Hi everyone! Sorry I'm only updating fortnightly at the moment - studying for my Muggle O.W.L.s I'm afraid. Thankfully exams are over soon so I'll try to get back to updating weekly. :)

Anyway, I'm going to respond to some reviews now, but if you're not interested in that, scroll down for CHAPTER FOUR!

hushpuppy 22: How could Ron tell them the incantation, what it did and not mention that it was an unforgivable and meant instant travel to Azkaban?

Excellent point. When Ron said he mentioned it briefly, he literally meant briefly. He was showing off how big the battle he'd been in (I can imagine Ron doing that), and probably said something like, "Oh, yeah, and they hit me with some Sword Hex and Crucio but I kept fighting even though most people would be curled up in agony…" It's possible that Lily doesn't even remember this conversation with Ron - Harry is just angry and upset, and assumes that this is how she knows what the Cruciatus Curse is, because he doesn't know how else she could know.

123ABC: It's good, and has promise, but I'm just wondering why Harry didn't recognise his own daughter's wand?

In-story answer: It was dark, and he wasn't expecting it, so he wasn't thinking "is this my daughter's wand?" as he looked at it. Authorly answer: I had to have one Auror check the suspect and one check the wand, and it was more suspenseful to have Harry not realise it was Lily's until a bit later in the story. :)

thecoolestone: Well if Underaged wizards are supposed to be arrested for unforgiveable then harry would have been arrested in his end of term fifth year as he used it on bella.

I think that's an ongoing question within the actual series, why Harry didn't get arrested for using Unforgivables (which he also did in Deathly Hallows). I guess it's because he was on the "good" side, and generally used them on Death Eaters.

thecoolestone: And even more an underage wizard can't cast an unforgiveable as strong as a grown up thats the reason behind it afterall. To cast lethal spells u need more aura(magic behind it) thats y a first year can't cast the expelliarmus on a grown up.

Another valid point. However, Lily was casting it on another student her age, so their level of magic was about equal. She still only managed to cast it for "about five seconds" though.

Overall, thanks everyone for the reviews and questions. Some of them, such as hushpuppy22's, have really helped me to flesh out the details and background to this story. And yes, there was a more complicated reason that Lily cast it, which will be explored in detail in this chapter!

"Ron, what's—" Ginny called after him. He didn't seem to have seen her.

Ginny ran around Harry's desk to his side. "There were reporters outside – ruddy Prophet – Harry, is Lily okay? They said she—"

"Lily – Lily—" Harry's throat felt blocked again. I told Ron, it can't be impossible… "Lily was in a duel."

"Someone attacked her?" Ginny clutched the edge of Harry's desk.

Harry shook his head. "Gin, I don't know, but it was with another student and she – Lily – cast Cruciatus."

Ginny stared at him as the full implications of this played across her face. She dropped to her knees. "No."

"She said she did," Harry said. He felt strangely light headed. "But I don't know – why—"

Ginny leant against his desk, sobbing. Harry felt that he had to do something. He leant down to hug her and pat her back. She was shivering so hard that she shook them both.

"It's – um—" Harry couldn't think of anything to say. He already felt a trickle of shame about shouting at Ron - it would upset Ginny even more when she found that out.

"Where is she?" Ginny asked. She wrenched her head off Harry's shoulder and stared wildly around the office. "Az-azkaban?"

"No, no, she's in the cells here," Harry said.

"I need to see her." Ginny sounded so much like her mother that Harry was suddenly sure that she'd go off at Lily like a Howler. "To check that she's – is she injured?"

She stood, still looking around in that lost way.

"Not seriously, that I could see," Harry said. "She—" He decided against telling Ginny how Lily's handcuffs had broken her own fingers. "She's okay."

"Do you think she actually did cast it?" Ginny looked at him. "Cruciatus?"

Harry tried to avoid her eyes, but she was pleading. She had the parental opinion, and she wanted his professional one.

"I – I think so," he said. "Her wand showed the curse and she said – said that she did."

"Can those things be wrong?" Ginny asked. "Could she have been drugged, or Imperiused, or—" She broke off into another sob, and started toward the door. Harry wiped his eyes on his robes as he followed her out.

Ginny had stopped in the corridor. "Where's—?"

"This way," Harry said. He strode down the office corridor and back through the blue door. They met nobody on their way, but Felix was waiting outside in the main hallway.

"Harry, um, Ogden looked at – the suspect and she said she had no active curses on her but some injuries so there's a Healer there now," he squeaked. When Harry didn't respond, he twitched with evident relief and scurried back to his cubicle.

"Why's he so nervous?" Ginny asked in a faint voice.

"Because he's Felix," said Harry. He pushed open the door that led to the lock-up and interview rooms, also known as the "Bad Guy Wing". Somebody had slapped a paper sign to that effect on the door. Harry ripped it down as he walked through – it was sloppy, highly unprofessional and, he discovered, also rather upsetting to the suspects' families.

It wasn't a corridor he generally lingered in – interrogations were the job of specialised questioners, and the debrief rooms for Aurors were located in another, slightly less intimidating, area of the warren-like Department. The corridor sloped slightly downward (there was a rather cruel joke among the Aurors that at least the Slytherin prisoners were right at home) and lacked even the false windows of the other Ministry corridors. The roof and walls were lined with a soft, blue-grey fabric, designed to absorb ricocheting spells in the event of a duel, but which also seemed to stifle the sound of Harry and Ginny's footsteps.

"Am I allowed down here?" Ginny asked, as they passed a door labelled LEVEL ONE REINFORCED INTERROGATION ROOM – Bring suspects in Stupefied.

"If you're visiting a prisoner." Something occurred to Harry. "I probably should have signed off and then signed back in as a relative."

"Who cares?" Ginny said. Harry thought she was probably right. Nonetheless, he slipped his Auror badge off and into his pocket as they reached the entrance to the cells. The new Auror on Guard was Richard Boot, a Junior, who was apparently covering Tracey's shift. Ginny craned for a look at Lily.

"Go right through," Boot said to Harry.

Harry shook his head. "You've got to check us out properly," he said.

Boot looked at him, confused.

Harry took a breath. "I'm visiting my daughter."

"Oh – okay – I'll just –" Boot was suddenly very interested in inspecting Harry's feet. "Take your wand?"

Harry handed it to him. Ginny, frowning, did the same. Boot flicked his own wand, checking them for concealed enchantments, and waved them through to the cells.

The Auror-Healer was leaning over the bunk at the back of the cell. Ginny looked around, confused, then knocked on the wall outside the cell door. The Spell-Sorb fabric made no sound. Ginny tried again before clearing her throat in a way that reminded Harry of her long-ago Umbridge impersonation.

The Healer, deep in concentration over Lily, didn't respond. Ginny turned to Harry.

"Um, Healer Motten?" he said, not sure if he wanted to interrupt her while she was working on his daughter.

Motten turned. "Hang on a second, if you could, Mr Potter."

He saw Lily lying on her stomach on the hard bunk mattress. Her back was exposed, and covered in a series of what appeared to be rapidly healing gashes.

"Lily!" Ginny shrieked. She pressed herself against the metal bars to see what was wrong with her daughter. A moment later she jumped back, twitching.

"Careful." Harry put a hand on her shoulder to steady her. "Don't touch the bars."

Ginny nodded. She was in tears again, although Harry couldn't tell if it was Lily's injuries or the shock she'd received from the enchanted cell.

"If she was badly injured, they would have transferred her to St Mungo's," Harry reassured Ginny.

Motten smoothed Lily's robes over her back and let herself out of the cell. "She wasn't in too good a state, Mr Potter," he said. "It looked like she'd been hit on the back with some kind of lacerating curse – a powerful one, but perhaps not well performed."

Harry's stomach lurched. "Someone attacked her from behind?"

Motten shrugged. "Perhaps, or it could have been a ricochet, of course. I've noted it in her medical report." She tapped the clipboard she was holding. "I gave her a bit of Nap-Length Sleep Potion, because healing curse wounds can be painful, but she should wake up in a few minutes."

"Well – thank you," Harry said.

"Goodbye, Mr Potter," said Motten.

Harry had never appreciated Motten's professionalism – or her gentleness toward their detainees – as much as he did now. He was about to say something along those lines, but she disappeared before she could be further thanked.

"Can we go in?" Ginny asked.

"No," Harry said. He was about to conjure a seat for her, then remembered that his wand was outside with Boot. He noticed four chairs sitting at the dead end of the corridor, apparently for this purpose, and brought one over to the cell door by hand.

"Lily," Ginny said softly. Her anger seemed tempered, at least for a while, the sight of her daughter stretched out unconscious on the bunk. Lily didn't move; she had rolled, or been rolled, to face the back of the cell.

"Are they just going to make her wake up there on her own, then?" Ginny asked.

"I guess so," Harry said. Technically, Aurors weren't even supposed to be in the cell with unrestrained suspects, but Motten had always acted with a sort of gentle consideration that entailed quiet disregard for her own safety.

Lily shifted one arm and rolled over to face them, almost falling out of her bunk in groggy confusion.

"What's wrong with her?" Ginny asked.

She stood, and Harry had to put a hand on her shoulder to stop her pressing herself against the bewitched bars again. "She's just sleepy from the potion, and she's been Stupefied once today already. She'll be fine."

Lily's eyes flicked around the cell as her face flicked through confusion, fear, and then horrified realisation.

"Lily!" Ginny said. She craned toward her. Lily rolled to her feet and tried to stand, but flopped back to sitting on the bunk.

"Careful, swee—" Ginny's voice caught on the word sweetie, "—stay sitting for a while. A Healer gave you a Sleeping Potion so she could look at your back."

They lapsed into silence. After a minute, Lily's eyes had regained their full measure of conscious brightness. Still nobody spoke.

"Lily, why did you—"

Ginny cut him off with a look that was equal parts disapproval and gladness that she hadn't had to ask that question, but Lily was shaking her head.

"Did you cast it?" Ginny asked urgently.

Lily nodded.

Ginny flinched. She looked as sick as Harry had felt. Lily sat up poker straight, regaining her strength, but didn't move any closer to the front of the cell.

"Did you know what it would do?" Ginny asked, then.

Lily nodded, but Harry knew it was a non-question. The danger (as he had discovered) from some spells, like Sectumsempra, was that they could be cast without the caster knowing what the effect would be. But Unforgivables weren't like that. As Bellatrix had once glibly informed him, "You have to mean it."

"But why –" Ginny sobbed, "—why did you want to torture—"

"Cecil Jordan," Harry muttered.

Lily just sobbed. Harry felt a jab of annoyance at her – was she just crying like that to avoid answering questions? She wouldn't, he reflected, be able to do that in a formal interrogation.

"We just want you to tell us," Ginny said, pulling the parental "we" as only someone with parents could do.

Lily shook her head. "No."

"What could possibly be so bad that you can't tell your mother?" Ginny asked.

Lily let out a little moan.

"Did Cecil start the duel?" Ginny asked.

This was hardly relevant in a legal sense, but Harry supposed it was a fair question.

"I don't know," Lily said.

Harry wanted to know exactly how she could not know something like that, but he held his tongue. There would be time for interrogations later, and as for this, he had no idea how he should go about it as a parent. He decided just to follow Ginny's lead.

"Lily, it's going to be easier to explain to us than to—" Ginny turned to Harry.

"A questioner." Harry was glad to be useful for something.

Lily pursed her lips.

"They'll have ways of—" making you tell, Harry thought, but it sounded too much like a threat, something he'd say to an uncooperative Death Eater.

Lily stared around the cell, as if looking for an escape, or a place to hide.

"Lily - Lil, how could you think it was okay to do that?" Ginny asked.

"Who says I thought it was okay?" Lily glared at a spot on the wall.

"You don't talk to your mother like that," Harry put in, once again hoping to be helpful, but wondering if he'd been too harsh. What was it with this? If Lily had smashed up her brother's broom, they'd be angry at her. But since she'd put an Unforgivable Curse on someone, Ginny seemed to be walking on eggshells.

"We're worried about you, Lily," Ginny said.

"Visiting time's nearly over." Boot turned to look at them, from where he had been resolutely standing and pretending not to hear every word of their conversation.

Harry had lost count of the number of times today that he'd felt guilty relief to be forced to finish a conversation with his daughter.

"Okay, well, Lily," Ginny said. "We love you."

Lily broke down in tears again. She looked suddenly around the cell.

"Is there someone here at – at night?" She asked suddenly.

"There's always a guard, yes," Harry said. There were also a large number of anti-escape spells and alarms, including a particularly nasty Caterwauling Curse, and two metres of stone which was magically moved to seal the passage at night, but he couldn't tell her about those. In fact, Harry began to wonder where this conversation was going.

Lily was blushing as only a Weasley could. "Do they leave the lights on?" she asked in a small voice.

Harry's heart broke. "Yes, dar – darling," he managed to sob. "They leave some lights on."

To make sure you don't escape, he thought.

"Time's up," Boot said. "Sorry."

Harry repeated Ginny's, "We love you" as they left.

They took back their wands walked up the dull, silent corridor.

"She won't tell us anything," Ginny said, in a kind of tearful exasperation. "Are they going to have to force her? What are they going to do to her if she won't tell them?"

"Nothing nasty," said Harry. "She'll probably tell them under Veritaserum."

"What if she doesn't?" Ginny asked.

"Ginny, I've seen Veritaserum used," Harry said. "I couldn't have resisted it at fifteen."

Ginny suddenly flinched again. "Harry, she cast the Cruciatus Curse."

"I know," he said hollowly.

"Why would she do that? Did she actually – make it work?" Ginny asked.

Harry paused. "That's confidential Ministry information at the moment," he said. It actually wasn't, but he'd taken the easy way out of this all day. Why stop now?

"If she didn't cast it properly, will she still go to Azkaban?" Ginny asked.

Harry realised he hadn't actually considered that possibility. He had to concede that, from her own account, Lily had managed to cast the Curse, at least for a few seconds. But could she get a reprieve if she hadn't done it properly? There was no way she could go back to Hogwarts, but at least avoid Azkaban?

Harry tried not to let this thought show on his face. He didn't want to give Ginny false hope. "I don't know," he said finally. "There's probably not a precedent – it's an ugly spell, but pretty straightforward. Most people either cast it, or they don't."

"What I want to know is why?" Ginny said. "I mean, she's Lily."

"I don't know," Harry said again. He felt even more useless; now he couldn't even function as a source of information.

"She seemed a bit sullen in the letters she sent us over first term," Ginny said, "But – no offence – you were kind of the same when you were fifteen. And she was fine at Christmas."

"Uh, yeah," Harry said. He'd been on a long assignment over most of the Christmas holidays, and hadn't had Ginny's opportunity to closely observe Lily's behaviour. He was just thinking of something more useful to say when Ginny started talking again.

"Harry, there's not, you know, last month the Quibbler did a report on this group – the Masked Ones, or something?" Ginny had gone very white.

Harry, however, was confused. "I didn't see that."

"They weren't allowed to publish it," Ginny said. "Luna was doing a story on this group, like Death Eater students, or something, but the Ministry called, and said we couldn't publish it."

Harry stiffened. "You think she's a member of some group?"

"I don't think she is – I'm just worried – because it was obviously real, or the Ministry wouldn't have stopped us publishing it, would they?"

"Not necessarily," Harry said. He tried to keep his tone light. "Generally, the Ministry discourages articles that might give publicity to terrorist groups-"

"So it is real?" Ginny grabbed his arm.

"-real or imagined ones." Harry pulled his arm away so she couldn't feel him shaking.

Something had entered his head that was classified Ministry information. As usual, the Quibbler's nonsense contained a grain of truth. "The Masked Ones" was a quintessentially ridiculous name, and Luna had probably made it up to add interest to her article. But it was true that, recently, the Aurors had been tracking a growing, Death Eater-like group - one that seemed to be trying to recruit students.

"Lily's not Pureblood," Harry burst out suddenly, as they entered his office. "I'm half Muggleborn, so—"

"She's as close as anyb– so you're saying there is a group?" Ginny asked.

"No," Harry said. How was he going to get out of this one? Even if the Minister for Magic wouldn't have his head if he accidentally released that kind of information to a civilian, he couldn't tell Ginny about the group. Worrying wouldn't help anything.

But Harry had already started to worry.

A Dark group was recruiting at Hogwarts.

And now his timid daughter, who still couldn't even sleep without a nightlight, had cast an Unforgivable Curse?

Harry had always felt bad for reading only half of Parenting your Teenage Witch, but he had a feeling there wasn't a chapter on this anyway.

Thanks everyone for the reviews! I'm not going to "post/not post chapters unless I get a certain number of reviews", but I really like reviews. :) I'll try to answer any questions you post, unless there are too many.