A Place to Call Home

Book One: The Snake's Lair

Chapter One: An orphan named Lily

There was a knocking at the door.

"Lily, someone's here to see you", called the nervous voice of the Matron.

'Well, that's new.' She thought.

"Come inside." Lily answered with a sweet and innocent voice she had taken time perfecting.

The door opened and with the Matron came a stern looking woman. She had black hair tied up in a tight bun, elegant glasses and a dress that was a couple decades out of date. Despite her strange clothing, this woman imposed respect, and Lily decided not to act out of line, showing her most innocent smile.

When Minerva McGonagall entered the room, she was surprised. The Matron had warned her that the child was 'dangerous' and 'evil', that she was a witch, a demon worshipper. The Matron was half-right, of course, but Minerva would have to investigate if the child was merely another victim of fear due to accidental magic, or if she really was troubled. What she saw when she entered did however calm her nerves.

Lily was an innocent looking child, with a sweet smile and a cheerful looking face. She had wavy hair of the deepest black, and her eyes were of an extremely bright emerald green. Those eyes reminded her of another Lily she had also visited some time ago, but where those eyes had been full of awe and excitement, this Lily's eyes spoke of intelligence and cunning, with a hint of mischief.

"Hello, I'm Lily Hyde." She presented herself, offering her hand with the same smile.

"Hello dear, I'm Professor McGonagall." Minerva smiled at the child and shook the offered hand. She turned to the Matron and asked, "Would you mind if I had a word in private with young Lily?"

"Of-Of course not, go ahead. You can find me in my office if you need anything." The Matron quickly answered and turned away. Minerva raised an eyebrow at the haste, but didn't comment and instead took a seat across from Lily, who sat in her bed. She took a look around the room and noticed that while other girls would have dolls and other toys, Lily did not seem to have any, but rather had a lot of books. She would do well in Ravenclaw.

"Well, Ms. Hyde, I wanted to talk to you about school." She started.

"School, Professor?" Lily asked intrigued.

"Yes, dear. I'm Deputy Headmistress at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and you have been given a scholarship to attend."

"Witchcraft and Wizardry?" She asked with a sneer. "Is this a joke?"

"No, dear." Minerva laughed. "Magic is real, and you're a witch, like me. Have you ever seen something happen that you couldn't explain when you were angry or afraid?" She asked.

"Yes, I'm aware of my… magic. I just didn't know there were others like me."

"Well, there are, dear, a lot of us." Minerva smiled. "But we hide ourselves from the Muggles, the non-magical humans, due to a lot of reasons. It's our most important law, called the Statute of Secrecy."

"I understand." She really didn't. The first thing she had done once she had discovered her powers and gained some control of them was put them to use. She had always been feared and hated for the strange happenings around her, no matter how many times she said she couldn't explain them. Now none of the children or even the adults dared bully her or treat her badly. Bad things happened that those who did. At first they considered her evil and possessed. They even brought a vicar to "guide her to the light". Once the vicar suffered a heart attack when trying to touch her they left her alone. If she was in charge of the witches, she would put others in their place. If she had learnt anything from living in an orphanage is that only the strong survived, if you wanted something you had to take it. Nobody went out of their way to make you happy. "Could you show me some magic, please? I want to see."

"Of course, dear." Lily watched as the Professor withdrew a wooden stick from her dress and flicked it towards her table, which became a live pig. Seconds later she flicked the stick again and the pig turned back into a table. Lily's eyes were wide open, she had some control over her magic, being able to move things around, change her appearance and, when she was very emotional, some other things, but nowhere near what she had seen. When the Professor snickered at her expression she quickly shut her mouth, which was hanging open.

"Professor… what's the stick for?" She asked.

"Oh, this is a wand. You need it to do magic. You'll be getting your own soon."

"Really, you can't do magic without a wand?" Lily asked, disappointed and confused.

"Well, you can, but it's extremely difficult. The only one I know who is able to do so is Headmaster Dumbledore, which is considered the most powerful wizard in Britain." She explained. "However, while not casting spells, there are some subjects of magic that do not require a wand, like brewing potions, caring for magical plants and creatures, carving runes, and so on."

"I understand." Lily said. "And what can you tell me about the school?"

"Oh, of course, I almost forgot." The Professor answered, looking inside of her robes and finally extracting a letter, bright green ink in old coarse paper, and a coat of arms. "Your letter of admission."

She read the letter, addressed to L. Hyde to her address, including even the number of her room. The letter admitted her to the school and provided her with a scholarship for the materials. There was annexed a list of materials needed for the course, amongst which were books, uniform, a wand, a telescope, and what she supposed were potions supplies such as a cauldron and scales.

"And where would I be able to buy these things?" She asked.

"In a place called Diagon Alley, hidden by magic in downtown London. It is the central shopping hub of Wizarding Britain. We shall leave today if you don't have any prior commitment."

Lily nodded. She would prefer to go on her own, but she could clearly see that the stern witch would not accept that, and she could always go back later.

"Ok then." She continued to read the letter. "It says here that I'm not allowed a broom. What's a broom for?"

"Flying brooms are a method of transport and are also an integral part of the Magical World's favourite sport, Quidditch. As such, we offer a flying class during the first year at Hogwarts, and thus we don't allow any first years, which are usually inexperienced flyers, to own a broom, as they could injure themselves using it unsupervised." The Professor answered sternly. Lily could see that she would be really strict with rules.

"I see." Lily kept reading. "And what's this? It says that students are allowed a pet, but it can only be an owl, a cat or a toad. Aren't other pets allowed?"

"I'm afraid not, Ms. Hyde. Those three are allowed since they are the three most common types of familiar, especially owls since they carry letters. Exceptions have been made before, but it is unusual."

"I see. Alright then" She said. 'I'll just have to smuggle Jormy in I guess.' If she had learnt anything from all the religious crap they had tried to saddle her with, it was that it was always better to ask for forgiveness rather than permission.

"Do you have any other doubt before we depart, Miss Hyde?"

"Not that I can think of. Can we go now, please?" She said with her best puppy eyes.

An hour later, Lily and the Professor were making her way through London's underground. She was pleased to be the one that had made the introduction to the child, usually it was decided at random between her, Pomona and Filius – no poor child should have Severus as his first impression of the Wizarding World – but she had a soft spot for orphans, never having had any children of her own. Minerva hadn't had much trouble convincing the Headmaster. 'Sure, sure, it will be fine.' The man was losing interest in the school as a whole and seemed solely interested in Potter nowadays.

After informing Lily that they would be going now to the Alley she had jumped with excitement. She had unearthed a box which held her savings, which surprisingly amounted to over six thousand pounds. It was the result of odd jobs such as pickpocketing with the help of her magic. She had been saving it for something good in which to spend it, an opportunity to get rid of the orphanage. Getting accepted into a secret magical society certainly counted. And so, she had accompanied the witch to the underground. Wizards had their own means of transport, but apparently you couldn't use magic outside school while underage, so she would have to learn how to get there by muggle means.

They finally arrived at the Alley, which was bustling with energy, being the first of August. Parents and children alike ran from one side to the other, happily chatting and discussing. Lily, meanwhile, was completely paralyzed with awe. She had entered a new, different world, full of wonderful things, where she could be herself without having to deal with the annoying swots that tried to push her down, a world where her gifts were revered, instead of looked at with fear and hatred. This was home.

They arrived at Gringotts, where Lily was surprised to see that there were other sentient razes beside humans. While the Professor set up the accounts of her scholarship and opened a brand new vault in her name, she changed her pounds to galleons, for which they took a heavy 5% interest. Apparently, there was no problem with her having money where the scholarship was concerned, as it was available to any child who didn't have either a good income or a good inheritance, and she didn't have either.

She bought only the standard, not bothering to get anything above the usual quality since she wasn't anywhere near rich, but she did spend half of her money on getting herself a good trunk. It would last her years and it would be a great place to guard her things. She was a very private person and was deeply possessive of the few things she owned. As such, she bought a trunk with three space-expanded compartments, all three of them locked by a different password, and the trunk blood-keyed to her, along with feather-weight and auto-shrinking enchantments. It did cost her more than half of her money, but it was a good investment, even if the Professor argued against it.

The rest of the materials were bought more quickly and were a lot cheaper. Potions equipment, Hogwarts robes, a telescope, and finally, a wand. The visit to the creepy old man called Ollivander didn't last long as the third wand she tried fit perfectly. Ebony and Phoenix feather, thirteen inches. It turned out it was a wand for independent people, which suited her just fine. They finally arrived at the bookshop, where McGonagall decided to leave Lily for a while as she had some matters to attend to.

The inside of the bookstore, however, was a chaos. Apparently some famous author was signing books today, and there were a lot of people waiting to get their books signed. Most of them were middle-aged ladies, which she didn't fail to notice.

She looked around for the books in her list, which were easy to find, but she was appalled when seven of them – seven! – were from the same guy, the one who was signing books today. From what the Professor had explained to her about the subjects, she could deduce they were for Defence Against the Dark Arts. However, a quick skim over the books revealed that they were mostly over-dramatized stories with some bits of actual information thrown between. She decided against buying them and instead bought a couple of Defence textbooks. With the savings she made from snubbing this Lockhart guy, she bought some books on topics that seemed interesting, such as a book on the different types of Magic, a book on runes – she was a sucker for Nordic mythology- and a couple others. She was making her way to the counter when she heard a commotion.

"Oh, can it be? Yes!" That Lockhart's guy voice was heard over everything else.

When she arrived at the entrance to check it out, she found Lockhart – who was more teeth than person – draping his arm over a child who was around her age. The kid had black messy hair, he was tall and had broad shoulders, but was decidedly uncomfortable about the situation. However what drew her attention was his eyes. They were the same emerald tone as her own, the exact same shade. She had never met anyone with the same eyes as her –it had been another reason for the kids in the orphanage to bully her, even the Matron found them unsettling - it had to mean something. She concentrated a bit to change her eyes to a pale green tone, as she didn't want anyone else to notice, lest she be dragged along. The thought made her laugh a little, apparently these people couldn't make magic without waving a stick and saying some words while she, who didn't even know was a witch, had been able to do magic with just a simple thought for years, although nothing came as easy to her as changing her appearance.

"- A full collection of my works!" Ended Lockhart. She had been distracted by her thoughts and had missed the kid's name, and she couldn't exactly approach him as he was being mobbed by the crowd. She didn't mind that much, the kid was sure to go to Hogwarts, so she would find out who he was sooner or later.

After paying for her books, she made her way to the door where a gaggle of redheads, along with the famous kid, were confronting a couple of blond wizards, a father and a son. Not wanting to stand around much she grabbed her trunk and was about to shrink it when she was hit by something, sending her tumbling to the floor. She looked around to find that the redhead father and the blond father had gotten into a fistfight and the blond guy had fallen over her.

"Hey, watch where you're going, Barbie!" She yelled at him, getting back on her feet and dusting off her clothes. The redhead group sniggered, with the green-eyed kid laughing the loudest.

The blonde snapped back to her looking enraged, and then looked at her with disgust.

"Of course someone like you wouldn't realize who it is she's insulting. Some day that fool Dumbledore will realize there's no place for filthy mudbloods in Hogwarts." The redhead group sucked her breath, apparently that had been an insult. The blonde looked at her and sneered. "Keep those books in good condition, it's not like your kind can get their hands on anything of value on our world."

"Yeah, whatever. Sod off if you know what's good for you." Lily said dismissively.

The redheaded children gaped at her, while the blond just smirked and left with his son. She flipped him off, just in time for Professor McGonagall to reappear.

"What's going on here, Ms. Hyde?" She asked with that strict voice of hers.

"Just a blonde ponce who should watch his back, Professor, nothing important."

"Language, Ms. Hyde." She reprimanded. Turning her head towards the remaining group she greeted. "Messrs. Weasley, Miss. Weasley, Mr. Potter." And she led Lily back towards the entrance of the Alley.

'Potter. Now I have a name.'

"Professor, who was the black-haired kid? He seemed famous. Potter, was it?" She asked innocently.

"Yes, Ms. Hyde. He will begin his second year at Hogwarts, and he is somewhat of a celebrity. The reason is… of a delicate nature. I'm sure you'll learn it soon enough." She answered. 'So it's something inconvenient that she doesn't want me to know. Probably a bad part of their society.'

"Oh, ok, Professor."

The Professor explained the train and the platform and, after assurance from Lily that she could handle herself, she left her to her own devices.

By the time Lily got back to the orphanage, she had pickpocketed some couple hundred pounds, and she wasted no time in finding Jormy to tell him everything.

Approaching the fence surrounding the orphanage, she allowed herself one of the few true smiles that ever grazed her face. Jormy would be excited to know about the magical world.

She had first met him a couple years ago, on the yearly trip to London that the orphanage organized. That year was a trip to the zoo. She wasn't really excited, or at least, not as much as the other kids. She didn't ever feel comfortable in the presence of so many people, much less happy families. It made her both angry and sad, even more so than the other orphans. However, she calmed down a bit when she reached the reptile pavilion. It was less overrun with people, as most would prefer a cuddly lion cub to a lizard. However, Lily liked reptiles better, specially snakes, as they made good conversation.

She had discovered that she could speak to snakes some years ago, and she didn't really found it strange. It just added to the pile of weird occurrences around her. She was grateful for the ability, as the snakes of the nearby forest were the only ones who actually wanted to talk to her. She had always gotten along better with them than the other children. They praised her magic instead of calling her a demon. It did have its downsides, of course. Once the Matron got hold of the rumours of her talking to snakes she had redoubled her efforts to "purge the demon out of her". But Lily was content with the trade. It had given her the best friend she could hope for.

She was making conversation with a rather interesting boa constrictor when a fat kid pushed her aside. She wasn't used to kids disrespecting her anymore, and responded in kind. The glass vanished and the boa bit the kid a couple times before making her scape. As the kid wailed like a pig on the slaughter Lily laughed along with the other snakes, except for one. A black mamba was coiled with a grumpy expression, muttering to himself. Lily approached him and asked why he was so grumpy.

"Oh, a speaker, huh? Anyways, human, I'm not grumpy. I'm angry at the other snakes. They're not only laughing at the pig, they're laughing at the boa. She will get caught and she will be killed since she bit the kid."

"That's horrible" Said Lily. "Why would they laugh about it?"

"They like it here." Continued the black mamba, his voice muffled through the glass pane. "They have food when they're hungry, water when they're thirsty, and they don't have to worry about getting eaten. Only the boa and I were captured, the rest were bred in captivity. They don't know what they're missing, their whole world is these cages. They don't understand that we would gladly die for a chance to hunt once again." He added with a depressed tone.

Lily furrowed her brow. She could sympathize with the snake. She knew what it was to be trapped in a place, subject to the orders of others.

"So you want to get out of here?" She said.

"More than anything." Answered the snake, resolute.

"Alright then. You're coming with me." Lily said while she closed her eyes.

"Wait, what?"

The glass suddenly vanished and Lily opened her eyes, smiling. She extended her hand towards the snake.

"Are you coming?"

She and Jormy had been inseparable after that. The snake had been insistent in staying with the young girl and help her in all he could as long as he was allowed to hunt around. Lily had left him in the woods around the orphanage, as he would be found inside the walls and killed. She had decided to name him Jormungandr, after the snake that surrounded the world in the Norse myth. The snake insisted it was too long to remember, but Lily was a fan of mythology and had already made his mind, so they settled on Jormy.

"Jormy!" She hissed towards the woods.

Not long after the snake appeared. A beautiful black mamba of over two meters of length. He was still young and had to grow up, but according to him he was already bigger than he was supposed to be. Lily thought that it was due to her magic; after all, most strange things happening around her were explained that way. Jormy slithered up her legs and coiled around her shoulders, surrounding her in a warm embrace that brought a smile to her face. She only felt truly safe with Jormy around.

"You won't believe it. A woman came today and she was a witch like me!" She said enthused.

"Really? That's wonderful Lily, I told you there were others." He said with an annoyed air.

"Yeah I know, you're always right" She laughed. "Anyways, she invited me to a school of magic! We're going to a magical castle to learn magic!" Lily said excited.

"Lily…"

"The lady said that you could only make magic with some stick, but I've done good enough so far, so maybe there's even cooler magic you can do with it? She did turn my table into a pig and back, I haven't been able to do anything like it…" She rambled.

"Lily."

"And listen, there's even other creatures! There's this whole bank run by goblins, which are this little green men with sharp teeth and they look like they've been sucking lemons since they were born, and I opened a vault and-"

"Lily!" He said, exasperated.

"What?"

"Listen, child, I don't want to ruin the day and I'm happy for you, but you should get all your hopes up so fast." He said, exasperated.

"What do you mean, Jormy?"

"Lily, you don't know anything about this world." He sighed. "Here, the humans treat you bad, but you can protect yourself because you have magic and they don't. What if they treat you bad there as well? You don't have the advantage anymore."

"But, why would they treat me badly?" She said, dejected. "I'm like them, right? I won't be the freak anymore."

"You just said that you can do magic without a stick and they can't. And even then, you know people don't need a real reason to hate other people. I'm not telling you not to go, I don't want to ruin it for you, I just want you to be careful." He said, concerned.

"I… I understand, Jormy. I'll need information on this world, to prepare better for it."

"That's it, as long as you're prepared it will be fine." The snake nodded. "Now, tell me all about your day."

Lily beamed.

She had not revealed to the professor that she could speak with snakes, as that was one of the main reasons the rest of the orphanage had called her a demon, and she didn't know if the prejudice was also present in the magical community. Jormy was of the opinion that she should learn everything she needed as quickly as possible and visit Diagon Alley as often as needed to fill in the gaps, to which she readily agreed. There was so much she didn't know yet, and without knowledge there was no power. And, even if at Hogwarts she did not have the advantage of magic over her peers, she still intended on being the leader. She would not be that weak girl who was bullied again. She bowed to no one.

A couple of days later found Lily reading quietly inside one of the trunk's compartments, one who she had dedicated as a habitat for her snake partner, as he didn't like to sleep outside. His habitat was in Africa, after all. Jormy was coiled up over a heating rock she had bought for him, the floor covered in leaves and some other rocks. He felt quite at ease here, and Lily liked to read in his compartment, having him for company. After all, Jormy was the only one who cared for her, and he was the only one she cared for.

She had skimmed over the school books, which didn't seem very interesting, as they were all about "how to do this" instead of "why does it work that way". She guessed that maybe that was because all the kids from wizard families already knew that, but she still wanted to know, so she picked up the books about Magical Theory first.

Turns out there were several types of magic, and spells were only one of them. They were controlled by wand movements and incantations, as well as some intent and visualization, which seemed to be common to most types of magic. What she had been doing up until now was called "wild magic", merely dependant on intent and visualization, and apparently only the most powerful of wizards had been able to do it after decades of practice, which make her feel really proud. Jormy just commented "Of course you're powerful, otherwise I wouldn't have made you my pet." He still considered her his pet, only there to do his bidding and care after him. His vanity knew no limits, but she was grateful for his company.

She was delighted to see that there were other types of magic that were completely different, such as Potions and Runes, where you didn't cast any spell but rather took part in a process that would only work for those with magic. Those seemed interesting, as they would depend more on knowledge than power, and thus would be more difficult and challenging.

Finally she found mention of something called 'Family Magics' which took her breath away. Most of the old families had bound some particular type of magic to their bloodline centuries ago, granting some special kind of ability to those of their blood, though not everyone had it. The magics had, however, died out over time, and currently the only user of family magic was of the Black Family, whose magic was something called 'metamorphmagus'. It seemed interesting, and she could do wild magic, so maybe she also had some family magic. She decided to search for a book on the topic when she got back to Diagon Alley.

The other thing that really drew her attention was Harry Potter, as she had found out he was named. She had read a book on modern history that she had picked up, and apparently Wizarding Britain had been in the middle of a civil war a mere decade ago. Some group of terrorist started killing muggleborns –and people who opposed them- due to some self-righteous belief that they were 'purer' and more worthy, and the boss-guy, someone who was apparently so badass that no one dare even mention his name -hell, they wouldn't even print it- finally decided to go after the Potters, who had been on the other side. Turns out mom and dad weren't at home, so boss-man killed the nanny and then shoot the killing curse at Harry. No one knows what happened but the guy vanished without a trace, supposedly dead, and Harry became the Boy-Who-Lived, and people applauded him as the one who ended the war. Lily just thought it was completely stupid, like a baby would have been able to defeat a Dark Lord. The guy probably had tried to do some kind of really fucked-up magic that required killing a baby and it had backfired spectacularly. Nothing to worship the kid about.

A few more trips to Diagon Alley had quelled Lily's information needs, on the last of them she had even ventured into Knockturn Alley to obtain some "non-recommended" reading material. A venomous snake draped over her shoulders was deterrent enough for the more shady characters of the alley.

She had bought several more books on magical theory, especially those on the subjects that did not require a wand, like runes and potions, and the equipment to accompany them. After all, the potion ingredients kit for first year was not nearly enough if she wanted to experiment, and runes weren't even in the curriculum. After the couple trips she had pickpocketed enough money to buy herself a brand new broom, a Nimbus 2000. She didn't even know if she would like flying, but it seemed pretty useful and she could spend some money in a whim every once in a while. Flying certainly qualified.

Her trip to Knockturn Alley had paid the most dividends so far. A little bookstore ran by the ugliest old woman she had ever seen, later identified as an actual hag, had called her attention. It had books on a wide variety of topics that she had learnt were banned by the ministry or simply had bad reputation. This was the reason she had gone into Knockturn on the first place, as she would not let such petty things as censure get in the way of her becoming stronger. It's not like she had learnt any respect for authority figures in the orphanage.

In the small, damp bookshop, she had found several things of interest, such as a magical theory book on the so called "Dark Arts", and another book on something called the Mind Arts, which sounded pretty interesting. But the haul of the day had been a book on family magics, she had been wanting to learn about them since she first read the name. With a bit of luck, she would have one of these magical abilities, which would be proof of her heritage, a way to find what happened to her family and how had she ended up in the orphanage. She had never known her parents, not even her name or birthday. She had been found on the door of the orphanage with nothing on her to identify her but a single red lily flower. And so they had named her Lily, her surname being Hyde after the founder of the orphanage and her birthday being the day they found her, August 4.

Accompanying all these magic books, she had bought some other reading on important aspects of the magical world, such as its government, important people and families, and customs. She had quickly learnt of the prejudice against muggleborns and the favouritism for old families, which got her very depressed for a couple of days. Jormy was right, humans would always find a way to be horrible to each other for no reason, no matter if they were magical or not. To have the chance of a place where she could belong, where she would not be a freak, a second class citizen, taken away from her had devastated Lily, but it was better for it to be now than when she arrived at Hogwarts. She still wanted to attend the school, even if her life would likely be worse than the orphanage, she couldn't pass the opportunity of learning to control her powers better.

Family Magics is the term used to describe several abilities, magical in nature, that are congenital, that is, the person is born with them. They cannot be learnt.

They started in the 9th century, where important families did rituals to bind certain abilities to their blood. Most of these rituals and blood magic have been lost, and there hasn't been a new family magic recorded in Britain since the 13th century.

Each ability is unique to a family, and can only be manifested by members of that family or descendants of up to three generations. After three generations without new blood from such family, the children will not be able to manifest the family magics.

As they are unique to a single family, possession of that family's ability is magical proof of being part of the family, regardless of legal procedure.

Even though they are characteristic of a family, that does not mean that every member of the family has it, they merely have the potential to have it. Nowadays, there are very few wizards and witches with family magics, with only two recorded ones in the 20th century up to the publishing of this book.

They must not be mistaken with "magical talents", that is, a predisposition of a family for a certain kind of magic, like the Blacks being talented in Dark Magic, or the Potters producing more Animagi than any other family.

The most prominent family magics are…

Lily paused reading for a moment. This was it. If she had any of these abilities that may be a way to find out about her family, finally know why they had abandoned her in an orphanage like and old sock. The thought brought fury to the forefront of her mind, but she calmed herself. Now, to find out if she had any ability.

As she passed the pages her excitement dimmed. There were so many, and most of them were thought extinct. She had a good feeling about her ability of talking to snakes, as she had read in Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts that Parseltongue, as it was named, was an ability which very few possessed and was linked to a wizard called Salazar Slytherin, which apparently was a founder of Hogwarts. It also said that the skill was extremely rare, so she had a good feeling that maybe it was family magic.

Getting frustrated she searched the index for Parseltongue or Slytherin, and beamed when she found the entry. As suspected, it was the ability of the Slytherin family. However, it was of no use to her. The Slytherin family had been extinct for four centuries.

'Wait a minute, wasn't that You-Know-Who guy supposed to be his descendant?' She thought. She had read it in the history book, that due to his Parseltongue ability he had claimed descent from Slytherin.

A quick look to the inner cover of the family magics book solved it, it had been published in '54, before the rise of the Dark Lord. And no one knew where the man had come from, so she didn't have a genealogy tree to be able to find herself.

A quick thought crossed her mind in that moment. The Slytherin family was supposed extinct and then this guy shows up. He was the first to show the Parseltongue ability in centuries, an ability she also has. The guy died just months after she was born, and she was left in an orphanage, like an orphan would. She swallowed hard. It wasn't certain, but it didn't look good at all. Chances were, she was the daughter of the Dark Lord. If people found out she would be killed.

'All right then, no talking to snakes in public' Lily thought, trying not to hyperventilate.

Disturbed with the thought she went back to the book on family magics.

The rest of August had gone by so quickly that it made Lily worried. She was excited to go to Hogwarts, but she also felt like she hadn't had enough time to learn all she could. McGonagall had warned her that she wasn't allowed to do magic outside of school and it was monitored, but she figured it only applied to wand magic, since nobody had ever come any time she had used it before learning of the magical world. She had managed to perform most of the spells in her Charms textbook without using her wand. Transfiguration, on the other hand, was not that easy. She had had serious trouble until she had managed her first success as she had not done anything like it before. However, Lily had enjoyed it immensely, as she completely adored the idea of changing things into other things; it was the best use she could think for magic, and she had got to mastering all the first level transfiguration with fervour.

Of course, it hadn't taken her much time. Even though she had had trouble with it at first, it had fallen into place as soon as she had realized that she had changed the form of things before, she had the ability to change her own body! Once she had thought about her transfiguration spells the same way she thought at changing her own body, it had all been quite easy. This had revived interest in that ability of hers, and she had finally found it in the family magics book.

She was a Metamorphmagus. Apparently, Metamorphmagi were one of the few family magics that were still somewhat prominent, they originated from the Black Family, one of the most powerful and important families of Britain. She had been delighted to learn that not only could she change the colour of her eyes and hair, but that she could also alter her facial structure and the rest of her body as well. She had practiced it along with her Transfiguration spells and had taken to it quite fast, though there were still some things here and there that she couldn't get to work properly just yet. She had yet to manage altering her height or weight, but she had all the time in the world.

The bad news, however, was that her being a Metamorphmagus further proved her disturbing theory that she was a daughter of the Dark Lord, as it proved her part of the Black Family, and Bellatrix Lestrange neé Black had been the right hand of the Dark Lord. Lily tried not to think about it at all as it brought conflicting feelings to her mind. On one hand, she was very happy to know that, if they were indeed her parents, they hadn't abandoned her. One was dead and the other in prison, and nobody who knew who she was would have wanted to take care of her, most of the Dark Lord's followers had denied ever serving him and those who didn't were all in Azkaban. But that didn't explain how she had ended up in a muggle orphanage. The only case she could think of for a wizarding child being raised by muggles that she could think of were, either being born to muggles or muggleborns with no other family – which she knew was not the case due to her family magics – or being thought a squib and being abandoned in the magical world. And if the Dark Lord had a squib child he would probably have killed it. It didn't make sense.

On the other hand, she was scared. Yes, she knew who her parents probably were and her mother was even alive, if incarcerated for life. But did she really want to be their child? These people were monsters if even one tenth of what the books said was real. Sure, she had always believed in the reign of the stronger –how could she not, growing up in an orphanage- but she didn't see herself killing whole families of innocent people for fun. Jormy had been a great help in calming her and getting her back to sleep each time she had nightmares, and eventually she got over it, though she still held to the possibility that she was not the daughter of these two.

Another thing that had helped her calm down was the book on the Mind Arts that she had bought on Knockturn. The first part of the book talked about Occlumency, the art of controlling one's own mind to its fullest potential. She had read ahead and it had all sort of uses, from memory recall to increased reactions, and it seemed to be one of the most useful things one could learn. What had called her attention, however, was coincidentally the first part of mastering Occlumency: Learning to control one's emotions. In order to use the other benefits one had to focus their whole mind into the task at hand, and this required it to be undistracted by random thoughts and emotions, or "clearing the mind", as it was called in the book. This first task would, according to the book, take her over 6 months, but it came incredibly easy to her and after only three weeks of practice she was close to mastering it. She attributed this natural talent to her practice ignoring the taunts and insults of the other kids and putting her innocent girl mask on.

By the time September 1 came around, Lily felt that she was a completely different person that she had been at the beginning of the summer. She still insisted she wasn't ready enough – which made Jormy constantly annoyed- but she was miles ahead of where she thought she would be. As the alarm clock woke her up from her slumber she grinned widely. Today she started a new life.

Author's Notes:

The story is not going to be completely AU (most things will work as canon or most of the fandom), but several characters will be OOC (as compared to canon) due to several key events happening differently, such as Halloween 1981, its aftermath, and so on.

This is not going to be a Romance focused story, though there will be pairings later on, but they will not be the central point of the plot.

The story is going to follow canon on some things, but it will be completely different in others, so don't expect a canon rehash, but don't expect complete AU either. This is suposed to be the canon universe with some key differences early on. This will cause a domino effect and the furter along in the story, the more different it will become with respect to canon.

As for the main aspect of the story, it will be about Lily trying to find a place for herself - which will obviously be difficult due to insecurities resulting of living in the orphanage - and finding out about her family.

Anyways, you'll see in the following chapters what I mean.

Read & Review! This is one of my first works so I appreciate criticism.