A/N: Written for the final round of the Childhood Competition of the HPFC Forum. Also, this is a multi-chaptered story, so it will be updated.
Lily Luna is seven and she is scared. Lily Luna is seven years old and there is a man screaming at Teddy for being part-werewolf, for being different and he is throwing around the kind of words that her parents have banned in the house, the kind they will never ever let anyone around them use. He's pulling her now, trying to get her out of Teddy's reach, saying it's not safe, and "how are you not scared of him?"
Teddy Lupin is a prefect and a Hufflepuff. He takes care of scared first years and always shares his food with her. Teddy Lupin may have a craving for rare meat on full moons and abnormally sharp senses but that is not enough, not enough to warrant this hatred.
Lily Luna is scared of a lot of things, poison hidden behind kind words, double sided coins, and the slurs on the tip of people's mouths but she is not scared of Teddy. She will never be.
Sometimes, the real monsters are fully human.
Lily Luna is eight years old and she is sitting on one of the antique chairs in Shell Cottage and listening to Dominique cry. There is ice cream between them, jars and tubs of the creamy desert, but it's not going to help because there is a Hogwarts letter between them too.
Victorie was lucky, lucky enough to inherit nothing more than a head of silver blonde hair and a liking towards rare steak. Dominique was not. Lily thinks there's nothing more terrible then the screams that come out of Dominique's mouth during the full moon, her body ready for a change that doesn't come.
Hogwarts will take Teddy and Victorie; a shape shifter son of a former auror and a war hero, the daughter of two members of the Phoenix army, but there is already a hatred rising there. Dominique cannot go. There is no safety in a school that has already been a battleground.
They say Fenrir Greyback killed thousands and they made up thousands of laws against werewolves. They say the Goblins are planning a rebellion and they treat them like second class citizens. They say the part-humans, the mud bloods, the outcasts are planning a rebellion.
Sometimes, Lily thinks she'd join them for a chance to see her cousin go to Hogwarts, to see her cousin be safe and accepted.
And that's how it starts.
And baby, you should have known. Sparks turn into fire and fire?
With Fire, you can make things burn.
Lily is nine and she is sitting in Number 12, Grimmauld Place, surrounded by portraits. Her parents are gone today, off to take James to Hogwarts. She could've come but she never been babysat by Andromeda Tonks before.
She knows Aunty Andromeda, as James calls her, from various family dinners, where the older woman sits gracefully, sipping tea from Grandma Molly's oversized mugs with the grace of a queen. She knows bits and pieces about Aunt Andromeda, hints of stories about a teenage girl who burned down the Black family summer home in her rage, who loved and lost her entire family and still went on to raise Teddy.
She wonders, why Andromeda had accepted the chance to own this home, this mansion belonging to people who never wanted anything to do with her after she left, why-
"I chose this because they told me I was no longer a Black. But I am and now?" Andromeda showed her teeth in a cold and beautiful smirk that would set of warning bells in any sane person head. "Karmas a bitch and anyone who'd argue otherwise is dead."
Lily nodded. "I apologize for that. It was a personal question. I didn't mean for it to slip out."
Andromeda studied her carefully, as if looking for something. Finally, after almost an eternity of examination, Andromeda beckoned towards Lily sharply. "Come, there is something you'd want to see."
Walking through the halls of Grimmauld place, she could see with her dad had never wanted to live here, why he had sold the Black manor for a price not even worth discussing. There are ghosts here, shadows of women and men who went mad, who died screaming their rage for the world to hear.
Andromeda walked fast and precisely, the steps of a queen, until she arrived at a storage room cloaked in shadows and layers of dust. Steeping carefully over antiques hidden in boxes, Andromeda reached a pile of portraits carefully hidden from the view of the door.
Pulling out a single portrait, Andromeda walked back to the door, placing the upside portrait in Lily's arms.
"The Black and Potter family trees have been intertwined once and once only for good reason. The Black madness and the Potter recklessness are deadly by themselves but together?" Andromeda cackled, throwing her head back. "Lady Dorea Potter nee Black was madwoman with serpents tongue and a blatant disregard for anyone's rules but her own. At a time when Voldemort's reign was beginning, she notoriously associated with both muggles and dark creatures. When her ancestors tried to disown her, she not only fought back but almost brought the Blacks of that time into bankruptcy by threatening to expose all their dark deeds."
Andromeda paused for a second, seeming to recall a past memory. "I met Dorea precisely once. She walked through the wards of this exact house during the annual Yule ball. She was already engaged to Charlus Potter, your grandfather, but she thankfully didn't bring him."
Andromeda smiled mockingly, twisting one curl around a slender finger. "This was the only portrait of her ever made. Most of the disowned Blacks had their portraits burned but Dorea warded it so heavily that nobody with an intention of harming it could even come near, for fear of death."
Lily clutched the portrait closer, an internal peak of delight at the possibility of meeting an ancestors of hers rising in her chest. Andromeda did not miss the gesture or the possessiveness behind it. "I want you to take the portrait. I have many more portraits in this house. I do not need it hers. After all, you will need."
Lily furrowed her eyebrows. "Why would I need the portrait? I don't mean to offend but…" She trailed off, the works unsaid but their meaning clear.
Andromeda's eyes sharpened, the look of a predator who sees potential. "Miss Potter, I do not enjoy watching your attempts at innocence. It may surprise you, but I did not indulge in these stories for the opportunity to remember my youth. You are a Black and a Potter through both sides of your family. While I cannot fathom what your parents were thinking by not telling you this, I have taken it up as my job to educate you on your past."
Lily shivered. The mere idea of Andromeda teaching her made her want to run and never come back. "Are you sure?"
For a second, Andromeda seemed like she'd say no, but then the two's eyes met and Andromeda merely nodded. "It is my duty as a daughter of house Black. And if that is not enough, I seek reassurance in creating a better world for my grandson. "
Lily Luna is ten years old and she is angry, so angry she can see stars. It's been two weeks since her parents sat her down for a talk about their past in the war. It's unnecessary really, James told her everything the moment he got this same talk.
Lily thinks she takes it for granted sometimes, the close relationship she shares with her siblings and cousins. She'd die for them, if it came down to it, and that's the problem. So many people have died for another: her grandparents, giving up their life for her fathers; her dad, dying for all the brave, loyal, cunning, clever kids who formed an army at his command.
Lily knows her family aren't the only people who've died for their loved ones and that makes it worse.
It's that thought that keeps her awake at night, when she's up late dreaming of a better world. If Lily wants freedom, safety for all, she's going to have to fight for it and she knows she's not going to be fighting alone.
Still, Lily vows, that this time around, it'll be the last day good people die for their causes.
Lily Luna is one day short of eleven years old and she's holding a letter and an opportunity.