A/N: The Ember History was my first fan-fiction. And considering I was fairly young when I wrote it, the initial version involved a lot of stupid, unbelievable details that I've aimed to eliminate in this revised version. I'm hoping the story will actually be, you know, good this time around.

Disclaimer: I don't claim to own any of the canon characters. Some descriptive passages in this fic were taken directly from the books in order to better link Lily's story to the canon story. I don't claim to have written these passages. It all belongs to JK Rowling.

Hengist Historical Society Interviews

June 1999

Galvin checked the address on the letter in his hand and then knocked three times on the door in front of him. Seconds later the door opened and a young witch with short blonde hair and grey eyes smiled out at him expectantly.

"Hello Miss Carling," Galvin said. "I'm Galvin Jarwood from the Hengist Historical Society of Kent...we've been corresponding via owl?"

"Yes, of course," the girl replied, opening the door wider. "Please, come in. I've been expecting you."

She opened the door all the way and invited the man into her small, Diagon Alley flat. Upon entering Galvin nearly ran straight into the dining room table, which was situated very near the door. It then became very evident that the girl had indeed been expecting him.

There were two cups of steaming tea sitting at the far end of the table, but they were barely visible behind the oak trunk that lay open on the table top, surrounded by an assortment of documents, photographs, and other artifacts.

"Please, sit," said the girl, gesturing to a chair with a cup of tea in front of it.

Galvin said "thank you", placed his briefcase on the floor beside him and sat down as the girl did the same.

"Now, you know why I'm here, of course," Galvin said, sipping his tea. "The Hengist Historical Society is working to compile a book of biographies of those who were affected by the Second War. Of course," he went on, pushing his silver glasses up the bridge of his nose, "everyone was affected by it in some way. It only ended a year ago. Regardless, the Society is collecting as many interviews as it can from as many different perspectives as we can right now. We're looking to speak with Ministry officials, shop owners, Hogwarts students and staff, Aurors, even ex-Death Eaters. Then we'll choose the most interesting and relevant interviews to put into this book. It should be a very interesting project."

"Certainly," the girl agreed.

"I'd like to start with some basic background information," Mr. Jarwood said, pulling a lengthy form, some blank parchment and a quill out of his briefcase and situating these materials in front of him, "and then we'll move on to discuss your lineage and finally the formative events in your life up to now, with special focus on the War, naturally."

The girl nodded and Galvin continued.

"So, the basics. Full name?"

"Lily Amber Carling," Lily answered.

"Just Carling?" he asked, studying his parchment. "I have 'Carling-Lestrange' listed here."

"Yes, well," Lily said. "I suppose that is my full name."

"Any relation to the infamous Death Eaters, Bellatrix and Rodolfus?"

"Yes," Lily answered shortly. "Distantly, on my mother's side. I wouldn't read too much into that, though. All the old pureblooded families are related somehow, after all."

"True, true," Galvin said, taking notes on his parchment. "Next, birth date?"

"January 20th, 1980."

"Ah, so you were indeed in the same year as Harry Potter while at Hogwarts?" Galvin inquired eagerly, shaking a stray strand of brown hair out of his eyes and adjusting his glasses again.

"That's right," Lily answered.

"Would you say you were friends with Harry, then? Close to him in anyway?"

"Erm...no, I wouldn't say so," Lily replied, studying her interviewer skeptically and questioning his intentions. "I mean, we talked sometimes. We were friendly, but we really weren't much more than acquaintances."

"Hmm, I see," Galvin said, sounding somewhat disappointed and scribbling a note onto his parchment. "Let's talk about your family, then. You mentioned that you are pureblooded...?"

"I am," Lily answered as Galvin continued to take notes.

"Good. Now, I'd like you to tell me about the maternal side of your family. No great details are necessary, I'd just like to know how many aunts and uncles you've got, what houses at Hogwarts your grandparents were in, things of that nature."

"Well, I've got this if you'd like to copy it," Lily said, rummaging through the explosion of papers and photographs in and around the trunk before her. She pulled out what appeared to be an elaborate family tree. "The important bits are at the bottom here," she said, pointing to two names, Virgil and Vera Lestrange.

"These are your maternal grandparents?" Galvin asked, examining the tree and pointing at the same names.

"That's right. Both of them were Slytherins, and though neither of them were actually Death Eaters or anything that extreme, they certainly thought Voldemort had the right idea. They were friends with a lot of the families that went on to serve You-Know-Who, but fortunately they never got too involved themselves."

"How fascinating," Galvin said, scratching away at his parchment. "And I see here that you've got two aunts as well?"

"Yes," replied Lily. "Ephra who was in Ravenclaw and Briar who was in Slytherin. My mum, Lydia, was the youngest and a Ravenclaw as well."

"Excellent," Galvin said, nodding and writing. "Now I'd like to talk about the paternal side of your family."

"I have a family tree for that side, too," Lily said, sorting through the pages strewn across the table. "Here." She handed the tree to Galvin and pointed out her grandparents.

"Alton and Asteria Carling?" he asked, making sure he was looking at the right branch of the tree.

"That's them. Alton was in Gryffindor and Asteria in Hufflepuff. They had four children. Brogan's a squib. He married a Muggle and their kids aren't magical. Can't say I like that lot too much. Then there was my dad, Sawyer. He was in Slytherin. Next is Uncle Drake, a Slytherin, and then Aunt Tierney who was in Hufflepuff. She married a Muggle as well."

"Does all your family live around London, or -"

"Oh, no," Lily interrupted. "My grandparents are all in Upper Flagley, my dad is in Cumbria, and I grew up in Berkshire before I moved to London. The rest of my family is scattered around England. Except my Aunt Briar. She lives in America with her husband."

"You didn't live with your father?" Galvin inquired, sounding concerned.

"No. I don't think he and Lydia ever married, like I said. He's been in the Lake District for as long as I can remember," answered Lily. "He does some work concerning magical creatures for the Ministry of Magic up there. I don't know...he's an interesting fellow, my dad. A storyteller. He used to tell me when I was little that we were descended from wood elves and that when I was born I had pointy ears but I grew out of them. I loved it when he told me things like that, and I believed him. Of course, now I'm older I'm not so sure how truthful his stories were..."

"Of course, of course," said Galvin with an understanding nod. "Now, I'm curious...what was your childhood home like? Did you live in a Muggle neighbourhood or perhaps-"

"No," interrupted Lily once again. "Lydia and I lived quite near a Muggle neighbourhood, but Feverfew Vale was tucked into a wood across the way from that. It was quite easy to get to if you knew what you were doing, but if you didn't it proved to be a bit trickier to locate. I really liked it there...our big cottage in the shade. It's got a big garden with a pond and it's all lined with cherry trees and things. It's really quite lovely."

"It sounds lovely," Galvin said.

"I really did like growing up there," Lily went on reminiscently. "It was nice, too, because there was this little old witch, Mrs. Blanchflower, that had set up a little one room school house not too far away for the wizarding children in the area to learn to read and write and things like that. We didn't practice magic, of course, but we didn't have to be home-schooled like most wizarding children. There were only about ten of us, and only one other girl that ended up in my year at Hogwarts. Mostly I'm glad I got to be around other witches and wizards my own age when I was younger...not everyone has that opportunity, you know?"

"That is a rather unique circumstance, yes, though not unheard of," Galvin agreed, noting this on his parchment and giving Lily and appreciative nod. "Now, let me see..." He scanned over the form and notes in his hand, making sure he had gone over all the necessary points before proceeding. "Very good. I think that will be all for the background information. Now I'd like to tell you a bit about the next section and how it's going to be used.

"As I explained before, participating in this interview does not guarantee that your story will be in the Society's book. We expect this project to take quite a while to complete, especially considering that we would like to reunite with some of our interviewees in several years time in order to compile an epilogue of sorts. Now, in a moment I'm going to ask you to begin recounting important moments in your life; your first signs of magic, getting your first wand, your first day at Hogwarts, any death you experienced at the hands of Voldemort...anything that you remember well and wish to share, any memories or opinions that you think were important in making you the witch you are today. Also, it would be helpful if you could recount these memories in chronological order as best you can, and any papers or photographs you can provide to supplement these memories would be greatly appreciated. Are you ready to begin?"

"Yes," Lily said, nodding enthusiastically. "Yes, I think so."

A/N: That was a whole lot of background detail, I know. Don't worry, the rest of the fic will actually be a story! I'm really happy to finally be sprucing this thing up...it's been sorely in need of revision for a long time and I missed writing fan-fiction! The last name "Carling" isn't actually found anywhere in the series, but I've always liked it because it means "the hill where witches gather" which is quite appropriate for an HP story, I've always thought!

Please review! :]