrath snarled at the jolly giant. "I am." He responded. He wondered if he should bother being nice at all. The wizard didn't care much for giants and it seemed like a waste of energy.

"Rubeus Hagrid," the giant said extending one of his large hands. "Professor Libeccio's been expectin ye."

Mozenrath looked at the large hand and chose to just nod at Hagrid. "Excellent. Where can I find him?"

"In the Headmaster's office," Hagrid told him. "I'll take ye to 'em."

"Lead on," Mozenrath said, almost sarcastically.

"Lead on!" Xerxes repeated, flying into a circle and then following the two men.

The two men walked on in silence-one thinking that conversing with a giant was a complete waste of time, and the other not sure how to address this newcomer without seeming offensive.

Since this was still the summer holidays, the school was pretty empty, save for the ghosts that moved around the place.

Suddenly, ice cold water came down from the ceiling and right onto Mozenrath. The sorcerer whirled around, ready to fry whoever would dare try such a thing. Nearby, hovering in the air, doubled over with fits of laughter was a different sort of ghost-a poltergeist, who was dressed in vibrantly-coloured clothing. "You shoulda seen your face!" the poltergeist laughed. "When you turned-hahahahaha-"

"How DARE you-" Mozenrath started.

"Ah, don' mind Peeves," Hagrid cut in. "He was just havin' a bit o' fun, he was."

Peeves floated over to Mozenrath and made a loud sound that could've been mistaken for flatulence. "Ew! What've you been eating?" he laughed.

"Alright, Peeves," Hagrid said, noting the fire in Mozenrath's eyes. "That'll be enough. Do I need ter 'ave a chat with the Bloody Barron?"

"NOOOOOOOO!" Peeves cried, flying down the hall.

Xerxes hovered in the air laughing, until he received a glare from his master.

"Who's the Bloody Baron?" Mozenrath asked, curiosity getting the better of him.

"Why, the only one 'ere who can control Peeves. Use ter be Dumbledore could control 'im, too, but that was afer he died. He don't hang around Hogwarts like some of 'em do. He's moved on." A tear escaped the half-giant's eye. Even now, more than twenty years later, he still missed the former Headmaster of Hogwarts.

The two continued on until they came to a stone gargoyle.

"Primavera," Hagrid said to the stone statue. No sooner had he said this than the wall opened to reveal a set of stairs which led up to the Headmaster's office.

When they reached the Headmaster's office, they were greeted by a wizard with grey hair and a mustache to match. He was about six feet tall and wore black robes that looked like they were made from expensive material. "You must be Mozenrath Shamash," he said with a thick accent, though his English was very fluent. "I'm Carmello Libeccio, the headmaster."

"Pleased to meet you," Mozenrath said.

Behind Mozenrath, Hagrid gave a snort of disapproval. This new professor hadn't been quite so warm towards him. "If ye'll excuse me," he said to Professor Libeccio, "me blast-ended skrewts are needin' ter be fed, so I'll be goin' now."

Professor Libeccio nodded to show this was ok. "Thanks, Rubeus," he said as Hagrid left the office. Then he turned his attention back to Mozenrath. "It's good to finally meet you in person," he said. "I hired you for this position because out of all the applicants, you stood out to me. I think you'll be a good addition to our staff at Hogwarts."

"I'm looking forward to filling the position," Mozenrath said.

"That's good to hear," Professor Libeccio said. "Defense Against The Dark Arts is an important subject to learn, and should be taught in the right way."

"I agree," Mozenrath smiled. "And I promise to make quite the impact."

"Quite the impact," Xerxes repeated, flying up to his master.

Outside, the clouds finally poured their rain over the Hogwarts grounds, and a rumble of thunder could be heard in the distance.

A few weeks later, at King's Cross Station, the platform was filled with students on their way to Hogwarts and their parents seeing them off. Lily Luna Potter gave her parents one last hug.

"It seems like it was yesterday when James was headed off to Hogwarts," Ginny Potter said, returning her daughter's hug. "And now all three of my babies are Hogwarts students." Mrs. Potter wiped a tear from her eye.

"Oh, Mom," Lily said, "I promise that I'll write. And I'll be coming home for Christmas."

"We'll be counting on it," her father, Harry Potter said. When he was a student at Hogwarts, he didn't have much of a home to go to for Christmas, so he and his wife always made sure that their children had a good Christmas with family.

"And you," Mrs. Potter addressed her eldest son James Sirius now. "I don't want to receive any owls about exploding grapefruits or vomiting toilets."

"Actually," James said, trying not to laugh at one of his best pranks, "I made the grapefruits vomit."

"The point," Mrs. Potter said, "is that there's a time and place for pranks."

"I'll remember that, Mom," James smiled before giving his mother an affectionate kiss. Then he nudged his younger Albus Severus. "So, ya gonna try out for the Ravenclaw Quiddich team this year?" He, himself was a seeker, just as his father had been.

"Actually. . ." Albus trailed off. He wasn't as into sports as his older brother and younger sister, and sometimes that fact worried him.

"What is it?" Mr. Potter asked him.

"Well," Albus began, "quiddich wasn't what I had in mind. I'm more into writing, and Hogwarts started this school paper last year, and. . ."

"You always were a good writer," Mrs. Potter said.

"If that's what you want to do, and it makes you happy," Mr. Potter said. "Then go for it."

"You mean it?" Albus asked.

"Albus, do you remember when you were headed to hogwarts for the first time and I told you that I'd love you no matter which house you got sorted into?" Mr. Potter asked his son. Albus nodded. "And you got sorted into Ravenclaw instead of Griffindor, and I didn't stop loving you. The most important thing is that you be yourself, and if writing is what you're good at, then pursue it."

Just then, the train whistle blew, signaling that everybody should board. Albus gave his father a hug, grabbed his trunk and owl and headed towards the train.

"See ya!" James called, after grabbing up his trunk and his owl.

Lily grabbed her trunk. "I hope I get an owl," she said to her parents.

"Remember the agreement," her father said. "Do well in school and you'll get your own pet as a reward.

"I know," Lily smiled. "And I'll work really hard." With that, she headed aboard the Hogwarts Express.

Once aboard the train, Lily searched for her cousin Hugo, or someone else she might recognize, but at the moment, the train was a sea of unfamiliar faces. She thought she caught a glimpse of James, but he seemed to be busy with a group of other fourth-year students, so she moved on. Finally, she sighed and climbed into an empty compartment. However, she hadn't been sitting there for long before a girl with long blonde hair pulled back in a half-ponytail came to join her.

"Hi!" Lily smiled, happy to have some company. "Is this your first year, too? I'm Lily Potter."

The girl nodded. "I'm Elizabeth Fisher," she said, "but my friends call me Lizzie. Not Liz." She had an accent that suggested she was from the southernmost part of the United States.

"Are you American?" Lily asked, surprised. She had thought that only English witches and wizards attended Hogwarts.

"Yes," Elizabeth said, "I live in Oregon, but I was born in Texas."

"It's nice to meet you," Lily said.

"Nice to meet you," Elizabeth said. "Hey, have you seen a girl a few inches taller than me with long brown hair? She usually wears it in a ponytail, but she could've worn it down today."

"No, I can't say that I have," Lily confessed.

"She said in a letter that she'd see me on the Hogwarts Express, but it's kind of hard to find anybody in the crowd."

"I know what you mean," Lily said.

Just then, there was a knock, and a few seconds later, the girl Elizabeth was describing entered. Her long wavy hair was pulled back in a high ponytail which reached to her waist in its current style. She wore silver hoops in her ears, and a series of silver bracelets on one arm.

"Lily, this is my friend Katy Marovich," Elizabeth introduced her friend. "She has a twin sister named Jessica, but I can usually tell them apart. She's the loud one."

"WHAT!" Katy exclaimed. "I'm NOT loud!"

"I think they heard you back in Portland," Elizabeth laughed. Then she looked at Katy's bracelets. "They'll make you take those off in class," she said.

Lily was looking at Katy's earrings. "You have your ears pierced?" she asked, amazed.

"My mom had them pierced when I was five," Katy explained, as if it wasn't a big deal. "She didn't want me doing it myself like she did. Like I'd willingly inflict pain on myself like that."

Suddenly, the door to their compartment burst open, and two figures burst in, moaning. The three girls screamed.

"Dementors!" Katy shrieked. She'd never actually seen a dementor before.

The two figures began to chuckle, before throwing off their disguises. One of them turned out to be James, while the other turned out to be a boy with light blonde hair.

"JAMES SERIUS POTTER!" Lily shouted. "I'm telling Mom!"

James was laughing so hard, tears were rolling down his cheeks. "You should've seen your face!" he laughed.

Elizabeth was glaring at the other boy. "Eric!" she snapped. "Get out of here!"

"Good LORD!" the boy called Eric mocked in a high-pitched voice. "Get out of here!" he continued in the same voice.

"Stop it!" Elizabeth shouted. "Katy, it's NOT FUNNY!" Behind her, Katy was laughing at Elizabeth's brother's impression of his sister.

"Sorry," Katy said. Then to the boys she said, "You're not wanted here. Get out!" Then with the help of Lily and Elizabeth, the two were shoved out, with the door slammed.

"Brothers!" Lily sighed.

"They can be a pain," Katy agreed. "I've known Eric for as long as I've known Lizzie, and he's so annoying! Every time I talk to Lizzie on the telethrow, he picks up the other end and belches."

"You know it's a telephone," Elizabeth groaned.

"Well, telethrow is what I'd like to do to it sometimes," Katy said.

The three girls spent the rest of the train ride talking about family, the upcoming school year, and anything else they could think of, which made time pass by quickly, and before they knew it, the train reached Hogsmead.

Later, after a boat ride across the lake, everybody gathered in the Great Hall for the Sorting Ceremony. Katy's twin sister Jessica had joined Katy, Lily and Elizabeth. Lily noticed, that unlike her sister, Jessica's hair was done in a French braid, and she wore no jewelry except for a gold pendent around her neck.

Lily waited her turn in line. So far, Elizabeth and Katy were sorted into Griffindor, but Jessica was sorted into Ravenclaw. Finally, it was her turn. Slowly, she made her way onstage and placed the sorting hat on her head.

"Griffindor!" the hat called almost instantly. Lily stepped down from her seat to join Elizabeth and Katy at the Griffindor table.

"...and he's a real nutbag, if you ask me," an older girl was saying to Elizabeth and Katy.

"Who's a nutbag?" Lily wanted to know.

"That dude with the bad perm," Katy said, gesturing to a guy at the faculty table. "His name's Dr. Fink."

"No," Elizabeth corrected. "That's Vink with a va-va-va."

"Anyway," Katy continued, "he's the Potions instructor. Meiling's told me some stories about him." She gestured to the older girl.

"Who's the guy next to him?" Lily wanted to know. "He's kind of cute."

Katy looked at the younger instructor. "Hey, you're right," she said. "I wonder if he's married."

"Katy, we're eleven," Elizabeth reminded her friend.

"It's not illegal to dream," Katy grinned.

"He's new here," Meiling explained, "but I heard he's going to be the new Defense Against The Dark Arts instructor. He has this pet eel that sticks close to him, which means you won't be able to get away with much in his class."

"What do you mean by that?" Elizabeth wanted to know. It never occurred to her to try and get away with anything in class.

"It means that that eel thing of his is a tattletale," Lily explained. She'd heard plenty of things about Filch and his cat Mrs. Norris from her father's days at Hogwarts.

"Shh!" Meiling whispered. "Libeccio's talking."

"Professor Libeccio," a sixth-year girl who was the Griffindor Prefect corrected.

At the Faculty table, Mozenrath sat, bored with all the festivities. He didn't much care who got sorted into what house, or what Professor Libeccio had to say. He was here on a mission, and would do what was necessary to fulfill it.

A/N: A little slow starting, I know. Feel free to review, and offer any suggestions. I'm assuming most readers have read the series, so I'm trying not to bore anybody with things we already know about, like the train ride, or too many details about the Sorting Ceremony, etc. And yes, I have an idea of what Mozenrath could be after, but I'm not going to reveal that yet. Oh, and I thought putting Harry's middle child into Ravenclaw would be a nice twist. K so until next time…