Lily Evans and the Werewolf's secret.

Chapter 1.

Warning: Triggers- this story contains bullying and threats of/ implied corporal punishment.

Thanks again to HurricanHairandEmeraldEyes for her patience in Beta'ing this work.

Summer Holidays

12 Grimmauld Place

The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black was in turmoil. For a daughter of their pure descent to abscond with a Mudblood, was a filthy smudge on their impeccable reputation, which was already tarnished by the fact that the Black heir had been placed in Gryffindor instead of Slytherin. When the news that Andromeda had eloped with Ted Tonks had broken, Walburga Black had gone on a violent rampage, nearly burning down the house when she blasted Andromeda's name off of the family scorch marks on the walls would likely never fade.

Ignoring his wife's tantrum the master of the house, Orion Black, frowned. With a furrowed brow, the wheels in his mind whirred as he schemed. The situation with Andromeda was irreparable but Walburga had solved that problem by breaking the magic that linked their niece to the family. Which left Sirius, Orion had deliberated over what to do about his son for many hours, as he stared at the fresh burn mark on the family tapestry. There was no chance to have Sirius resorted- Orion had written to Dumbledore the previous September to make the request and been informed that all decisions made by the sorting hat were final and not open to negotiation. The headmaster had been inflexible even after he had sent a howler threatening the man with all manner of curses if he did not comply, his fury was only met with stony silence. Still something might be able to be salvaged from the situation; Orion finally made his decision and put down the firewhiskey he had been nursing. He would forego the promised whipping in favour of this new plan. Standing he called his eldest son to a meeting.

"Sirius, you will join me in the parlour," his thundering voice commanded.

Sirius' heart leapt to his throat in trepidation at the sound of his father's call. He walked down the stairs and into the parlour standing with his hands behind his back and eyes trained on the floor as he had been taught. As his father stood and came to his side, Sirius' muscles twitched in his attempt not to flinch in some sort of sick anticipation of his punishment for being placed in Gryffindor.

"Now son, what did I say would happen if you were not sorted into Slytherin?"

"You said I would be caned Sir," Sirius drew a tight breath in and prepared to brace, but the expected blow didn't come. Sirius dared to lift his eyes from the floor, to see his father staring at the family tapestry a thoughtful expression upon his face.

"Well, I feel perhaps we may be able to turn the situation to our advantage instead. Perhaps the best place for a Slytherin to hide is in Gryffindor, a snake in lions clothing," Orion nodded to himself.

Sirius' eyes opened wide in shock as his Father continued.

"You have friends in Gryffindor?"

"Yes Sir," the boy nodded, nervous now and straining not to shuffle his feet.

"Yes, of course you do," Orion's voice was soft and sinister. "The Noble House of Black is well respected, it would have been a severe disappointment if you hadn't made such connections. Tell me who your closest friends are?"

"James Potter and Peter Pettigrew," Sirius breathed, hesitating slightly before deciding not to mention Remus, who he knew to be a half blood.

"Good, that's very good," the oily voice continued as Sirius returned his eyes to the floor. "Both purebloods," Orion rubbed his hands together. "Your task will be to align them to our way of thinking."

"Oh," replied Sirius as he began to understand what was being asked of him. Realising he was being presented with both an opportunity to escape his father's wrath and to gain approval for the pre-arranged visit to James', Sirius asked, "Father, James mentioned on the train that he might invite me round for part of the summer, would I be permitted to go?"

Orion considered this development to be a fortuitous start to their endeavour and quickly granted his approval. It seemed that the situation caused by the errant sorting could be rectified after all. A change was in the breeze that summer; he stood to gain greatly should the Blacks be responsible for converting two more houses to the purists political views, especially the Potters, who had been known Blood Traitors for many generations. In the meantime, Sirius was simply elated that he would be able to escape from Grimmauld place for at least part of the holidays.

Nanna Anne's.

In a small downstairs bedroom in Cokeworth a little old lady with grey hair sat in her rocking chair, humming merrily as she knitted. For decades, she had kept a secret from the rest of her family, but this last year had brought a significant development. Her youngest granddaughter Lily had received a very mysterious letter and had disappeared off to Scotland to what she had been informed was boarding school. She chuckled to herself, 'boarding school as if her son would send one of his daughters away for an education and not the other. No, she knew where Lily had gone and because of this she had decided that it was time to come forward. A footfall sounded outside of her door.

On instinct she called out."Lily!"

Her red-haired granddaughter rounded the corner from the kitchen and entered the room.

"What can I do for you Nanna? Would you like a cup of tea?" Her smiling face seemed to brighten the room.

"No love, I want to talk to you." She smiled at her granddaughter, it was true that they weren't much alike in looks, however Lily reminded her of her most beloved aunt. Perhaps that was why Lily was her favourite. Anne knew that her life was coming to an end, and that it was best to share her aunt's tale face to face.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" Lily perched on the edge of the bed.

"Well I wanted to start by talking to you about your hair."

"My hair?" Lily tilted her head in confusion at this unexpected topic.

"Yes dear," her grandmother replied. "When you came back from school it was blue, but it only lasted a few days, and I know you didn't have Tuney dye it!"

"Oh that! It was a temporary thing, it washed out," Lily tried to explain. Professor McGonagall had stressed that no one outside of the immediate family should be told about magic, so Lily wasn't sure what her dad had told his mum. She sighed and reminded herself to check with her dad later.

"No love," the old woman shook her head, eyes twinkling in amusement and continued "I don't think that's the truth is it? There is a box under my bed, could you fetch it please?"

Lily obediently knelt on the floor by the bed, lifting the coverlet and reaching underneath, she grabbed the wooden chest that was there and pulled it to her. As she picked it up, she noticed it was suspiciously light. She placed it on Nanna Anne's lap.

"Now, pull up a chair love," Lily did as she was bid.

"I would like to tell you the story of my Aunty Rose." Nanna Anne's voice was soft, forcing Lily to lean close to be able to hear. "Well truth be told her name was actually Hyacinth Rose O'Connell but she hated the name Hyacinth, my Dad, her brother, he was the baby of the family, used to call her Cynthy and apparently she used to hex him all sorts of colours for it."

"Wait, she what!"

"She used to HEX him all sorts of colours." Anne emphasized the word a smile on her lips.

"Nanna…what are you saying?" Lily was sure she had misunderstood.

"I'm saying my Aunt Rose was a witch, dear and so are you."

Lily sat quietly for a moment as she absorbed this.

Finally she asked, "How did you know?"

Anne laughed "Oh love, it is very obvious, you have been doing magic ever since you were small. I remember holding you as a baby, in the middle of winter, your parents had forgotten to put the heating on and you were as warm as toast. They thought you were sick and had you up to the doctor five times just to be sure."

"A number of times I would watch you sleep and your little bear, you remember your little bear? Well it would be pushed to the other end of the cot and two minutes later I would look and that little bear would be snuggled right under your arm, oh and the things you did with flowers. Lots of little things love. It's who you are, you can't hide it!"

"Wow," Lily was slack-jawed as she absorbed her nan's words. "So much for the Statute of Secrecy."

"Yes well, I won't tell anyone dear, but I think it is time I told you about Aunty Rose." She opened the lid of the box and searched inside. "Here she is," she passed Lily a wrinkled black and white photo "She died nine months before you were born you know, she would have been 90 this year. When she passed she left me this chest, and a note, here I'll let you read it."

Dear Annie,

I'm leaving you my box of tricks. I have had a dream in which a child approaches me and she takes this trunk from me. You will recognise the child for what she is, someone like me. Tell her all the old stories and when the time feels right, give the box to her, you'll know when.

Love

Rose.

"You think I'm the child, Nanna?"

"I know you are dear. Before she passed away, she told me that she felt a darkness approaching the world, and that the things she had hidden in the box would help to defeat it."

"Do you think I am ready for the box yet?"

"No love, I am just letting you know it is here, so it won't be a surprise, I also think that it may come to you sooner than expected and I might not get to give it to you," she smiled a little sadly, lending a deeper meaning to her words.

"Don't say that Nanna!" Lily reached out to clasp the old women's hand. Tears welled in her eyes at the thought of her beloved Nanna passing on.

"Love I can feel it, death isn't anything to worry about. To be honest, I have worn this body for a long time now and I am rather looking forward to trying something new."

Lily considered this odd statement, before being distracted by the chest.

"Can we have a little look in it now?"

"Well I will pull a few things out for you. Here, I know you have something like this," she reached into the chest and pulled out a long stick of dark wood.

"May I hold it? It is very beautiful," Lily's voice was soft as she gazed at the intricately carved wand. She wondered if she took it to Mr Ollivander if he would be able to tell her what the core was.

"Indeed it is. To me it is a beautiful stick," she laughed as she passed the wand over. It felt warm and familiar in Lily's hands and she thought that it just might respond as well as her own, but she knew she couldn't test it here.

"You want to try it out," her Grandma commented, looking at her knowingly.

"I do but, I know I can't, we aren't allowed to do magic out of school until we turn seventeen," Lily admitted reluctantly.

"Ah. Rose was years older than I, so by the time I remember seeing her do magic she was well over seventeen. Let me tell you a little about her." Anne took a deep breath and glanced at Lily.

"I seem to remember her saying that her first magic had something to do with flowers. She studied at Hogwarts where she met the love of her life Willoughby Peverell, they were inseparable by the time they left school. She bought him home and introduced him to the family. My dad thought he was brilliant; apparently he was quite the joker. Hardly a dinner went by without him changing the colour of someone at the table. They became engaged when they turned twenty and married soon after. She studied and became a healer, while he worked for, what I believe to be, the magical police."

"A time came when a wizard, who had gone bad, came to power and was terrorizing Europe. Rose had a vision of Will dying in a battle with the man, Grindelwald, I believe his name was. Despite this when the call came Will went. After his death, she came home to the family and she never loved again. Her brothers protected her fiercely, hating to see the pain she had suffered, blaming t magic for taking her away in the first place. To keep the peace she rarely used her gift, except to entertain her nieces and nephews, when the others were out of sight. I was always her favourite and as we grew older she would tell me stories of the things she had gotten up to at school. Wild she was! Here look at this photo; it always fascinated me, it moves you see."

Reluctantly passing the wand back, Lily looked at the black and white photo of a young girl with long hair that kicked out at the ends, diving into the Black lake. She smiled looking at the beech tree in the background; it had stood there so long. A figure walking through the background caught her eye. She blinked and he was gone, but she could have sworn that if the boy had a long beard and longer hair that it could have been Albus Dumbledore!

What else was in that chest?

They sifted through more photos and Lily marvelled at how little change had occurred at Hogwarts since that time. Knowing that a member of her family had been there before, made the school seem friendlier and less daunting then it had been.

"Where were you off to when I called you in child?"

"Oh I had been going to see Kathy, but I can see her tomorrow, I would really like to hear some more."

"No dear I'm getting tired, I'll tell you more stories tomorrow." The old woman patted her hand gently before shooing her away, "Off you go now; I'll tell your Mother where you've gone."

"Thanks Nanna," Lily said as she passed through the doorway. She ran up the street and round the corner to Kathy's place. Her knock was answered by Chris.

"Hi Chris is Kathy in?" Lily couldn't help bouncing on her toes, it had been so long since she had seen her friend.

"She's upstairs Lil, tell her to come down and we can all go for a walk by the river," he grinned at her antics.

"Will do," she called as she raced through the house to Kathy's room. Five minutes later they were walking out of the door.

"Hey we might see Sev down by the river; I haven't seen him yet these holidays," Lily was still bubbling with excitement.

"Is that that skinny bloke from Spinners End with the big bat cape?" Chris asked flatly.

"Um, yeah, why?" Lily couldn't understand his sudden lack of enthusiasm.

"Sorry Lil, I just get a bad feeling about him, that's all."

"Well he has been a good friend to me," she replied stoutly.

"Has he? Well alright then, if we see him, we can all go together" Chris agreed easily enough, and they strolled down the street chatting happily.

Potter Manor

"Mum! Mum!" James yelled out as he ran through the house. "I've had a letter from Sirius he can come and stay!"

Euphemia smiled at her son, as she looked up to see him sprinting through the house into the kitchen, waving a sheet of parchment madly. He stopped to grab a biscuit from a container on the table.

"What did you say his last name was?"

"Black."

Fleamont Potter spat out his mouthful of tea in surprise.

"Um, Black you say, I'm not sure, if we want him to come here, son" his tone was cautious.

"Now Monty there is no need to go judging him by his parents," Euphemia's voice was firm.

"Mia. The Blacks are bad, through and through. They are purists and…"

She cut him off "And he is a twelve year old boy! So give him a chance. Besides think of Dorea, your own sister-in-law."

"She's an exception!" her husband argued.

"And he might be too!" his wife glared at him.

James held his breath as he watched the debate before interrupting "What's a purist Dad?"

His father sighed "They believe that only people who come from at least four generations of wizards parents are worth anything and that the further back in the family that continues the better. And in the case of the Black family they will only consider marrying their children off to another family within the sacred twenty-eight. It is just rumour but I have heard that your friend is to be betrothed to Sylvia Nott when they turn fifteen."

"Ew getting married at fifteen! Dad that's gross!" he screwed up his face and stuck out his tongue and faux-retched as if he had eaten something awful.

Monty laughed "No son betrothed, a promise between the families that they will marry one day, though knowing that family, it will probably be the minute they graduate, like Bellatrix and Rodolphus. Glad we missed that wedding," he shuddered.

"Ah Dad?"

"Yes"

"How do you feel about blood purity?"

"Load of codswallop!"

"Language Monty!" Mia remonstrated.

Monty looked at his wife, smiling sheepishly as he shook his head. "Well it is! Having muggle parents makes no difference to how good a person is or how strong a witch or wizard is. Remember Rose, our supervisor at Mungos?"

"Of course, she was my mentor."

"Muggle-born, never saw anyone better at diagnosing and treating. Had been working 30 years when she took us on and weren't we trouble," he reminisced.

"So then, logically having purist parents shouldn't matter either right?" James looked slyly up at his Dad.

Monty sighed in defeat "You and your Mother are right, of course it doesn't. Maybe we can influence Sirius to a more open point of view."

Hesitantly James then asked "And Dad, what do you guys believe about betrothals?" the boy looked petrified at the very thought and his parents burst out laughing.

"We believe," Mia giggled, when James' mouth fell open in shock, surely they weren't lining him up for marriage!

"We believe," his Father began again, giving Mia a pseudo-stern look as she tried to regain her composure, "that you should follow your heart, don't worry we aren't arranging a betrothal for you."

"Not that we haven't been asked a dozen times already, mind you," his Mother finished between her laughs.

"Mum!"

"Well you, like Sirius are the Heir to a pureblood house, even if we aren't one of the Sacred 28, and you both are single young men, who are not unattractive to girls, unless there is something you would like to tell us?" she grinned at him.

"Eww Mum, girls are gross, all they're worried about is their hair and stuff and they never have any fun!"

"Well I am sure that will change. Never mind dear, when will we see Sirius?"

And with that conversation turned to planning the coming visit.