Recognition drew Harry's head up from the report he was organizing. Footsteps were stomping up the stairs, Lily's, he instantly knew. Everyone's footsteps were just a bit different. I'm turning into Moody, he thought.

On cue, Lily Luna Potter huffed past the door to Harry's study and peered in expectantly. "Boys are stupid," she announced.

Harry sighed and beckoned her in. His daughter bounded into the empty chair across from him and bored into him with her bright eyes.

"Love, you're nine. I thought I had a few solid years left before we'd be discussing this. Was someone upsetting you?"

"That lobalug Mason threw a toad at me!" exploded Lily. Her father watched her for a moment and let her breath heavily in a most dramatic fashion. He had a suspicion she had gotten all her flair from her Grandma Weasley.

After it became apparent she was not going to receive an imminent reaction, the indignant child slumped over and peeped, "Joke's on him. It was his toad."

"Lily—be honest with me now—did you provoke Mason in any way, shape, or form?"

"No!"

Harry made a face at her.

"I didn't! Not…not this time, anyway," said Lily. The tiniest sigh blew up her bangs slightly. "I'm just not good at people."

Reaching out, Harry turned her head so she was looking at him. "Lily Luna Potter. You are wonderful at socializing. Some people…you just can't please everyone, okay? What seems important now—"

"It is important!"

"What is important now won't always be. Loads of people who called Aunt Hermione a know-it-all in school work for her now. Actually, one of them married her, but that's not the point. One day—I dunno—" He scraped at the edges of his imagination. "One day you'll be Headmistress of Hogwarts, and you'll look into the bathroom and see Mason scrubbing the very loo he dunked your head in."

"I'm going to get my head dunked in a loo?" Lily looked horrified .

"Er, no. Of course not!" said Harry hastily. "But do you understand what I'm saying, love?"

For several seconds, she pondered this. At last she looked at her dad with big eyes. "D'you really think I could be a headmistress?"

With a smile, Harry tousled his daughter's hair. He told her, "Just dodge the toads, and you can be anything you like."