Made a point of putting an AN in the last chapter to clarify that Duo the Reaper will only play a very minor role and he will not be seen for a very long time, he was an exposition piece to explain everything to Lilly and nothing more. So please don't get hung up on that kind of sick of the PM's.
Anyway once again editing old work is a pain in the butt but it's kind of rewarding to shine up something I use to be proud of and now am...rather embarrassed by it. I'm posting this now because I've been picking at this for two and a half hours and I just can't take it anymore, I'll get some sleep and edit out any glaring mistakes tomorrow.
As always I hope you enjoy and please REVIEW!
As it turned out Lilly ended up sleeping three days straight as her over stressed body and mind recovered from her most recent trials; not exactly what she had wanted but since when did life give her what she desired? Deciding that next time life gave her lemons she was going to toss them in a sock and beat life upside the head with it until it got with the program she groggily opened her eyes. Rubbing away sleep crust while in the same motion snatching up her glasses and propping them on her nose Lilly took in her surrounding guests with a bemused smile.
Neville and Ron were sitting at a table pulled beside her bed absorbed in a game of chess while Hermione was seated directly on the foot of the bed with her legs folded beneath her, book in her lap. Shaking her head she caused the trio to start in surprise as she cheerfully chirped out a greeting.
"Heyya guys, what did I miss?" All three jumped up in shock and began speaking at once, not even trying to understand the jumble she glanced up at the headboard which was supporting a tired looking Hedwig. Her familiar clacked her beak once then offered her leg up with a pair of letters attached, taking them she snatched a piece of bacon off the plate on her bedside and fed the thoroughly spoiled owl. Turning back to her friends she threw them the same story she'd given the Headmaster then lamented her missed classes and homework, this of course scared off Ron immediately. Neville sighed at the redheads quick escape,
"I may not be that great at anything outside of herbology but Ron's running the risk of not graduating if he keeps up that attitude," snorting Lilly glanced over to Neville and reviewed her accumulated memories for a moment before responding.
"Neville, you're the son of two Auror's so damn good at their jobs they had bounties posted on them by the Death Eaters, give yourself more credit please, if not for yourself then for your parents." Looking shocked, frightened, and angry all at once Neville stuttered out,
"Yo...you know about my parents?" Glancing towards Harmione who was now paying rapt attention then looking back to Neville he seemed to relax realizing she was asking permission, he hesitated then nodded once.
"Frank and Alice Longbottom where to be my guardians after my godfather Sirius Black, who incidentally was framed, they were tracked down by Tom Riddle's...right Voldemort's-" she stopped as Neville shuddered, she'd have to work on that. Rolling her eyes she continued regardless, "Anyway they were tracked down by the "Dark Lord's" most insane and loyal followers, they captured your parents and tried to torture them with the cruciatus curse to reveal what happened to their lord.
"Obviously they didn't know because the bastard had been banished at that point, they went down fighting so be proud, and don't forget their sacrifice Neville, remember it and let it make you stronger." Pausing to take a breath Lilly stared at the ceiling feeling the info supplied by her Reaper begin to peter off, Neville looked shaken and bade his leave, waving it off Lilly covered her face with her arm a moment before Hermione spoke up.
"So...Ha...Lilly how are you doing?" Deciding that this pussyfooting about was rather irritating she opined,
"Oh outside of having a beautiful girl beside my bed rather then in it I'm doing pretty good, you?" There was a squeak then she was smacked with a pillow, grinning Lilly laughed a moment before continuing. "Deserved that, so yeah, I feel terrible, and I have the feeling things are going to get worse rather then better..."
Dropping her arm she looked at her worried friend then whispered, "Want the real story?" Her eyes narrowed and she nodded sharply, pulling herself from bed Lilly stripped out of the hospital gown and slide on the robes left at her bedside, moving towards the door Hermione whispered,
"Where are we going?" Smiling in return Lilly cryptically said,
"Grabbing my broom then taking a pretty witch for a ride," an hour later found them in Myrtle's loo with Firebolt in hand, walking up to the snake head sink she whispered "Open" in parseltongue. As before the entrance was revealed, unlike before they flew down the twisting turning pipe rather then sliding down its filthy surface; soon the cavern echoed with Lilly's whooping and Hermione's screams. Reaching the antechamber she brought the broom to a landing and turned to her longtime friend who had placed her fists on her hips displaying a rather adorable scolding pout,
"Answers now," and so she explained everything that actually happened and the personal belief of her life being heavily manipulated by outside forces, there was a long silence before the bushy haired young woman wrapped Lilly in a hug.
"Good god...ok...suddenly feeling a bit silly being cross with you," Lilly simply shrugged, what can you do? Letting the tender moment last far longer then necessary they separated and Lilly pulled out her letters, the one from Gringotts stated that they'd like to meet immediately and had supplied a portkey, nice. The one from Sirius contained a mirror with the words 'Call me" written on the package. Shrugging she looked into the mirror,
"Calling Sirius Black AKA Padfoot the scruffy!" Not thirty seconds later her shaggy haired godfather appeared in the mirror looking indignant,
"I'll have you know young lady I'm not scruffy, I'm dashingly handsome! I...oh Merlin you look like your mother mixed with Aunt Dorea...neat! Anyway how you holding up pup?" Heart melting a bit at the true affection in his voice she gave him a shaky smile,
"Heyya Padfoot, things are a bit messed up, this umm...girl thing is permanent but it prevented the blood seal Dumbledore forced on me from blowing me up, so thats a plus I guess? Anyway you know everything I do now, brilliant mirror by the way!" Seemingly amused by her disjointed greeting he grinned happily,
"Well, I'm still your godfather, so you'll just have to be my goddaughter now, so no worries I won't judge I know you didn't choose this." Lilly felt tears form at the corners of her eyes at this admission, she did not let out a relieved sob, it had to be some sort of echo effect of the old tunnel, rats or something obviously.
Sirius having more experience with crying young women then he'd like to admit tactfully ignored the display, "Now I followed the whole transformation thing but whats this about Albus keeping me from you?" Lilly glanced over to Hermione who looked at her quizzically, sighing she discretely lifted her glasses to wipe her eyes dry then unloaded her personal nightmare.
"Ok...so mum and dad die protecting me from Tom's little rampage, suddenly the Headmaster realizes that this kid is protected by an ancient primal magic that cannot be replicated, and can only be fueled by a connection to a blood relative. So along comes Sirius who is in some legal hot water due to Wormtails betrayal, he knows damn well you'd never consent to me being sent to the Dursleys and is well aware you'd be proven innocent under veritaserum, so off you go to Azkaban."
Taking a deep breath and seeing both Hermione and Sirius' horrified expressions she pressed on, "Now here's the guesswork and I have no physical proof but it fits. I was supposed to go to Alice and Frank Longbottom after you, but out of the blue they're given the all clear signal and are out in the open for the Lestrange's to gank them, now they're not in the way.
"Amelia Bones was next but pff, even Albus Too-Many-Names Dumbledore isn't arrogant enough to mess with that hardened war-witch, so while not sealed my parents will was 'misplaced' and never read, so off I went to the Dursleys to charge his secret anti-Voldemort battery."
Silence...then, "That...bastard..." She looked up in surprise to see an utterly infuriated Hermione, her fists were clenched and she was practically vibrating from her restrained rage; keeping Sirius in sight she walked up to the fuming brunette and wrapped her free arm around her. After a few tense seconds she began to relax, eventually Sirius broke the silence sounding incredibly tired yet determined,
"Ok...your plan? I'm in, claim the House of Slytherin as your own and I'll back you up, plus this is a prank worthy of a Marauder," looking at the mirror she could see he was smiling in amusement, even if it was a bit forced. "I mean really, a Gryffindor claiming control over the Ancient and Noble House of Slytherin, too good. I have some preparations to complete before we move to the next phase...like getting a haircut, you be careful Ha...Lilly, I'll keep in touch."
As Lilly shoved the two way mirror into a pocket she released Hermione while walking to the entrance, hissing at the massive vault like door a moment it soon began opening with an ominous groan, dust shaking from the ceiling.
"Seriously ostentatious Sal...ugh... ok this way 'Mione, mind the smell there's a rotting basilisk down here after all," noticing the foul odor the second the doors opened she cast a bubblehead charm on both of them. The raven haired girl turned around and gave her a heart stopping grin, "Thanks 'Mione, all right lets get this over with." Walking through the massive chamber and avoiding the oddly well preserved snake monster they eventually made their way to the central platform.
"What do you have to do now?" Lilly faced her again while rolling her eyes,
"I have to go through the entire laws of inheritance...in parseltongue, this is going to be a bit hang tight." She hadn't been kidding, even though to Hermione's ears it sounded like nothing but hissing after five minutes Lilly's voice took on a distinctly bored tone; eventually the chamber filled with a hissing echo in return.
Lilly's face twisted in disgust and she let out an irritated "tsh...fine asshole", she then sat cross legged and looked up to her friend, "Salazar says we have to view all of his 'True Heirs' defeats to take up the Ring of Slytherin...even the one my Reaper sealed up." Growling a bit she sat next to her friend and grabbed her hand,
"We'll watch it together...ok?" Smiling thankfully Lilly nodded, dropped her head and then they were somewhere else.
A cloaked figure marched unafraid through the village of Godric's Hollow confident that he'd finally sealed his destiny of immortality by offing the Potters and their brat. Whistling lightly to himself Lord Voldemort muttered the words,
"Another one gone, another one gone, another one bites the dust, hey I'm gonna get you too, another one bites the dust!" With that the jubilant snake faced wizard pulled his wand out and sent a blasting curse through the Potters front door, he heard a mans voice distinctly yell, "He's here!" as he pushed his way through the wooden splinters. "I do hope I'm not intruding Jam-" he didn't get to finish his quip as the shotgun blast nearly took his head off, fucking gray wizards and their refusal to follow the rules.
"Heyya king corpse nibbler, guess choosing Peter as secret keeper was a bad idea, I owe Moony twenty quid, ah well." With that several more shotgun blasts and curses were hurled towards the Dark Lord, grunting in annoyance and keeping his shields up he finally made it into the building proper. James Potter stood there tossing the shotgun aside grinning like a madman, his dark eyes showing no fear whatsoever; casting several spells the dashing man transfigured all the furniture into stone knights and sent them towards Voldemort.
As the Dark Lord began firing curses destroying the creations James swung up an old Sten sub-machinegun and unloaded it at Voldemort while casting curses in his off hand, 'I fucking HATE gray wizards, dark wizards drag shit out to torture you, light wizards fight to incapacitate, gray wizards kill you as fast as possible so they can hit the pub, ugh.' Diving out of the line of fire Voldemort threw several more curses and eventually hit James with a nasty case of necrosis, it would be fatal regardless of how this turned out.
As he slid to a stop James looked down at his rotting chest and sighed, "Oh well, guess that's that, gave her enough time though." Looking up at Voldemort he grinned and winked at his murderer as he whipped out a heavy box tapping its recessed button just as the killing curse struck him down.
"Fuck," Voldemort spat as the mines lining the room went off at once, shield charm or no the claymores hit him with at least a dozen rounds of buckshot. "God. Damn. Gray. Wizards. Seriously if it isn't the Potter's with their bloody mines and machine guns its the Longbottom's with their grenades and thermite." Muttering to himself the Dark Lord made his way upstairs and came face to face with a smirking redhead,
"Ello poppet," and before he could dive out of the way she roared "LANCE AUTEM ARDENTEM!" the beam of solid light burned Voldemort's left arm off at the shoulder, cauterizing the wound and sending him flying. Lily Potter began throwing hexes and charms towards him at a pace he could barely keep up with, still grinning she quipped, "Came all this way to kill my baby and you didn't expect mum to fight back? For shame Tom!"
Snarling he spat back, "I already killed your husband mudblood, soon you will follow!" She laughed, she laughed at him, goddamn gray wizards, now on the defensive he backed up until he heard a child's crying, grinning he fired a blasting curse through the wall and ended up in a nursery. Seeing the crib in the far corner the Dark Lord grinned and aimed his wand at the child, "Avada Kedavra!"
"HARRY!" the damn Potter woman screamed as she dove through the doorway and landed in front of the curse placing her hands on the child as she died, rolling his eyes he limped to the dead body and pulled her off the crib, much to his consternation she was smiling. 'Whatever' he thought in annoyance, aiming at the mewling baby he sneered as he cast the killing curse one last time,
"AVADA KEDAVRA!" As the green light left his wand the Dark Lord for the first time noticed the room wide rune engraved on the floor that was suddenly glowing a deep red, as his curse rebounded Lord Voldemort's last mortal thought was "Oh bugger me."
The pair came to in the Chamber of Secrets, Lilly was crying but smiling widely, Hermione couldn't blame her, the Potters went out in a blaze of glory and had a contingency plan that no one could have anticipated. If there was one thing made very clear Harry/Lilly's unconventional way of handling things was most definitely hereditary, there was hissing and Lilly began laughing, she sobbed then laughed again.
"The Shade of Salazar Slytherin not only holds me as worthy of being his heiress he is also posthumously adding James and Lily to his family history because, and I kid you not "That was brilliant!" hehehe..." Hermione finally broke down laughing at this declaration, after several minutes of crying and laughing Lilly stood and offered her hand to Hermione.
Pulling the smaller witch to her feet, she froze in thought, turning to Hermione she asked "Well...what should my name be? This is going to make it permanent and official so I shouldn't just jump into it." The shorter witch cocked her head to the side chewing her lip a moment before smiling and nodding to herself.
"Well, why not make Lilly short for Lillith, while it does have some negative connotations most people are so ignorant of mythology I doubt it would matter. As for middle names, since Alice Longbottom was your godmother why not honor her with taking up her name?" Smiling Lilly leaned down and kissed Hermione's forehead causing the bushy haired teen to blush,
"What would I do without you 'Mione? Err...what kinda of negative connotations by the way?" Blushing even more brightly she coughed into her hand as she muttered,
"According to some older Hebrew texts she was Adam of Eden's first wife who left him and became the first Succubus..." Lilly felt a brow raise on its own at that but then shrugged,
"So she wouldn't take a mans shit and liked sex...all right, I can deal with that," Hermione's face cooled as she rolled her eyes, not what she expected her friend to take from that but...wait...nevermind she should most certainly have expected that.
Strolling back to the center of the platform Lilly threw her arms wide and declared, "I, Lillith Alice Potter do so claim the title of Matriarch and Head of the most Ancient and Noble House of Slytherin through the Rules of Conquest and do so take upon myself the roles and responsibilities as Lady Slytherin, so it is said, so mote it shall be!" There was a flash of light and a moment later the statue of Salazar Slytherin's jaw popped open followed by a distinct 'patooie' noise.
Then Lilly was conked in the head by a piece of jewelry that fell to the floor as the witch began hopping about swearing up a streak, "Buggering mother fucking masonry arsehole! Who spits head of house rings at a woman huh?!" There was a distinct hissing laugh echoing through the chamber as she extended both middle fingers towards the statue in question.
Hermione for her part was too distracted holding in her laughter to reprimand Lilly for her language, still rubbing her head the witch in question turned her cool gaze to her friend nonplussed at her finding amusement in this situation. Eventually recomposing herself the brunette once again coughed in her hand as she pointed down at the glistening bit of jewelry,
"Shall we?" Still grumbling to herself Lilly leaned down and picked the ring up, rolling it in her palm she saw that it was composed of two intertwining silver snakes forming a double helix pattern, where their open jaws met sat a gleaming emerald.
"Shiny!" Both witches stated at once mesmerized by the ancient artefact, shaking her head Lilly, now Lillith placed it on her right ring finger, when it was fully seated a bellowing voice shook the very foundations of the school.
"Lillith Alice Potter has claimed the long dead title of Lady Slytherin, all hail your new lady, so it is said, so mote shall it be!" As dust fell from the rafters following the reverberating declaration Lilly looked at Hermione in wide eyed horror.
"Oh Shit."