A/N: THANK YOU so much to all my reviewers and readers of this story. Your support means more than I can say. I again must ask for your forgiveness in the gap between updating, but I have been on a year long hiatus due to personal reasons. But I am back now, and very glad to be so! Again, all comments are adored and cherished!

"…and then James hid it away in some secret spot, mummy!" Lily whined loudly, the shine of tears gathering in her eyes. "And he won't tell me where!"

"Oh, it's all right, Lily-bug," Ginny said gently, repeatedly stroking her little girl's light reddish-blonde hair. "I'll talk to James, okay?"

"And you'll make him give Jiffy back?"

"Yes, yes, I'll make him give Jiffy back," Ginny promised, hiding her amusement at the young girl's solemn expression. A pop resounded through the room, and suddenly the four-year old hopped off of her mother's lap.

"Hugo, Hugo, Hugo!" she called, rushing over to where her cousins, aunt, and uncle had just appeared. Ignoring greetings from the adults, the small girl flung herself at Hugo, wrapping her arms tightly around the boy. Taken off guard, his surprise didn't keep him from smiling and returning the hug. "I missed you."

"I missed you, too, Lil," he replied as she pulled away, a serious expression on her face that concerned him slightly.

"James is being mean to me again! C'mon, let's go," she said, grabbing his hand and heading for her bedroom. "I'll tell you the whole story."

"Okay," Hugo agreed immediately, quickly looking up at his mother for permission. By the time Hermione actually nodded, the two were already in the doorway, and Lily had already started recounting her tragic tale of James's theft of her precious stuffed phoenix.

"—and then Rachelle turns around and says that she saw Terrance and Amy in the corridor last week, whispering all secretly," Georgia reported, leaning towards Kat to reduce the possibility of eavesdroppers.

"Why is this so interesting?" Will asked in a stage whisper. Hugo shrugged, opening his mouth to say something, but the words never found life, for at that instant, Lily Potter stormed through the portrait hole, demanding the attention of the entire Gryffindor Common Room.

Without even realizing that everyone was staring at her, the strawberry blonde crossed the room. Upon reaching the area where her cousin and friends were standing, she stopped, folding her arms. Her mouth turned down in a pout, tears threatening to spill from her eyes.

"What's the matter, Lily?" he asked as he moved closer, concerned about how upset she clearly was.

"Hugo…" she began, her voice breaking. Immediately, Hugo took hold of her upper arm and led her upstairs to his dormitory, giving only one single glance backwards to silently assure their friends that he would take care of everything.

As soon as they entered the empty dorm, Lily twisted around and wrapped her arms around his neck and shoulder. His own instinctively circled her waist.

"What happened, Lil?" he repeated softly, sitting down on the edge of his four-poster bed. "Why are you crying?"

"I'm not crying!" she protested, lifting her head from his shoulder far enough for him to see the water in her eyes still stubbornly refusing to fall. "I'm just… I'm just… Why do they do this to me, Hugh?"

"James and Fred again?" he asked in a low tone the betrayed his frustration even more than the hard glint in his eyes. "What'd they do now?"

"James spilt Irremovable Ink all over my Charms essay that due tomorrow, the one that I've been working on all week!" she cried. "They did it on purpose!"

Sighing heavily, the blue-eyed boy shifted to sit further back on the bed and ran a hand through the hair of his cousin.

"It'll be okay," he promised, already rattling his brain for a spell that he could use to fix the problem. "Did you try to transfer the words onto a new—"

"I tried everything I could think of!" she exclaimed, her anger and frustration keeping the depression and tears at bay for the moment. "Why do they have to be such prats?!"

"They just enjoy poking fun at you, Lil, you know that."

"But I have to do well on this paper, Hugh! I can't afford anything less than an E if I want to keep my grade at an A, and I was really hoping for an O," she said, her mouth twisting into a sad frown.

"You'll do fi—"

"And they knew how hard I worked on that essay!" she fumed, the anger returning to her eyes as she jumped to her feet and started pacing back and forth by the bed. "I'd told them just yesterday that I couldn't go out to the field because of it… Oh, I bet those two were just getting their petty revenge because I picked school work over extra practice!"

"Probably," Hugo agreed, leaning backwards onto his extended arms. "Every time you pick anything over Quidditch, they have a fit."

"Ugh!" Lily threw herself facedown onto the bed next to Hugo, the bundled up blankets of the unmade bed partially muffling her curses and grumbles of discontent. Then she turned her head to the side, moving her hair out of her face. Staring at some object behind him that Hugo couldn't see, she said, "Sometimes I regret trying out for the team at all."

"But you're a great Keeper, Lily," Hugo said, balancing on his left arm to reach over and clasp her shoulder with his right hand. "You wanted this."

"I used to," she whispered, gaze skittering up to meet his for less than a second before darting away again. His eyebrow crunched together as he tilted his head and retracted his hand.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Sighing again, Lily flipped over and propped herself up on her elbow. For a few moments, she simply stared at the gathered fabric in front of her face, not saying a word.

"It's not for me, Hugh," she admitted softly. "I tried out for the team because I wanted to make my mum proud. You know how much my parents love Quidditch, they both played for Gryffindor house when they were here…"

"That doesn't mean you have to," Hugo interrupted, his voice quiet but firm. "Albus never felt the need to try out."

"Yeah, but that's Albus," Lily replied, rolling her eyes. "He's never… He's always looked up to Dad more than Mum, and Dad's the one that always goes on about how everything's our choice and all that junk. I don't think he would have even batted an eye if any of us had been sorted into a different house, unlike Uncle Fred or…"

"My dad," Hugo finished for her, remembering his reaction to their cousin Roxanne's sorting.

"But Mum… I've always wanted to make her proud," Lily confessed, shaking her head back and forth to herself.

"And you don't think she'll be proud unless you're a Quidditch player?" Hugo asked in disbelief. By the guilty expression on her face, he knew he had struck the truth with his guess. "Lily, that's ridiculous. Your mum loves you. I'm sure she's proud of you."

"You just say that because you have to," Lily mumbled, looking down at the folds of fabric again. Hugo cupped her chin in his hand and tipped up her face, waiting for her to give in and look at him.

"No, I don't."

For the longest few seconds ever to have passed in the world, Lily stared up into those familiar light blue eyes, at first testing his sincerity but then simply finding herself engrossed in the small, nonlinear lines that stretch outwards from his pupil. As her thoughts drifted, her lips curled into a smile.

"Don't say that because you have to or don't have to say that?" she asked, her own eyes twinkling with mirth. Letting go of her chin, the contagious expression spread, widening Hugo's own mouth with amusement.

"Neither," he answered, sparking the young girl to raise her eyebrows.

"Oh really?" she questioned.

"Really," he asserted, grinning like a maniac. Then he slid off the bed and to his feet, stretching out a hand. "C'mon. Let's go see if I can fix that paper of yours."

Accepting the offer, Lily placed her hand in his and they exited the dormitory side by side. As they returned to the common room, she leaned closer and whispered her gratitude in his ear. He pulled his hand from hers to loop his arm around her shoulders, giving her a sort of sideways hug as he smiled softly. She responded by wrapping her arm around his middle, doing the same.

Neither noticed the strange looks that were exchanged as they passed through the room, nor did they hear the whispers.