The Cat.

Settling in, the Queen explores her new kingdom.

A few months, plus 13 heists after her first London robbery, Selina Evans was certainly moving up through the world. To the city and her cleaning colleagues, she presented a competant, slighlty shy person who calmly and carefully did her fair share of the work load, she spent her free time writing or painting, going jogging, going to the gym, working on her martial arts and fencing moves. It never ceased to amaze her that so many senseis and fencing teachers used and applied so many techniques, but since Selina tended to travel and work on her skills to keep them in top shape, she had found many different varients for various moves.

As for the teachers, well they loved her. They loved the fact they were teaching something new to this already expert girl, who was teaching them something new in turn, some move, some hold technique, or in the case of the fencing tutors a move of the sword and the posture they'd never considered before. Having Selina, or someone like her around, was always a welcome relief because then you've got someone of an equal caliber to what you've got.

Unknown to anyone, Selina was spending most of her time drafting plans and counter plans for more heists as the months passed. Selina had a rule; don't rob too much in such a short amount of time, because the police can easily work out a pattern. Thanks to the public transport in the city, Selina had no trouble finding a variety of places for her to successfully rob at her leisure. When she found a place to rob, she scouted the place first, searching for multiple escape routes and backdoors. She took careful measurements of each site, checking the walls for places where she could lay a trap or two, then she would investigate the security of the site itself over a period of a week or a few days.

Selina wasn't in a hurry and robberies weren't a high priority for the young thief. It could be years before the police got a lead, such a thing was more than possible. Every good cat burglar knew a heist was only as good as the plan to make it possible. In the meantime Selina explored her new home, finding out the best employers to work for when she decided to move to a different part of city, though it wasn't a necessity at the time being it was still early days.

Though her body was in it, her heart and soul weren't as Selina was working out on the cross trainer, moving her arms and legs to move the exercise machine. Selina swallowed the bile in her mouth, she'd known since the day she'd discovered her past, the day she'd started her travels that would one day bring her back to Britain, that she would need to confront her mothers past. Even though it had been months since her arrival in London, she'd been dreading this day since the day she'd first arrived in this country.

Selina's thoughts were stopped when her eyes caught the cross trainer's screen. Half an hour passed, she could get off. Opening her water bottle to take a sip, Selina noted the statistics and got off the machine. Grabbing a paper towel and cleaning fluid, she scrubbed off the sweat off the handles before taking her bottle and looking around the gym for inspiration for what to do next. Selina never had a fixed plan for what to exercise with, but today her heart just wasn't in it. She'd already spent the past hour here, and she didn't want to spend anymore time here than necessary.

Selina decided to leave. She grabbed her bag and things, and just left. She mostly showered in her new home. On the way back to her flat, she wrapped herself tightly in her coat as the train and bus took her from the gym all the way home.

She climbed into the shower and turned it on hot to better wash the sweat from her body. She also knew sooner or later she would have to confront her past.

The Leaky Cauldron pub in central London was, according to her mother, was a famous place. Selina couldn't see how it could be famous. It looked like something to be condemmed before being demolished, the neighborhood was like a demilitarised zone, and the few people her limited magical senses could detect made doubly sure to keep themselves as discreet as possible.

Selina eyed it for a long while, then decided to visit somewhere else before going there.

Malfoy Manor in Wiltshire, the home of the Malfoy family since their abdication from their ancestral French lands, stood silent. Selina eyed the manor as she came close to it. The manor house had once hosted the richest, most extravagant balls in the magical world before the extinction of the Malfoy family.

Selina had read up on Magical families, including the Malfoys, and she wasn't impressed by the unbiased and biased views she'd read up on and from what she'd learnt from her mother when she'd briefly told her about the magical world and its varied problems.

The Malfoy family wasn't the noble aristocratic people they claimed to be. In fact they were seen as backstabbers and persecuters who freely and openly flounted magical and muggle law, to their very downfall. Once native to France, the family were forced to leave when the Malfoys servants, basically an entire town, in the embrace of the French revolution, suddenly attacked and burnt down their ancient manor, guillotining over 30 members of the permanent family. The town had been enslaved by the whole family, and with typical Malfoy logic, they saw it as their right. They'd loved every second of it, especially since they were magical and purebloods. Before her mother had dealt with them, the Malfoys still didn't get the hint they could die at any moment.

The ancient Malfoy manor had been burnt to the ground after being stripped of everything valuable - paintings, jewels, etc - with the rest being used as firewood by the locals. The new Malfoy manor, the one Selina Evans was looking at had once been grand, she could see that. Selina walked effortlessly into the grounds of the manor, the grasses now overgrown and she felt the wardline, though it was faint. Selina paid no attention to it as she was too busy exploring the manor.

She stopped.

A statue was in the middle of the grounds, and the face showed a young girl in the robes of a Hogwarts student. Selina gulped, the face was identical to the one she washed everyday, but she always kept her hair short to maintain a distance with her past, like it would someday reach out a fist and grab her by her tresses. It was her mother.

Selina swallowed the sudden rush of anger, but she wasn't able to hide it when she read the plaque on the statue. It read, " Here lies the last remains of the Dark Lord Voldemort, ' He Who Must Not Be Named.' This ground is also the last place the seventh year student Lily Evans disappeared. May she one day be found, but for now let us celebrate our good fortune the darkness falling never did."

Selina punched the statue in rage. She couldn't stop herself.

It was bad enough her mother had been kidnapped on the edge of the supposedly safe and legendary Hogwarts wards, but to be betrayed by someone who had once been a friend, then raped...but these bastards had forgotten her.

Selina closed her eyes. " I'm sorry, mum. They forgot you, they forgot everything."

Her mother had died, but she'd sent Lord Voldemort and his neanderthals ahead of her, her own life and existence ruined beyond all recognition, but she'd often spoke optimistically, though Selina had never believed her, that the magical world had changed for the better. Now, from where Selina was standing, it had been for nothing.

Her mother had given up everything to escape from Britain, including the vilification that would come from being the mother of Voldemort's child, and all the magical world had done was errect this abomination whilst her mother had suffered, alone, until she'd come along. Selina picked her backpack up. She walked away from the statue. Maybe she should obey her first instinct and stay away from the magical world, but when she donned her cap and sunglasses, she walked to the edge of the Malfoy grounds to find her way blocked by three men and a woman dressed in blood red robes.

Selina froze.

One of the men, a tall man with messy black hair, slowly drew his wand out. " What're you doing here?" He asked, and edge to his voice.

Selina didn't reply. There was something familiar about this man's face. Then there was the way he'd spoken to her, the hard tone revealing something personal.

The other man flicked his wand in Selina's direction, and before she could stop them her cap and sun glasses came off revealing her face to the wizards and the woman she presumed was a witch. When the first man took a good look at his face, he gasped and looked like he was about to drop his wand.

The other two weren't any better.

" Lily?" The woman whispered hesitantly.

That snapped Selina out of her shock, and with the speed of a Cheetah, she turned tail and ran away. The black haired wizard also snapped out of his funk and, not wanting this girl who bore a surprising resemblance to his lost girlfriend, raised his wand, and cast the stunning spell. Selina dropped to the ground before she could even get thirty feet away.

James Potter ran over to her faster than his colleagues, and bent down slowly, hesitantly, almost as if he was imagining seeing the face of the girl he'd loved all those years ago. When he'd turned her over to get a good look at her face, he almost recoiled. She looked so much like Lily it was remarkable, the shape of her mouth, her cheekbones, and the heart shaped structure of her face. The eyes he'd briefly seen were a pure emerald green, but the hair...that wasn't Lily's. He glanced at the muggle rucksack, and opened it. He found a bottle of water and some apples and a banana, a book, and a wooden box. He opened it, and found himself looking at vials containing a silvery liquid. James frowned at them, then down at the girl. As an auror and a wizard, James had seen more pensieve memories than most. Why would this girl have them?

Albus Dumbledore knew he was getting old as he walked through the corridors of Potter manor, some of the portraits he passed welcoming him there whilst the others were indifferent. He was used to that. Once upon a time Albus Dumbledore had wanted to become famous, but the last nineteen years since Lily Evans had disappeared, Lord Voldemort's demise, and the complete death of the Death Eaters, some of whom people Dumbledore would never imagine willing to become the vilest of pureblood supremacists, one of whom was Severus Snape. Since then Dumbledore had tried to amend his ways, trying to keep his meddling to a minimum. There were days like this, he found where he just wanted to pack everything in, and leave. Today was no different. He'd been having a relatively quiet day at Hogwarts, only to have Amelia Potter floo him, telling him to come to Potter manor at once.

When he saw why he couldn't help but feel he was seeing a ghost.

On the bed infront of him was a girl with an astounding resemblance to Lily Evans, but it clearly wasn't her. The shape of the face, the cheekbones, the general body type...all belonged to the long missing Head girl. Only the black hair, and her much more pronounced chin wasn't Lily's luxuriant red hair. Dumbledore stood over her for a second, watched anxiously by both Potters. The aging Headmaster spared James a glance, shaking his head in sympathy. Lily's disappearance and supposed death had hit James hard, Dumbledore was grateful to Amelia Bones for pulling him together. He may not love Amelia as much as he'd loved Lily, but he'd managed.

The appearance of this stranger must be killing James.

Dumbledore pushed those aside, and cast a simple charm to determine the girl's age. The spell bathed the sleeping girl in an aura of red magical light, before shifting into gold, then back to red. The smoky result appeared above her chest. 19.

" Well its certainly not Lily, besides some of her features are different, but otherwise she's a complete copy of her." Dumbledore said.

Amelia wrapped her arms around her husband. Amelia sometimes resented the fact James had come to her on the rebound, but she fell in love with him because of his heart, and Susan loved him.

This must be hurting him, she implored the older wizard, " Albus, who could she be? Is she alive somewhere?"

Dumbledore knew she was referring to Lily. " Let's find out." He held up his wand.

James breathed in. " You're going to revive her." Dumbledore studied him, James seemed eager for answers as much as he was. Before he could do anything, Amelia remembered something important.

" Wait, Professor." She said, bringing a frustrated Dumbledore up. His frustration disappeared at once when he saw the wooden box. He picked one of the vials out of it. He held it up to the light. " Pensieve memories," he whispered.

" We were doing to play them, but since we don't know what they are..." Amelia trailed off. Dumbledore nodded, he himself wanted to view the memories, but he wanted a few answers first. This girl could solve many mysteries, like what had happened to Lily Evans. How did Voldemort and his army die?

" I'll wake her up, I want to speak to her before we see these memories." Dumbledore decided, raising his wand again. He cast the spell. For a moment the girl didn't move, then she breathed out a deep breath, opening her eyes. As she looked around, she became more alert. To the onlookers surprise, the girl went from drowsy to wide awake in seconds. In such a surprisingly short amount of time she'd moved so fast they couldn't blink. Like a cat facing a dog, the girl had leapt to the other side of the bed, crouching down, fists raised ready to fight. Dumbledore calmly looked at her, eyes locked. He read the girls mind.

She was frightened, and yet she was prepared to fight to the death. Dumbledore read only a few thoughts, picking up on memories of child bullies, how this girl had used brains and brawn to beat them down. He saw how this girl had a focused mind, so focused he would hypothesise she'd learnt a crude form of occlumency. Dumbledore could see this girl's intellect was quite pronounced, she analysed everything. She knew in unideal circumstances, she wouldn't be a match for three magical users, but he could tell she was thinking of ways to get past that problem.

He slowly and carefully put his wand away, making sure the girl watched his every movement clearly without showing any sudden moves, then he slowly raised them to show he wasn't a threat. The girl didn't relax. She just stared at them, keeping all three of them in her line of sight.

Dumbledore stepped forward, the girl stiffened even more if that was possible. " You're Lily's daughter." He said, shocking all three of them with that statement of fact.

This had the unfortunate consequence of the girl digging her heels in. " You knew my mother." She said, like Dumbledore she wasn't wasting time with needless little facts.

James licked his lips.

Dumbledore nodded. " Not just knew, I worked with her from time to time. She was one of my most promising students."

An eyebrow quirked. " Indeed."

Dumbledore carried on. " In fact, your mother disappeared 20 years ago, and you yourself are nineteen years old."

The girl smirked slightly, but it was a purely humorless smirk. " You cast an age measure charm on me whilst I was asleep. Purely logical, especially since no one knows what happened to my mother. I saw the statue, and I hated it." Her expression darkened.

Amelia slid forwards, holding out her wand but not pointing it at the girl. Any wrong move could be fatal. " What were you doing there?" She asked.

The girl relaxed, straightened herself out, holding up her head. James was caught by the girl, her grace, her beauty, her strength and boldness. She was so much like Lily it was staggering, but it wasn't her.

" I was trying to discover more of my mothers past." Her expression became darker, like she had a particularly nasty memory. " My mother was kidnapped by Death eaters, taken to Malfoy Manor." She looked away, eyes closed. James saw a tear trickle down her cheek before an iron self control stopped anymore leaving her eyes. She looked up, her eyes still watery. " I was conceived in that manor." She said, her voice and focus directly on James.

This was too much for James. His world had collapsed. " Lily was...?" He couldn't say the word, but the girl finished it for him grimly. " My mother was raped. I was born a year later."

The girl sat on the bed, her breathing ragged. " Mum left for the States, got a job, finished an education under a different name. She couldn't go back to you, Mr Potter, not after what she'd been through. There was a possibility she wouldn't have survived, not if it was known who had raped her." She hugged herself, as if protecting herself. She looked up at him. " You want to know who my bastard father is, look at the memories. They contain the whole story, but please," she begged, pride forgotten, " don't be so quick to judge me. I haven't done anything to you, nor do I want to."

James took the box from Dumbledore and was about to lead the way out, but then he had to ask a question, one he'd had in his heart for years. He'd spend most of the years searching, seeking for her.

He had an opportunity, and who better than Lily's own daughter to ask.

" Excuse me," he said. The girl looked up, and James was struck by the sympathy in her eyes. She'd seen the memories, knew how painful they would be for him. " Yes?" She answered quietly, knowing what he was going to say but wanted to hear it anyway.

" Where is Lily?"

The girl closed her eyes, unable to control the tears that now trickled down her face. " My mother died eight years ago, when I was eleven." She hugged herself protectively. With a broken heart, James led the others out the room. They had memories to see.

Next chapter - What happened after Lord Voldemort died.