a/n: I've been day-dreaming this story for more than a year now but haven't had the nerve to publish anything. I tend to be a slow writer but make up for it with long chapters! There are some discrepencies between my story and what J.K. has shared about other schools and the wizarding world post-book 7. I incorporate the pieces that I find useful but sometimes like to make up my own facts about the Wizarding World.
Seeking a beta! I do my best but would love another pair of eyes on these chapters.
Hope you enjoy! Feedback is appreciated.
Chapter 1: The Young Transfigurationist [July-August 2030]
The ominous clouds overhead released sporadic bouts of rain as the people of London bustled this way and that, umbrellas open and coat collars popped against the damp. Most people kept their eyes down on the look-out for dastardly puddles. Eye contact in London was a rare commodity between strangers. A young woman bounded along the trail of Hyde Park despite the weather. In fact, she didn't seem to be deterred at all even when the drizzles turned into a more serious downpour.
Lily had learned after her first run in London to cast water repelling charms before leaving the house. It wasn't that she minded getting a little damp, but why run with water in your eyes when you could avoid it? The young witch had recently graduated from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and after two very long days living with her parents had quickly agreed to flat-sit for her older brother while he went on a month-long training program with the Auror department. He would be returning in one week which meant that Lily would either have to move back in with her parents or break out on her own; something she wasn't convinced was financially possible.
Not to mention that she had absolutely no idea what she wanted to do now that the seven years of Hogwarts had come to a seemingly abrupt finish. Albus had told her not to worry about her apparent lack of direction. He had taken a full year to decide what to do after school, much to the chagrin of their parents and extended family. Lily could remember the awkward family dinners from last year's holidays and had no intention of repeating Albus's performance.
Neither Harry or Ginny seemed to fully appreciate their children's wide expanse of options post-graduation. That is not to say that all three were complete and utter geniuses who could do whatever they wanted, but, well, the threat of death and catastrophic destruction had done wonders for her parents' professional drives. Ironically, her Aunt Hermione had been the only one supportive of her inability to choose a career path at the young age of eighteen.
"Muggles sometimes go through several more years of school before they enter the workforce." Hermione had explained to Ginny quietly one afternoon over tea.
Lily had blushed, even as she stood at the bottom of the stairs, to know that her parents were worried about her. She had quickly marched through the house and out the front door for her afternoon run before she could hear anything her mother might have to say. She knew Ginny Weasley was still slightly embarrassed by Albus. Lily didn't fault her for this, after all the Weasley-Granger-Potter-Lupin clan was notorious for having birthed an entire generation of over-achieving, world-saving witches and wizards. It was hard for the likes of Ginny Weasley, professional quidditch player and award-winning reporter to fathom the gripping indecisiveness that froze her children's forward momentum.
Lily exited the park and ran back to her brother's dingy apartment. She could have taken the tube, but knew that the other passengers might give her strange looks if she were completely dry in the midst of this summer rain-storm. At least while she was moving no one realized that her clothes and face weren't getting soaked.
Lily's running habit was the only thing keeping her sane at the moment and she felt that if she kept running it might stave off the sense of impending doom that threatened her whenever she was still.
"Hey! Watch it!" a group of tourists called as they collided with Lily, their eyes too busy on their camera's viewfinder and phone screens to have noticed her.
"Sorry, sorry." Lily mumbled, slipping through them as quickly as she could.
"I have got to get one of those jackets! She's completely dry!" A teenage girl in the mass of picture-snapping Americans shouted. Lily rolled her eyes and kept moving.
After a quick shower Lily made herself a cup of tea and stood at the counter reading the Daily Prophet. She blew on the steaming mug periodically to help it cool.
"You should just use a cooling charm." A voice muttered from the doorway.
"Merlin's beard, Albus!" Lily screeched, sloshing hot tea across the paper and her shorts.
"Nice to see you too, sis!" Albus said with a smile. He dropped his heavy bag on the wobbly kitchen table and took the mug from Lily's hands.
"Ugh, too much sugar," he said with a grimace, continuing to drink. His hands were pink from what Lily suspected to be cold and he was bundled up in a long coat with a dark scarf tucked smartly beneath his green jumper. There were small bits of snow in his dark brown hair.
"So you dropped out, then?" Lily asked teasingly. She had moved on from the tea and was now peeling an orange, offering every other slice to Albus.
"No." Albus muttered with a scowl, "Some idiot blew up the site and they sent us all home. Won't be surprised if they scrap my whole class after that. Cost the ministry hundreds of thousands of galleons to send us out there and trainee just went and blew up half an island in the North Sea!"
"Sounds serious," Lily said with a raised eyebrow.
"Dad went ballistic." Albus admitted, nodding his head and hopping up to sit on the counter. He leaned down to unlace his boots.
"Ugh, Albus. Those reek. Seriously, didn't you bathe while you were up there?" Lily pinched her nose and shoved her older brother.
Albus responded with a smirk and waved the shoes in front of her face. With a flick of her wand Lily sent them zooming to his room.
A pop sounded from the hall and James poked his head into the kitchen.
"Mum wants us home for lunch today." He announced.
"Hello to you too, Jamesie." Lily cooed sarcastically.
"Hello, sister dear."
"What's this all about?" Albus asked him, now releasing his feet from the confines of thick woolen socks. The kitchen immediately became hostile to human life.
"Argh!" Lily cried, launching herself from the room.
"Albus, mate, you have got to do something about those feet." James said sadly.
"I think it's a fungus." Albus admitted with a sheepish shrug.
"Absolutely fucking disgusting!" Lily screamed from the safety of the spare room just down the hall.
At the same time, the fireplace roared to life and Ginny Potter swiftly clambered out.
"Albus Potter!" She said loudly.
"What have you done?" James breathed, hurrying to scurry out of the way of his mother's wrath.
"Yes, mum?" Albus asked, his voice squeaking slightly.
"Thank Merlin you're alright!" Ginny said, rushing into the kitchen to hug her middle child. She was thwarted, by the stench of the child's feet.
"What is that smell?" She asked. Lily and James sniggered loudly from the spare room, safely out of sight.
"Oi! Shut up in there." Albus said. "It's a fungus, mum."
"A fungus, dear?" Ginny asked.
"From that bleeding island Dad had us locked away on for three weeks."
"Yes, I've had words with your father about that already." Ginny said comfortingly. "Anyway, I came to collect you all for lunch. We're having a bit of a party to celebrate Albus coming home!"
"Mum, I really do not need a party to celebrate...completely unnecessary."
Ginny ignored his protests.
"Come along, James, Lily! I need your help at the house." There were groans from the spare room, but Ginny ignored those as well. "At the house in ten minutes, you three." She spun and was gone with a crack.
"Why did you have to come back a week early?" Lily grumbled loudly as she entered the kitchen again. She brandished her wand once more and the offensive socks were quickly vanished (James would later return to his own flat and find them snuggled up quite cozily to his favorite pillow).
"You can still stay here even though I'm back." Albus assured her, hoping off the counter to stretch.
Lily's scowl did not disappear.
"I promise not to tell mum and dad every time you bring some girl home either." Albus said with a wink. James giggled from behind her.
"Oh right, because you two don't have one-night stands."
"Of course we do, Lily," James agreed, "but at least mum and dad know who we're sleeping with."
"I'll tell them eventually." Lily promised.
"That's what you've been saying for your entire life." Albus said, rolling his eyes.
"I don't have time for a family interrogation!" Lily argued. Her temper always seemed to flare when her brother's brought up this particular topic.
"Right, because lounging around here and re-reading your transfiguration books is very, very important." Albus snapped back.
"And with that, I'm out." James said awkwardly. He disapparated, swiftly followed by a glowering Lily.
Albus sighed and headed for the shower. He had always known that his entire family was bizarre, each member in their own special way. Lily had always been exceptional. Her magic had been much more subtle and gentle than her brothers' magics when they were little. James and Albus would simply fling their toys around the room whereas Lily would carefully attach hand-crafted paper wings to all her dolls before having them hover like small pixies.
On her 11th birthday, a full six months before she entered Hogwarts, Lily had perfected the wing-transplants so well that she had cajoled her hoard of make-shift creatures to follow her around for an entire week. Invisibly. Albus wouldn't have believed it at all until his Dad shared the story with James and Albus one summer night after the boys expressed concerns about how to protect their small and consequently defenseless sister. Apparently the invisible toys had led an aerial attack against the neighbor's rose-bushes where Lily claimed an 'evil wizard' was hiding. The wizard turned out to be the neighbor's extremely fat and lazy cat.
In August of 2019, when Lily had finally received her wand Albus was very jealous. At 12 and 3/4 inches, Lily's wand was the longest of all the Potter children (something that would be turned into a raucous joke once Lily officially came out to her brothers during her third year), but it was also beech, one of the most prestigious of wand woods. The unicorn hair core was the same as his and James', but thirteen year old Albus easily ignored that important detail.
Albus reminisced further about the peculiarity of his sister while brushing his teeth. The biggest shock that had ever shaken the Weasley family in generations had been caused by Lily when the Sorting Hat had been placed on her auburn hair that fateful September evening (Albus swears it was raining although Lily and James agree that it was a crisp and clear night) and announced swiftly, "SLYTHERIN".
After several months of secretly exchanged letters between Lily, James, and Albus while their parents waited in agony with no word from any children, a howler had arrived for Lily in the middle of her first flying lesson:
"LILY LUNA POTTER! HOW DARE YOU NOT WRITE TO YOUR MOTHER. YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOUR COMPLETE DISRESPECT FOR YOUR FATHER AND ME! I EXPECT LETTERS WEEKLY FROM YOU AND YOUR BROTHERS.
Oh, dear, we are so proud of you for your sorting. Give 'em hell!"
James and Albus heard re-tellings through the Gryffindor first year's who had been present. The three had eaten dinner together at the end of the Gryffindor table that night, spending most of the time writing long and detailed letters to appease their overbearing mother.
Pulling on a different pair of uninfected shoes, Albus mused that his Hogwarts experience had been drastically different from his sister's, despite the fact that they had both chased after the Quidditch Cup and girls with the same Potter tenacity. He would never know what really happened behind the closed door of the Slytherin common room. It had been scary, at first, to realize this. In his final two years at Hogwarts, however, Albus accepted that Lily was the last Potter anyone should ever worry about. She had gone on to prove him correct-in fifth year she became Prefect and in her seventh, Head Girl. Their parents had been over the moon.
With a smile at the happy memory of the letter she had sent to him to relay the news, Albus disapparated to Godric's Hollow to join the rest of his family.
Harry Potter had realized several years ago that his family operated best in a state of chaos. For this reason, he was not even slightly rankled by the noise outside of his office door. Sure, it sounded like Louis had stolen his sisters' wands again and was attempting to perform spells with all three at once, but really, Harry wondered, what could happen that they hadn't seen before?
"Dad!" Lily said breathlessly as she opened his door.
"Yes, dear?" The raucous outside grew significantly in volume.
"Louis has stuck baby Lupin to the the ceiling, they think it might be permanent."
"Not again." Harry groaned. Suddenly, loud cheering erupted.
"We got him! We got him!" James screamed from down the hall.
"Never mind, false alarm!" Lily assured him, glancing over her shoulder in time to see Geoffrey Lupin hoisted into the air like the Quidditch Cup. She quietly shut her father's door once more.
Like Harry said, utter chaos.
Despite the outrageous behavior of the Weasley-Potter-Lupin clan before dinner, the meal went off relatively smoothly and the three Potter children were able to beg off after helping their mother with the washing up.
"Fancy a pint?" James asked as they all stood in the backyard of their parents house.
"Yes!" Albus and Lily said at the same time.
"Leaky Cauldron?" Lily offered quickly. The other two nodded and all three trudged back inside to use the Floo.
"We're off, mum! Bye Dad!" Lily said over the noise of her relatives.
She didn't bother waiting for a response, knowing that her mum probably couldn't hear them anyways.
The Leaky Cauldron was busy and the Potters had to fight off a group of Hogwarts girls who still referred to Lily as "Head Girl" for their spacious booth.
"First round's on me." James offered before heading to the bar.
"That girl is staring at you." Albus told Lily with a frown. "She doesn't look too happy."
"Probably thinks I'm someone else." Lily said with a shrug, pushing her fringe out of her eyes. Over christmas break she had let her dorm mates cut her hair-a style that Ginny had shrugged off as 'Slytherin' while Al and James sniggered at their mum's oblivious nature. It was now, Albus and James agreed, fairly possible when looking at Lily to assume that she was gay.
"Nope, definitely knows it's you," Albus said, "She's clearly bitching to her friends about you."
Lily couldn't stop herself from turning around.
"Fuck me." She groaned, quickly whipping back to face her brother.
"Who is it?" he asked just as Lily said, "We have got to go."
"We are not going anywhere," James said forcefully, "I just got back with the drinks!"
"She's definitely coming over here," Albus told Lily.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck."
"What the hell is going on?" James asked, clearly confused.
"Hello, Potter." A cold voice said from Lily's right.
"Green." Lily mumbled with a brief nod in the other woman's direction.
Albus and James sat very still, not daring to breathe.
"Can't even look at me, can you?" The woman, Green, demanded. "Not that I should be shocked, what with the way you treated me and every other girl this year. How you made Head Girl I'll never know. You're nothing but a lying bitch."
"That's enough." Albus said stonily, standing up.
"Oh, Albus Potter." Green said with a snort. "I don't have time for you, sit back down."
"Shut the fuck up, Jess." Lily snapped. "None of us were bothering you so why don't you just go sit back down."
"But you are bothering me, Potter. You sitting here acting like you did nothing wrong is really, really bothering me."
"I didn't do anything wrong." Lily told her with a blank face.
"How can you say that?" The girl slammed her hands down onto the table. The neighboring booths shushed their friends to better hear what was being said. "You used me and then threw me away when you were done! You can't do that to people, Potter."
"I did not use you! I was very honest from the beginning about how I felt." Lily argued.
"I loved you!" Jessica Green announced.
"And I broke it off with you because I didn't love you, Jess. I didn't know you were in love. You're mad at me for ending our relationship, but are trying to say that I lied about my feelings?You can't have it both ways." Lily replied, crossing her arms.
The woman's friends, all of whom Lily recognized from school, rushed over and escorted Jessica back to their table.
"Ravenclaws." Lily said derisively with a roll of her eyes.
"Fucking nuts." James agreed, taking a swig of his beer.
"Not as bad as this girl I just dated." Albus said.
"Out with it then," Lily said with a grin. She tried to ignore the soft crying sounds coming from the table behind her.
"Damn, Lily, what did you do to that girl?" James asked, cutting Albus off. Lily turned around to see that Jessica was full on sobbing now.
"Nothing she hadn't done to anyone else, I assure you." Lily muttered.
"Wait, you broke her heart out of vengeance?" Albus demanded
"Of course not, that would be cold-hearted and exceedingly cruel."
"You know, Albus, some days I forget that our little sister here is a Slytherin. And then I hear shit like this and I wonder how I ever forgot!" James said before draining his pint.
"She totally abused her power as prefect! Took advantage of a fourth year, it was disgusting." Lily assured them.
"That's our Lily," Albus began, "out to protect all the budding lesbians from those predatory prefects, and, getting laid in the process."
Albus and James high-fived.
"That is disgusting, I did not have sex with her!"
"No sex? You mean you made-out with that woman in a broom-cupboard and now she's suddenly proclaiming her love in public?" James was astounded.
"There were certain, favors, that I did for her. But she never reciprocated. There was no sex."
"No, just, clearly some calculated manipulation on your part!" Albus said loudly.
"Shut up!" Lily hissed, slapping her brother.
"Lily, how serious were these favors were talking about?" James asked suddenly.
Lily flicked her tongue out once, twice, with an exaggerated wink at her oldest brother.
"Gross, James, why do you even ask?" Albus said, faking retching noises.
"From what I hear, this sister of ours has some serious talent and I need her to teach me!" James said defensively.
"James, you're 22 years old. It might be too late." Lily laughed.
"Heads up, Lils. You've got another admirer headed this way." Albus warned.
When Lily turned this time, she smiled softly at the young student who stopped at their table.
"Potter." She said with a smile and a nod.
"Mission accomplished, I think." Lily responded. The other girl nodded once more before moving away from the three siblings.
"Slytherins." James and Albus mumbled simultaneously.
"Next round is on me." Lily promised to appease their Gryffindor sensibilities. The Potter men cheered.
James, Albus, and Lily did not leave the Leaky Cauldron until well past midnight. It had been several weeks since the three had been able to catch up with one another and the they clearly needed a little relief from everything else going on in their lives.
James was on the brink of proposing and getting his wretchedly incompetent boss fired. Albus had single-handedly saved the thirty Auror trainees just this morning from death by explosion with a lot of luck and the Protego charm. Lily, everyone assumed, was drifting helplessly with absolutely no idea of where to steer herself next.
"Jus' tart wit what you don' twana do." James advised, slurring his words.
"I think that what he means," Albus began pompously with one hand on James's head and his eyes closed in concentration, "is that you shouldn't be worried about finding what you want, just avoid what you don't want!"
"That is immensely helpful, you idiots." Lily said sarcastically.
Arm-in-arm, the three stumbled home drunkenly through the fireplace of the Leaky Cauldron.
Lily woke with a pounding headache and an empty stomach. She rolled over slowly, convinced that any sudden movements would result in vomiting. 7:03am.
"Ugh." Lily moaned, rubbing her eyes for temporary relief. She swung her legs over the bed and had to steady herself for a moment before standing up.
Perhaps those shots of firewhisky had not been the best idea. She slowly opened the door, keeping her eyes closed to avoid any potential for vertigo which would, of course, lead to her vomiting as well.
"I'm parched, give a wizard some water, will ya' sis?" James groaned from the sofa.
"Right." Lily said, stumbling along the wall to the kitchen.
"Good morning!" Albus said brightly from his kitchen table. Lily squinted at him slapped her hands over her ears.
"What are you doing, Al?" She whispered.
"I'm having breakfast. Can I make you anything?" He gestured to the table which Lily saw was covered with eggs, bacon, and toast.
"I'll just have some water for now." Lily told him, slipping into one of the mismatched chairs that Albus had dug out of a muggle dumpster several months ago.
"You two are pathetic." Albus announced as James crawled into the room. He poured Lily a glass of water and did the same for James.
"How are you so happy?" James demanded, leveraging himself into his own green and purple spotted chair.
"Potions and magic, dear brother and sister." Albus answered smartly.
"Why didn't you give us any potions?"
"Because, Lily, then I would have to miss out on making your lives miserable this morning."
"Yes, Albus dear, because you're Gryffindor heart will really let us wallow in misery for much longer." Lily conjured a straw and sipped her water slowly.
"True, of course. You'll be pleased to know that I've spiked your water."
And with that, Albus snapped the Daily Prophet open once more and left Lily and James to their anti-hangover water.
Thirty minutes later, the kitchen table was cleared of food and the three had gone through several pots of tea.
"That hit the spot, Al." Lily said in thanks.
She brought all the dishes to the sink and quickly set them to washing themselves, a handy trick she had learned from her Grandmother Molly one summer.
"Well, this has been fun, but I'd better get to work." James said with a yawn. "Later kiddos!"
"What are you doing today?" Lily asked Albus curiously.
"I have to be in the office in ten." He told her quickly.
"I need a job." Lily whined.
"Yes. Because after next week I'm charging you rent." Albus teased. "Here," he said tossing the Prophet to her, "take a look at the classifieds. You're sure to find something, even if it is just temporary."
"Thanks."
"Have a good day, Lil. Remember, stay away from mum until you've got this figured out."
Lily threw the prophet onto the table after only a few minutes. She didn't want to work in an office, or in a shop on the Alley. How did people even make this decision after graduating? The stress of exams should have been enough to fry Lily's brain, but instead her professor's had pushed career pamphlets and applications into her hands during study periods. Lily hadn't told her family yet, but she had actually applied for a few things that had caught her eye in May.
There was the potioneer internship that she had only applied for out of a sense of obligation. The Head of Slytherin, the current Transfiguration professor, a Mrs. Jeanne Hawthorne, had given Lily three thick packets on exchange programs with France and the United States. These she filled out immediately-requesting letters of recommendation from Professor Hawthorne and Professor Abott, who taught Charms..
The real reason that Lily avoided talking about her future plans with her family, is that she was waiting to hear back from these programs. The Ministry had contacted her the last day she was at her parent's home and informed her that her applications had been received and that pending her exam results, she would be accepted to the International Young Transfigurationist's Society, and pending placement with a research supervisor, would be allowed to participate in one of these three programs.
It was now the first week of August, and Lily knew exam results would be here in roughly two weeks, but the wait was causing her to lose her mind. The last three years of Hogwarts had been consistently filled with new challenges-first she was made Prefect, passed every OWL, and then she had struggled through six full NEWT level courses on top of Head Girl duties.
Laying around Albus's apartment had lost it's appeal after only a week and now Lily was certain she was going stir crazy. To relieve some of her boredom, Lily had taken to to exploring the muggle neighborhoods around her brother's apartment.
Lily liked living in London very much-after the highlands of Scotland and the quiet charm of Godric's Hollow, it was as a relief to be surrounded by people she was not related to or had not grown up seeing for seven years. For Lily Luna Potter, the joys of anonymity were infinite. With that in mind she dressed in her favorite muggle clothes, disillusioned her transfiguration textbooks, and left the apartment.
This early on a Thursday morning, Lily was greeted with a few ambitious muggles out for a jog, but mostly the hustle and bustle of commuters trying to get to the office. Following the crowd she hurried down the steps to the nearest platform and picked the next train heading towards Black Friar's Bridge. Once she surfaced with the rest of the commuters, Lily turned off the main streets and kept her eyes out for a nice coffee shop. She walked for about fifteen minutes before she found one with a few muggles her age, busily typing away on shiny laptops. She made sure to close the door quietly behind her so as not to disturb what she assumed were university students.
"Hello," Lily said quickly, "latte please."
"Sure. Four pound fifty." the guy behind the register said, turning to operate the small machine that would making Lily's coffee.
Lily dug into her jean pocket and pulled out a tenner.
"Here's your change." He said politely before turning to the next customer. Lily cradled the coins carefully and made her way to a small table in the far corner, practically behind the counter.
While she had never been to this particular coffee shop before, it matched many of the others that she had found in this area. Large arm chairs, small tables, and plenty of plugs for those computers that muggles never seemed to be without. The lighting was a little dim for her tastes, making it hard to read the tiny print in Advanced Metamorphosis of Beings but the coffee was good and the soft music played from the counter was relaxing. Lily settled in for her morning study period with a deep sigh.
Lily had been sitting comfortably for almost an hour before she felt like taking a break. Standing up she quickly stretched. The number of people in the cafe had grown by only a handful. There was now a group of tourists sitting near the window and a couple covered head to toe in tattooes sharing a muffin in the corner across from Lily. No one else was reading like she was, which Lily found odd. Everyone was on some sort of computer (except for the punks). Even the tourists were caught up in their little glowing screens, ignoring one another until they found something funny to share. Lily had never realized how important technology had become to muggle culture. Her father had known about things like computers and phones and music players growing up, but he had never been allowed to have any of them. All of his knowledge came from second-hand observation of his cousin's old toys. Aunt Hermione knew a bit more, but even she had completely given up certain muggle conveniences like cell phones after marrying her Uncle Ron.
The Potters had a car and while Lily and her brothers knew how to drive, but Harry didn't often let them take it for any sort of drive longer than a trip to the muggle stores in the next town over.
All of this meant that Lily's fingers were itching to try one of these computers for herself. What could be so engrossing that muggles spent nearly half their lives in front of one?
A young woman came to sit down at the table directly in front of Lily's as these thoughts raced around the witch's head. Much to Lily's excitement, she pulled out her laptop and turned it on. With the way she was sitting, Lily was able to watch everything the girl did on the small screen. Words and pictures began to appear. There were a few clicking noises and Lily realized the girl was typing, then selecting certain boxes on the screen. Sometimes she clicked on words which would then cause another box to open. After a few moment she settled back into her chair and watched what Lily thought at first was an empty green square. Then she saw little dots of color begin to move around. The other woman hunched forward intently to better watch the progress of the dots on the screen. Lily felt herself doing the same. It looked like they were all moving in the same direction, constantly following a smaller white blob. Lily wished she could see better. She scooted her table and chair just a hair closer.
The woman heard and looked over her shoulder. Lily ducked her head, blushing in embarrassment, and pretended to be reading once more. When she peeked through her hair again a few seconds later, the other woman was back to watching her computer. She was also pulling out some notepads and thick books from a heavy looking bag at her feet. Colored pens came next, and Lily watched as the woman carefully assembled everything into neat piles on the table.
Were the moving dots something she had to study? Lily felt she had to find out.
"Excuse me," Lily said quietly. The other woman ignored her. "Excuse me," Lily tried again, slightly louder.
"Yes?" The woman asked, turning around.
"Sorry, but what is it your watching?"
"It's the Liverpool match."
"Right, thanks."
The other woman studied Lily for a minute, expectantly waiting for her to ask the score or who the other team was. When Lily didn't say anything further the woman shrugged and turned back to her textbooks.
Lily couldn't take her eyes off the screen, and she could tell it was bothering the other woman, but after twenty minutes of watching she had finally figured out what she thought was the goal of this new muggle game.
The small white dot was pushed around the field by the other dots, there were two colors (which Lily presumed were the two teams). Sometimes they would get the ball all the way to end of the pitch, and the woman in front of Lily would tense nervously. So far, however, Lily didn't think anyone had scored any type of goals. It seemed to be a very boring game.
She was packing up her books when the woman in front of her jumped up with a yell- "Take that you smarmy bastards!" And she punched the air vigorously.
Everyone in the shop glared at her for disrupting the easy quiet which had previously only been broken by sounds from the espresso machine.
Lily laughed quietly. Apparently the game wasn't that boring after all.
"Wait!" the woman said as Lily scooted past her table.
"Yes?"
"What's your name?"
"Lily, Lily Potter."
"Yes, I thought so. You looked familiar, you look a lot like your parents, you know?"
Lily was completely flabbergasted. How did this muggle know who Lily was, or what her parents looked like?
"Excuse me?" she sputtered.
"Mary Anne Clifton. I graduated same year as Albus."
"You, you're..you're not a muggle?" Lily whispered the last word, staring incredulously at the witch standing before her.
"No way, I was in Ravenclaw."
"But, what are you doing?"
"Studying law. I was working in the Ministry for International Cooperation for a year and then decided that no one knew what they were doing when it came to dealing with other muggle governments. I quit, enrolled in university in London and have three years left. There's quite a bit for me to learn, however, both my parents are like us, so I'm taking a few remedial courses this summer."
"You're going to muggle university?" Lily stuttered. She couldn't quite comprehend how she had managed to find another witch masquerading as a muggle simply by wandering through the coffee shops of London.
"Maybe we should go somewhere else?" Mary Anne offered with a smile.
"Uh, yeah, sure." Lily waited patiently while the other girl packed up all of her materials.
"So where to?" Lily asked once they were outside.
"My place is just around the way. You'd be surprised the number of us that go to their universities. I'm living with two kids from America. Right noisy lot they are, but it's been fun."
Mary Anne led Lily around the winding streets, dodging cars and cyclists as she scampered across the busy road.
"Here we go." She said with a smile, standing in front of a bright blue trashcan. She tapped her wand on the lid and before Lily could blink the trashcan was gone, to be replaced by a shining blue door tucked neatly into the brick wall before her.
"Brilliant." She breathed. Sometimes, magic never ceased to amaze her.
"We're on the fourth floor, it's a bit of a hike." Mary Anne said with an apology over her shoulder.
"No problem." Lily murmured, keeping her eyes on the stairs in front of her. Mary Anne was wearing tights under her dress, but it still made Lily a bit uncomfortable to look higher than the woman's ankles.
"Ta-da!" Mary Anne announced, opening a yellow door to her left once the two had reached the proper landing.
"Woah." Lily said with a bright smile. The flat was a mess, clearly well-loved and full of furniture, photos, and miscellaneous magical objects such as cauldrons, broomsticks, etc, but the sink was also full of dishes and there were dirty coffee mugs all over the counters.
"Yeah, it is a bit of a mess. Americans." Mary Anne said humorously.
"That's enough of your imperialist bullshitting, Annie!" came a loud voice from next door.
"Oi! We've got a guest, keep it down." Mary Anne hollered back with a grin. "Take a seat." she told Lily, pulling out her wand and summoning a stool from the next room. There was a loud thud before the stool appeared.
"Annie!" Another male voice shouted. "My books, Annie!"
"Oops." Annie whispered with a wink to Lily.
Lily sat on the stool and watched Mary Anne make them two cups of tea.
"Who's this?"
Lily turned and saw a short, blond haired American standing in the kitchen's small entry-way (which was covered by a dirty bead curtain, Lily assumed no one here knew any real house-keeping spells).
"I'm Lily." she said, sticking out her hand.
"Derrick, nice to meet you Lily." Derrick smiled softly.
"Where's Matt?" Mary Anne asked as she handed Lily a steaming mug of tea.
"Any sugar?" Lily asked hopefully.
"On the counter." Derrick pointed it out to her. He turned to Mary Anne, "He's busy picking up the books you just spilled everywhere."
"Doesn't he have a wand for that type of thing?" Mary Anne asked rudely.
"We Americans don't have to wave our wands for every little thing." Derrick teased.
"Well, it looks like you should definitely try and wave it for that..." Lily informed him, gesturing to the kitchen sink.
Mary Anne giggled.
"I've always been useless at domestic spells." A new voice said from behind Derrick.
"Well that's fine," Mary Anne said, "It's Derrick's week on dishes anyway."
"I'm Matt." the new voice offered Lily.
"Pleasure to meet you two." Lily nodded.
"So are you going to muggle school too?" Derrick asked.
"Uh, no, I was just in the coffee shop and ran into Mary Anne."
"You can call me Annie."
"So you two know each other then?" Matt asked.
"No, I recognized her. She looks a lot like her brother-we were in the same year at Hogwarts."
"That's a bit creepy, Annie." Derrick informed his flatmate.
"If you knew their family you wouldn't think it was creepy at all. The three of them look like triplets."
"We do not!" Lily argued, refusing to believe that she looked anything like the disgusting Potter boys.
"Don't worry, Lily, clearly you're the best looking triplet." Annie laughed.
"Still in school, Lily?" Matt asked.
"Uh, no. Just graduated in June."
"Congratulations!" He and Derrick cried at the same time.
"Thanks." Lily said with a quick smile.
"What're you up to now?"
"Living with Albus, that's my middle brother, still trying to figure out what to do next."
"I remember when I had just graduated," Derrick began, "I actually ended up working for my dad, he's a muggle lawyer, for about six months before I finally got enough nerve to apply through the exchange program. And now, here I am! Ready to study environmental law and work for your Ministry in another year."
"I'd rather not work with my family if I can avoid it." Lily said in response.
"Don't blame you." Annie snorted. "What are your brothers doing now?"
"James is working as a liaison between some of the international leagues and the Ministry-gearing up for the next World Cup. Albus is training with the Auror department."
"Aurors are a bit like the FBI, aren't they?" Derrick asked.
"I've no idea what the FBI is." Lily admitted with a shrug.
"No, I think that's more like the Department of Mysteries." Matt suggested.
"No, no. That's like the CIA." Annie corrected.
Lily was completely lost.
"Anyway, Lily, the point of the story was, don't stress. One day you'll wake up and realize what you want to do…and then you'll enter a mad panic trying to make it happen." Derrick patted her shoulder gently.
"Thanks." she nodded.
"Anyone up for a quick bite?" Annie asked.
"Definitely."
"Ditto."
"I'm in."
The four quickly exited apartment. Lily was the last to leave the room and so she charmed the dishes to start washing themselves.
"Is it okay if we head to the Leaky Cauldron?" Lily asked. "I need to stop at Flourish & Blotts afterwards."
"Of course." Derrick said happily.
"How are we getting there?" Matt asked, leading them all down the stairs.
"The tube!" Annie shouted excitedly. Lily laughed at her.
"Ugh, no way. That'll take ages." Matt argued.
"Can't we just apparate?" Lily asked.
"We'll have to take these two side-along." She jerked her thumb at Matt and Derrick in front of them. "They haven't bothered to take the test here yet." Annie rolled her eyes.
"That's fine." Lily shrugged.
"Score!" Derrick said, clearly happy to have avoided the tube as well.
"Let's go." Annie ordered, holding her arm out to him and quickly popping away.
Lily held her arm out to Matt who grabbed hold tightly before she too, disapparated to the small courtyard behind the Leaky Cauldron.
"Back again, Lily?" Hannah Longbottom called from behind the bar. "I don't want anymore trouble like last night!" She teased with a wink.
"Trouble?" Derrick asked, his eyes lighting up in suspicion.
"I didn't cause any sort of trouble." Lily said hotly, sending her foster-aunt a glare while the woman's back was turned.
"Of course not." Annie assured.
The four ate quickly and afterwards Derrick and Matt shared stories with Lily of growing up in America as wizards. The two hadn't gone to school together, in fact, hadn't even lived anywhere near one another. Derrick was from the northeast and Matt's family was from Texas.
There were four Wizarding schools on the east coast alone, Lily learned-New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Charleston. Derrick had attended school in the south, New Orleans, and the two boys promised Lily that there were at least ten more schools scattered around the country that they could think of.
"But that's at least 15 schools!" Lily cried, shocked.
"And most of them are bigger than Hogwarts." Annie informed her.
"How does America have so many witches and wizards?" Lily wanted to know.
"All that immigration!" Matt said.
"It's true-the blending of so many types of magics finally seems to have caused a large spike in the wizarding population across America in the last few decades." Derrick nodded smartly.
"Some scholars believe that the it was also the mixing of so many muggles that aided in the exponential increase-we're talking about a tripling in the number of magical students between 1900 and 1950. That excludes the numbers from immigration after the World Wars."
Lily was quite shocked. How could America support that many schools when England was struggling to fill Hogwarts?
She was still puzzling this when the four entered Flourish & Blotts.
"Miss Potter!" Lily spun around at the sound of her Professor's voice.
"Hello, Professor Hawthorne. Good summer?"
"Very good, yes. Do you have a moment?" Hawthorne asked, glancing behind Lily to other three.
"Of course." Lily said.
"Excellent, walk with me." Hawthorne grabbed Lily's shoulder and marched her off to an empty aisle ("History of Charms, Jinxes, and other temporary modification spells").
"I received a letter from the director of the YTS just this morning. The Ministry is holding your scores back for further review-"
Lily paled and felt her stomach drop.
"No, no, it's nothing like that! They've requested pensieve from your examiners. They want to study your methods on one of the transfiguration practicals."
"They what?" Lily asked, very confused.
"Anyway, my colleague at YTS, a Mr. Hollingsworth, has informed me that your application has been accepted! In light of your high marks and innovative mind they're crafting a new program for you!"
"What?" Lily said, dumbfounded.
"Oh, Lily! I'm so proud of you!" Professor Hawthorne, who had never so much as patted Lily on the back, pulled the girl into a vicious hug.
"Thank you, Professor." Lily was still in shock.
"Well, hurry on, best get back to your friends! You should be receiving your letter next week, no later than Tuesday." WIth that, Professor Hawthorne marched away just as abruptly as she had pulled her former student into a bone-crushing hug.
Lily leaned heavily against the shelf behind her, certain she would either puke or start crying any minute now.
They wanted her! Her mind screamed, over-joyed.
The world's most elite transfiguration society had accepted her application-her! She had been a student less than two months ago, but the examiners had seen something that was clearly good enough to be accepted.
"Lily?" Annie asked from the end of the aisle.
"Coming!" Lily said breathlessly.
"Are you alright?"
"Yes, I'm fine. Just some news about my exams. Not sure what it was all about, honestly." Lily lied.
She could not jinx this. It was better to ignore the fluttering butterflies instead of bragging and sounding like a snob.
"Oh, I'm sure everything is fine. Don't worry about those stupid results." Annie said.
"Yeah, I just need to pick up a few books." Lily said with a nod and a smile.
Now she definitely needed to get these new transfiguration books! Before she had moved to Albus's flat, Lily had convinced her parents to invest more galleons into Lily's growing library. Ginny had finally relented agreeing with Lily that whatever she did next, she would surely need to learn more, and wasn't this obsession with transfiguration books showing some sort of drive from her daughter?
Lily had been gifted with fifty galleons, which seemed like an outrageous sum for books, but in reality was only enough to buy one of the books she wanted.
"Just the one?" The shopkeeper teased Lily when he saw the youngest Potter standing before him.
"Unfortunately." She said with a weak smile.
"Why not trade in some of the others? Between two or three of those other books you've got at home you could definitely get the second volume!" He offered.
Lily shook her head-you never traded in a book! Even the most basic of texts offered important insight into the history and structure of magic.
"No thanks, I'll just have to wait till the holidays."
The shopkeeper, Mr. Pudgins, scowled as he rang up the book. He wasn't mad at Lily, he just thought it was a shame that such a bright girl wasn't able to afford all the books she wanted-especially after seeing the Potters dote on their boys with expensive racing brooms and Quidditch gear. He would have to have a word with Hermione Granger next time she came into the shop...perhaps she could convince the Potters that their daughter's interests were much more grounded (literally) than their son's!
"Is that all you needed?" Derrick and Matt asked once Lily found the again, browsing the sections on magical beasts native to Europe.
"Yep, I'm done." Lily felt the itching desire to go home and start reading immediately. She knew it was rude to leave in such a hurry after just meeting these three.
Annie solved her dilemma by announcing that she had to head back to the flat now and actually study for her exam. The boys nodded their heads, agreeing that they too should probably study.
"Here," Lily said, quickly grabbing a quill and scrap of parchment from her bag. "This is Albus's address-write me and we can meet up again?"
"Of course." Annie said with a bright smile.
"Bye, Lily!" Matt and Derrick called, heading back to the Leaky Cauldron to use the Floo.
"Good bye." She responded.
"Good to see you again, Potter." Annie said quietly, glancing at her from under her lashes. Lily blushed a little as the the older woman look her up and down. She finished with a wink and then turned to follow her flatmates.
What a day, Lily thought to herself. She quickly apparated back to Albus's flat with a small smirk.
"Hello, Lily."
"Mum!" Lily exclaimed. "What are you doing here? Scared me half to death."
Ginny Weasley was sitting on the bright red couch in Albus's main room. In her hands was a carefully folded, emerald piece of parchment. Lily recognized the seal on the back.
She gulped. Professor Hawthorne had said it wouldn't come until Tuesday!
"You got some mail at the house. Thought I'd pop over and bring it to you. Looks very important."
Ginny held the letter out to her daughter with a small smile. Lily's hands were shaking. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before opening it.
Dear Ms. Potter,
It is with great pleasure that I write to you to welcome you to the Young Transfigurationist's Society-Great Britain Chapter. Based on your outstanding academic performance and glowing letters of recommendation we are pleased to announce that you have been named the Minerva F. McGonagall Chair of Innovative Metamorphic Studies of Beasts. This position is typically awarded to Society members who have completed at least one year of additional study and independent research.
Upon review of your application materials, interview, and NEWT exam performance, the committee reached the conclusion that your essay on the evolving wand practices used in mammary transfiguration meets the requirements of the position.
Please be advised that your first meeting with the rest of the YTS Chairs will be held on September 13th, Ministry of Magic, Floor -34, Room 53G.
We eagerly await your confirmation.
All my best,
Margueritte Bletchly
Director, Young Transfigurationist's Society
"Great Merlin!." Lily screamed, staring at her mother, with wide eyes.
"Lily? What is it?" Ginny asked anxiously, taking a step forward.
"I-I've been accepted."
Ginny positively squealed, grabbing her youngest in her arms and squeezing her tightly.
"Lily, that's outstanding!"
"Read it, mum." Lily shoved the letter under Ginny's face.
A moment later- "We have got to tell your father!" And suddenly Lily was being side-alonged to her parent's house where her poor father was working diligently in his study.
"Harry! Our daughter is a genius!" Ginny screamed, smiling so widely Lily was convinced her facial muscles might become permanently damaged. Harry poked his head from his office and quickly summoned the letter from Ginny's hands and read it himself.
"Lily! We are so proud of you, this is incredible." Harry shouted, snatching his daughter into another hug.
"Thank you." Lily stuttered, finally smiling.
"Oh dear, what's wrong?" Ginny asked, turning to look at her daughter anxiously.
"What? Nothing is wrong!" Lily said joyfully.
"You're crying, love." Ginny said with a smile.
"Oh leave the girl alone, Gin." Harry admonished.
When Lily turned to her father she saw that there were tears leaking down his face as well.
"Not you too!" Ginny wailed, her eyes also starting to become glassy.
The fireplace suddenly erupted with green flames, out stepped Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione.
"Potters!" Ron cried in greeting.
"Oh my." Hermione said, catching sight of the three crying faces.
"Ah, everything's fine." Harry said quickly, wiping his eyes with the sleeve of his jumper.
"Lily's got simply amazing news!" Ginny said, grabbing the letter from her husband's hands and flinging it at Hermione.
Ron and Hermione read the letter together. Her aunt rushed her quickly, hugging her once more.
"Congratulations, Lily! I knew you could do it!"
"Wait, you knew she was applying for this?" Harry asked, confused.
"Well, of course. I helped her edit her final essay!" Hermione admitted.
"Lily! You never told us." Harry admonished.
"I didn't think I would get it, Dad. Didn't want to get everyone's hopes up for nothing." Lily shrugged.
"Well, I think I'm not the only one who agrees that this is most certainly not nothing." Ron added from behind his wife.
"Yes, indeed. We must have a party! Oh, your grandparents will be over the moon, Lily."
"Mum, please, no party." Lily begged, looking hopefully at her father for backup.
"We are most certainly having a party!" Ginny shouted.
"Lily, you should celebrate this. You're the youngest chair the YTS has ever appointed!" Hermione informed her.
Lily rolled her eyes. "I would rather wait to celebrate me actually doing something instead of just getting a letter in the post."
"Oh, you silly child." Ginny grumbled.
"No party, mum."
"Fine, but we're at least having your grandparents over for dinner tonight. If you won't be happy then I will." Ginny pouted.
"Take the win." Her father whispered into her ear while Ginny's back was turned.
"Oh, let her celebrate you." Hermione said with a roll of her eyes. She hugged her niece and said quietly, "Ron and the kids and I will have to take you out next week to celebrate too. Really, Lily, this is something to be proud of!"
Uncle Ron squeezed her shoulder and ruffled her hair. "Good job, kiddo!" Before the two hopped back into the fireplace.
"How did they know to come over?" Lily asked suddenly, realizing how weird it was that they had known exactly when to arrive.
"I may have sent them an owl earlier." Harry admitted. "We had no idea what this Young Transfigurationist's Society was, or why they were writing to you."
"We've been waiting on tenterhooks all day!" Ginny added.
Lily rolled her eyes and headed for the stairs.
"And where do you think you're going?" Ginny asked.
"Upstairs. Just got a new book, I've got to start reading now!"
Harry and Ginny beamed proudly as Lily took the stairs two at a time.
"Our daughter is a genius!" Ginny whispered excitedly once they heard the door close.
"Yes, she is!" Harry said, grabbing his wife and spinning her around before they collapsed onto the sofa with a laugh.
"I should write mum about dinner." Ginny said.
"I'll write to the boys." Harry said with a nod.
"Shouldn't you be going into the office?" Ginny teased.
"The day's almost over…" Harry whined.
"Harry Potter, you haven't retired yet! Get to the office now."
"Fine." Harry said, grabbing his traveling cloak off the peg near the fireplace.
"Dinner at seven sharp!" Ginny called over the roar of the fireplace as her husband left.
Upstairs, Lily was tucked neatly into the large armchair in the corner of her room. She had transfigured it to match her favorite chair in the Slytherin common room (silk pillows included).
Lily's room was always perfectly calm, in direct contrast to the Potter family home. She had cast several charms in fifth year to replicate the sounds from the Slytherin dorms, the echoes of running water from the Lake's underground caverns. In the winter, the common room fireplace was kept so high that she had always been lulled to sleep by the sound.
Her bedroom walls were still painted a soft periwinkle from her pre-Hogwarts days, but over the years there were photos stuck to the walls and plenty of small souvenirs from her schoolmates littering her bookshelf. The room, like many rooms of Hogwarts students, was a clash of an 11-year old's personality and her daily life at Hogwarts. It was always a shock for parents to recognize this, it typically happened between fourth and fifth year when mothers and fathers all over England finally realized that their children not only loved Hogwarts, but dreaded coming home for the long summer months away from their friends. The shock usually caused late nights spent crying and flipping through their own Hogwarts memorabilia. Ginny had thought she was over this sort of behavior after the first two had gone off to school, but there was something about her youngest that just inspired a tenacious need to hold on that caused Ginny to turn into a zombie from September until December of that first year.
Ginny's favorite Christmas was Lily's first year at Hogwarts. Her three children had returned, closer than ever, happy and louder than Ginny could ever remember. There had been spellwork competitions, quidditch practices (even though they flew on opposing teams), and many secret potion brewings in the bathroom that Ginny pretended to not notice.
When they had dropped James, Albus, and Lily back at the train station for the start of second term, Ginny put on her Holyhead Harpies' game face. No tears, just pure adrenaline as she shipped them off once more.
For the first three years of Lily's Hogwarts career, before Lily had really started telling her parents anything about her new house, classmates, or friends, Ginny would sneak to her daughter's room at least once a week and study all of the photos on the wall. Even if her daughter wouldn't tell them much, Ginny was determined to be involved in her life. She would often drop hints in her letters, Lily, I was in your room for the winter clothes and noticed the picture of that blonde boy, what's his name?
Imagine her shock when Lily had written back the very next day informing her that the blonde boy was none other than Scorpius Malfoy. Ginny had run up to the room once more, letter in hand, and squinted at the photo. Apparently, the Greengrass genes had won out in the end, because this boy no longer looked anything like Draco. Ginny frowned when she noticed his arm draped tightly over Lily's shoulder. She had flipped the letter over and wrote back using the same parchment only one line- "He's a bit old for you, isn't he?"
Lily and Scorpius Malfoy had always found the presumption that they were a couple hilarious. Lily had scribbled just underneath her mother's question the cryptic memo, "Don't worry, he's not my type." before she had hurried off to her first class of the day (Potions that year).
Ginny's attempts to interrogate her two sons via owl post was equally fruitless. Both boys had ignored the question the first few times, filling their letters with pointless details and stories the likes of which Ginny had never before been privy to. Finally, Albus and James had written her one letter that simply said, "He's gay, mum. Love, James and Al."
Ginny had heaved an enormous sigh of relief that wintry February day of 2025.
Lily held the photo between her small hands, remarking upon the fact that her nails really were getting a bit long, but otherwise studying the face of her first best friend with a smile. Scorpius was two years older than Lily, but the two had instantly bonded her first night in the Great Hall.
When she had sat down at the Slytherin table to the stunned silence of an entire student body, Scorpius had watched her closely with a cautious smile. At the end of the sorting a charmed paper-serpent had crawled towards Lily. It was folded carefully, and looked like the origami figurines her Aunt Hermione had taught them to make one Christmas. When it reached Lily the small snake had reared up and opened its fanged mouth. With a friendly hiss the words "Welcome home, Potter!" had appeared in glimmering silver and green.
The photo was taken two years later, Scorpius was a freshly-made Prefect, and well on his way to making Head Boy. They were laughing quite obnoxiously at something, and Lily remembered it was probably at the shock on Sarah Nott's face when Scorpius had rejected her offer for a date. It was the day they had both come out to their house. The ensuing celebrations by Lily's brothers in the Hogwarts kitchens that midnight had been nothing short of spectacular. She wished she had photos of those moments.
Heaving herself out of her chair she grabbed a sheet of parchment from her desk and wrote-
Dear Scorpius,
Lovely to have heard from you this past month. I know you're busy learning from Uncle Charlie, but please respond to this letter with more than "Dragon dung stinks" or "It get's cold."
Really, Scorp, two years down the road and all I know about your day-to-day is that it's dangerous. Maybe it's time I visit?
I'm writing to share some good news...I was accepted into the society! I've got a meeting next week with the other new members. I think we'll be discussing my research.
Write back soon,
Lily
Lily tied it to her owl's leg, Hera, and opened her bedroom window. Lily watched until the sturdy brown bird was nothing more than a speck in the distance.
Settling into her chair once more she focused entirely on Taming the Shrew: A transfigurationist's guide to practical healing, vol. 1.
Around 6:00 Lily heard voices mumbling downstairs. The noise grew by 6:30 and Lily realized her mum was throwing a party despite her earlier protests. With a sigh, she closed her book and ventured out of her room.
Downstairs were her Aunts Hermione, Fleur, Angelina, her Grandmother Molly, her Uncles Ron, Bill, and George, with Gramps Arthur. Not to mention all the cousins.
"Oh, Lily! There you are!" Ginny said excitedly. Everyone in the room turned around and smiled brightly. Lily rolled her eyes at her mom but accepted everyone's congratulations as graciously as she could.
"Mum, a word?" Lily asked after the final hug from her family.
"Sure thing, dear."
"I thought we said no party!" Lily whispered.
"This isn't a party, it's just your family."
"Mum, there are almost twenty people here!"
"Yes, well. We have a large family dear. I don't know why you want to keep it a secret, it's such a wonderful achievement! You should be proud."
"I am proud." Lily said hotly.
"Good, then there's no need for more discussion."
"Mum, please, don't make this a big thing. No toasts or anything silly like that."
"Lily," Ginny was exasperated now, "what is the big deal?"
"I'm scared!" Lily admitted finally, throwing her arms up in the air.
"Lily, there is no reason for you to be scared. You're going to do just fine. They wouldn't have given it to you if they didn't think you could do it." Ginny hugged her daughter.
"Mum, no offense, but that's not very comforting since you didn't even know what the Young Transfigurationists' Society was until about six hours ago." Lily smiled.
"I've been speaking with your Aunt all day, Lily. I think I understand a bit more than you're giving me credit for."
"Mum, I'm eighteen years old and have to come up with a completely new topic of viable research and then find supervisors, secure funding, find a host institution...and then there's all the other stuff that I don't even know about yet."
"Seems to me like you already did that this last year at Hogwarts…" Ginny reminded her gently.
"Yes, well. It was easy then, everyone wanted to help."
"And these Transfigurationists want to help too! That's why they picked you and made you chair."
Lily's silence told Ginny that her daughter wasn't convinced.
"Lily, stop worrying. I know you're going to be fine. You'll just have to buckle down and work hard until you figure it out, just like anything else you've ever done."
"Okay, mum." Lily said finally, rubbing her face with her hands.
"Good, now come help me set up the tables outside."
When Lily got outside she saw that her brother's had already set up the tables. Her uncles and several cousins were gathered around them, discussing their long days in the office.
"Hey, sis." James said as she sat down, ruffling her hair. Of all the Potter children, James was the only one who had gotten the Weasley height. He was tall and lanky still, even though his days were no longer filled with conditioning and quidditch practices. Albus gave her a large smile across the table, "Good job, Lil." he told her, reaching over for a high-five. His travel cloak was draped over the back of his chair and his thick arms were visible in the short-sleeved tee he was wearing. Unlike James, who had certainly gotten lazy after graduation, Albus had kept up his workouts, taking his Auror training very seriously. James and Lily had teased him about it for months, asking why he even bothered when he would surely be given desk duty by their father at the end of his training period this fall since he was so incompetent.
The three knew this would never happen, Albus had turned out to be a very good Auror and they knew his father couldn't spare such an energetic young man on paperwork. That's what the senior witches and wizards were for with their slow reflexes and butterbeer bellies.
Dinner that night went very quietly, which was surprising since Lily could see that both her grandparents and parents were simply bursting with pride. She thought she had gotten off the hook once dessert was served and no one else had mentioned her new position, until James and Albus smirked at her and stood.
After a few love-taps and several discrete coughs, the twenty plus assembled Weasleys, Potters, and Lupins finally quieted.
"Good evening, illustrious family," James started.
"We're so thrilled to have you join us tonight to celebrate the achievements of our youngest Potter." Albus continued. Lily's cousins cheered and hooted for her.
"We know that at first you were all a bit confused as to why Lily, bad-ass Sltytherin, Head Girl and star Chaser would join such a lame group of Transfiguration fanatics," James said teasingly.
"Yes, up until a few hours ago, we know that most of you idiots had never heard of the Young Transfigurationists Society,"
"But the fact of the matter is, Lily is not a bad-ass. She is a tame bookworm."
Chuckles greeted James's latest statement. And Lily snorted at her brother's use of the word 'tame'.
"We have known this our whole lives, but as the excellent older brothers that we are, we shielded this most unfortunate fact from the rest of you so that dearest Lily could avoid ridicule."
"It seems our efforts were all for naught, however." James said sadly.
"Indeed. Tonight, we are gathered here to celebrate the second largest book worm of the family-"
"Aunt Hermione, don't worry, your title is safe." James cut off his younger brother.
"For her outrageous obsession with Transfiguration." Albus finished.
"We propose a toast!" James and Albus said at the same time.
"A toast to Lily Luna Potter, may you discover horribly dangerous spells and write the most difficult transfiguration text in wizarding history with which to torture the future students of Hogwarts!" Albus winked at his sister and raised his glass to her.
"A toast to Lily!" Harry cried raising his own glass. The rest of her family followed suit, crying "Lily!" and "Hear, hear!"