A Photograph.
All rights go to JKR. Concept was a head cannon from the next generation.
Her flame red hair splays across the pillow as she sleeps, winding and twirling as she becomes unsettled. Her dreams make her reach out, chasing the guy on the motorbike as he winds his way down familiar roads away from her. A smirk on his aristocratic lips, high cheekbones and a wink. Dark hair framing his face, how she itches to push it away. "Stay safe. Be careful." She calls out to him as he dips out of view over the hill.
She'd never met this guy. The tall and lean handsome man on a motorcycle. The leather jacket a second skin. The painted on ripped jeans. The scuffed and unlaced army type boots. A nameless beautiful face. The teen in the photograph that she had found in the attic while looking for something else entirely.
The trunk had been locked a while, the snap closure a little stiff to prize open. Something satisfying to watch it ping open with a few twists and prods. Envelopes containing all sorts of photos. The teen guy was straddling a muggle bike, a grin across his face. A twinkle in his eye, as if to say 'Watch me.' She was entranced by that point, forgot all about finding the prom dress in amongst all the clutter. Pressing the photo to her chest, her face flushed as many inappropriate thoughts flooded her bright mind. Who was this older guy? This bad boy? Folding it into quarters she tucks it into the back pocket of her jeans. Clambering down the ladder she hurries past a squabbling James and Albus outside their rooms. Slamming the door behind her she flops onto her bed, reaching the photo and tracing the strangers face with a light finger.
Two weeks later it was hidden in her trunk as she boarded the Hogwarts Express along with her other fifth years. A good handful of times Hugo and Roxy had to send a slight gentle hex her way to get her attention. It was so unlike her; they both reach the agreement that Lily had been distracted although wouldn't pry to what. They knew better than to ask.
Even Lysander had noticed a difference in his sort of girlfriend. The usually quick witted and sharp Potter female was off akin to something of her middle namesake and his mother. Sander was thrown by it. The elder female would talk eventually.
Lily awakens with a start, fumbling under her pillow for the photo. Her dorm mates sleep on. She had to find out who he was. The black and white image was faded around the edges and becoming tatty from her grasp but gave no clear indication to dates or anything. Slipping out of bed and her feet into slippers, she finds her dad's invisibility cloak and magical map in the depths of her trunk at the foot of her bed. With a whisper of 'lumos' the tip of her wand illuminates under the cloak. Carefully she sneaks down the stairs of the Gryffindor tower to the common room.
Settling into a chair her black and white cat Felix shuffles under the cloak and into her lap. She had no clue where to start, the logical thing would to be to ask her parents but did she really want to tell The Harry Potter that she thought nonstop about this guy? No, no she didn't. Maybe discussing it with Roxy and Hugo would be better? Hugo would go tell Sander who would do something although she couldn't be sure what. She really didn't want him to know about this silly crush either. What I he took it personally? She knew deep down that she loved Sander. They'd grown up together, the Scamander twins had been as part of the family as all her Weasley cousins had been. Lily and Lysander balanced each other out. She was fiery and impatient. He was calm, patient and a good listener. Earth to her fire. Grounding. A true Hufflepuff.
But this man on a bike haunted her thoughts every day and night. It unsettled her beyond rational thought. It was as if he was familiar but Lily couldn't place why or how. Worse the fact that she had found it in the loft of her childhood home. In a trunk covered in a thin layer of dust. Therefore, she deducted, there were some sort of link between him and her family. Somehow.
She had to tell Roxy. Her best female friend since forever and only a year older who knew her inside out. Roxy would help her figure it out. To who this mysterious bad boy was and to why she felt like this, and how to stop it.
Over the next few weeks they still couldn't figure it out. Over Christmas break she spends a little while in the attic going through the trunk. He appears in photos with he grandparents James and Lily. Often with another taller tired looking guy who looks like Teddy and a round skittish looking guy and a pretty looking blonde girl.
Gathering the photos into the trunk she levitates, she knows – no magic out of Hogwarts but still- the bulky object down to her fathers' study. Knocking lightly before entering she finds Harry scribbling onto parchment. He looks up at his teenage daughter, his black hair now peppering at the temples and just as haphazard as it has always been. "Hello, Love." Harry motions for her to sit in the seat beside him. "What can I help you with?"
Lily levitates the trunk to the floor before taking the rotating leather seat. In seeing it, surprise crosses Harry's face then curiosity towards his youngest child. Harry had tried to protect her from learning too much about the previous generation. It was easier just to focus on his parents. Then Padfoot, Moony and Marlene by name or showing them photos of recently in Sirius' and Remus' case rather than of their younger years even though they had been such a big part of his life.
Lily removes the photo from the top of the trunk, hands shaking slightly. Taking a deep breath, she casts a last longing look over the photo. Blushing, she looks at her father, meeting his green eyes. "Dad? Who is this?"
Of course, Harry knew the answer even before she showed him it.