Summary- Going into second year. More pranks, spilled secrets, and major problems. So is the life of Lily Potter and her friends as she continues her adventure at Hogwarts. This year could be a little more exciting than they had expected. Be sure to keep a light on. Sequel to The Next Generation.

Disclaimer- I am not J. K. Rowling, and I never will be. I am merely a poor 15-year-old that writes fanfictions in her free time. Although I do claim all characters/settings you have never heard of before. And I own the plot.

Chapter 1- All My Own

My room. I couldn't say that enough. My very own room. I didn't have to share it with anyone. It was mine. I could leave my stuff all over the floor and no one would complain. I didn't have to worry about finding my brother's underwear under my bed (can you say gross?). I didn't have to worry about him finding my… Well, I think you get the idea.

"Lily!" someone called up the stairs.

I rolled off my bed and went to the doorway of my room (did I mention it was mine?). "Yeah?" I yelled back.

"Allie's going to be here soon," Dad said.

I whooped and hopped on the banister to slide down. Our banister's enchanted so that it's easier to slide down it.

You see, I'm a witch. My name's Lily Potter. Well, Nymphadora Potter, if you want to get specific, but nobody calls me that. Unless they're yelling my full name, but that doesn't happen much (thank Merlin). Or they happen to be my annoying cousin Percy. I was about to start my second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, along with my twin brother James. My older brother Sirius was about to start his sixth year and Grace, my sister, was about to start her fourth.

My best friend, Allison Freck (again, that's only if you get specific; we call her Allie), was coming to visit for the last two weeks of the summer. James' best friend, Alex Wood, had been coming over most of the summer since our dads were working on a big project they wouldn't tell us about, but I hadn't seen Allie since the end of the school year.

I slid off the end of the banister and landed in front of Dad. He smiled slightly. "Could you go find James? I think he's out back." We have a miniature Quidditch pitch in our backyard. There are some spells on it so that our muggles neighbors can't see or hear anything when we play, and it keeps the bludgers and the snitch in our yard.

As soon as I stepped outside, a quaffle came flying towards me. I caught it easily and launched it back out towards my brother, glaring at him. "Why do you keep doing that!"

"I want you to be ready," Sirius said, grinning. "I'm captain this year, so I decide whether or not you're on the team."

"You've only told us everyday since you got your letter," James said.

Sirius just grinned even more. "I don't want you to forget. Alright, go on, go say hello to Lils' friend before she decides to come up here and get you herself."

"I was kind of hoping I wouldn't need to," I said.

James touched down next to me. "Thought I'd save you the trip."

"Gee, thanks," I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes.

We went through the house and got back to the front just as Dad was closing the door. "They should be out back," he was saying.

"Right here," I said.

Allie turned around and grinned. "Lily!" She gave me a hug. "It's been forever!"

"Six weeks," I agreed. "Which really isn't fair since Alex has been over here almost every day."

"Why?" she asked.

"Because his dad and our dad are working on some top secret… thing," I said.

"Oh, hi, James," Allie said, looking over my shoulder at James.

"Hey," he said, grinning. "Dad, is Alex coming over today?"

"His dad is coming over in about an hour," Dad said. "Why don't you give Allie a tour?"

"Okay," I said. "Come on, Allie, we need to show you the house."

She laughed. "Like your room."

"Like my room," I said, grinning. Even if we hadn't seen each other all summer, we'd still written letters to each about once a week, depending mainly on what I was doing since we had to use my owl. My room was one of our main things to talk about, mostly because before that summer, I'd had to share a room with James.

After a quick tour of the house, we decided to go outside. Just as we were passing the stairs to the kitchen, Ben Weasley, my cousin, came running up the stairs. "Where's-" he started.

"Out back," James and I said at the same time.

"Thanks," Ben said, running out the back door.

"Does that… happen a lot?" Allie asked, looking slightly bewildered.

"Yeah," James said. "He floos here almost everyday so that he and Sirius can 'practice'."

"Of course, Weasleys are always popping in out of the fireplace," I added.

"Oh," Allie said simply.

JamesI grinned. "Come on. If you want to fly you can use Sirius' old broom."

"Are you still afraid of heights?" I asked. She nodded. "We'll tell Sirius to put the bludgers away. You just have to watch out for the quaffle."

"The what?" Allie asked as we opened the back door and went out. She's muggle-born and really didn't get Quidditch, no matter how many times we tried to explain it to her.

A red ball about the size of a football (AN- soccer) came flying towards me as soon as we were outside. I caught it and threw it towards Ben. "Watch out for that."

"They're always aimed for you, Lils," Ben said, grinning.

"Well, that's why I told her to watch out," I said, getting my broom. "We all know how horrible your aim is."

Ben laughed. "And we all know how much better our aim is than James'," Sirius added.

"Don't need to be able to aim," James said, kicking off from the ground. "I just have to catch things."

"Good thing for you then," I said as I handed Allie a broom and kicked off. I turned around to face her.

"Did I ever tell you how much I hate heights?" she asked, swinging one leg over the broom like we'd been taught the year before.

"Once or twice," I said, grinning.

"Okay, good." She kicked off, hovering only about four feet off the ground.

I looked up in time to catch the quaffle- again. "You're almost as bad as the stupid bludgers, Sirius!"

"That wasn't me," Sirius said. He nodded to a person on the ground. I glanced at the ground and groaned before throwing the quaffle at them as hard as I could.

"Hey! What did I do?" Alex yelled, having to duck to avoid being hit. "Hello to you too."

"Hey, Alex," James called. "Did you bring your broom?"

"What do you think that is in his hand, James?" I couldn't help but ask, rolling my eyes. James just turned and stuck his tongue out at me.

"Your mum said I should just leave it out here and tell all of you lunch is ready," Alex said.

We all touched back down and left our brooms outside, leaning them against the side of the house. "Any more luck with finding out what they're working on?" James asked Alex as we went inside. They were both working on finding out what our dads were working on. Alex thought it had something to do with the Aurors since that was where our dad worked; James thought it had something to do with Quidditch since Alex's dad worked in the Magical Games and Sports department.

"Oh, yeah," Alex said, grinning. "Don't know what your dad has to do with anything, but they're starting an Hogwarts alumni Quidditch league. I picked Dad up on the extendable last night."

"Dad's been wanting to start an alumni league for years," Sirius said. "I guess he finally found someone in the right department to help him."

"It hasn't been approved by the department officially, though," Alex said.

Sirius shrugged before turning to Ben. "How long are you staying today?" he asked.

"Until Mum yells at me through your fireplace," Ben said, smirking. "'Benjamin Weasley! You were supposed to be home two hours ago! What are you doing over there!' So probably around seven."

"Awesome," Sirius said, an almost identical look on his face.

"Uh-oh," I muttered. Identical looks on my brother and my cousin's face were never a good sign. Something James and Alex knew just as well as I did.

"Oh, don't worry, Lils," Sirius said. "We'll be nice."

"Yeah, right," I said, rolling my eyes as we all went down the stairs into the kitchen.

"Ben, what is your mum doing today?" Mum asked him as we entered the kitchen.

"Working on start of the term stuff," Ben said with a shrug. "She's still having trouble with Malfoy. He won't drop that prank from last year."

All of us looked at each other, trying to keep our faces straight. Everyone in the room (except for Mum, maybe, and Grace) knew that it had been James, Alex, and I with a little help from Allie. Sirius only knew because he caught us in the hall on our way back to the common room and Ben had either figured it out or Sirius or his sister Amanda told him.

"That's 'cause whoever did it hurt his son," Allie blurted before remembering she was talking to a professor and blushed. Mum just ignored it.

"Is she getting any hints on who it was?" Grace asked from where she was already sitting at the table.

"Nope," Ben said as we all sat down. "That's what's bothering him. If you don't know who did it, you can't punish him."

"Or her," I added.

"Or them," Sirius said, throwing me a knowing look. I just smiled innocently.

Um… yeah. A new year, a new beginning. New ways to torture my characters. Mwhahaha- choke coughcough Okay, anyway… Don't get excited about the whole Alumni Quidditch thing, please. It lasts until like… the ninth chapter. Seriously. And then it just goes away because I had more important plot bunnies to deal with. It's really not at all important. I wish I could take it out, but that's a big chuck out of a couple of chapters that I really don't want to mess with. Work with me here.