This chapter isn't quite as long as the last one so read on it's been edited.
Chapter 4: Parents and Scars

Harry and Martha walked into the dining hall of the orphanage to the sight of Ron, Henry, and Lucialla setting out the last dishes.

"How'd it go you two? Harry you look like you've seen a ghost," Ron finished with concern, walking over. "Was what she had to say that bad?"

"No it was that good," Harry said smiling. He walked up beside his sister.

Ron stared at the two of them for a second.

Martha walked to the outside door and called, "Lunch! Youngsters in front." Turning to the teenagers she asked, "Have the babies been fed yet?"

Henry nodded and mimed sleeping.

"Good," she told the boy. Turning to her guests she said, "You can go ahead; I'm generally the last one to eat."

"No, we'll wait. Won't we Ron?" Harry said elbowing his best friend.

"What? Oh, yes, yes of course we'll wait," he said.

Lunch took almost two hours. Then there was the clean up. So it was almost three hours before the three adults could talk privately. But first Martha wanted to check on the sun burnt baby. "Bloody hell, the potion should have worked!" she exclaimed, after she shooed out her helper for the day.

"What's the matter?" asked Harry, coming over from the door.

"This little one came in early this morning. Both parents killed by a dark wizard or wizards." She said, cuddling the baby girl. "Now's as good as time as any to show you what I do with the ring," She said locking the door.

Harry grimaced just knowing that the report was somewhere on his desk.

"What do you mean?" Ron asked.

"She has the Resurrection Stone," Harry stated simply.

"Lakia and Adarsh Minnington please come. I need to ask you some questions," Martha said taking a ring from her shirt and putting it on.

"We are here," a woman's voice said as two people appeared. "How is our baby?"

"She is severely sun burnt. Can you tell me why?"

"It is because of me," the man said. "I was a vampire. Tanaya is a mixture, and cannot stay in the sun too long without burning or without a potion."

"Can you tell me how you died?" asked Martha.

"We didn't see who did it," the woman said. "They killed me. I had Tanaya in my arms; I dropped her when I died."

"I ran over when I saw her fall. We had just gotten back from an early morning shopping trip. I had taken the groceries in when I heard the spell being cast. It was the killing curse," the father said, holding his wife. "I held them for a long time. I never noticed the sun coming up. I should have. I should be alive to take care of her," he said breaking down in his wife's arms.

"Please miss, take care of our little one," the wife said.

"Don't worry. I will. But I'm sorry that I can't ever show you to her."

"We understand, thank you," the wife finished as they faded.

Martha collapsed into a chair. Harry came over and took the child from her arms. "Are you alright?" he asked, rocking the baby.

"Tired. It takes a lot out of me to summon people," she said with a weak smile, "And the more recently they have died the harder it is on me."

"Harry, you didn't want that ring used. Why does she have it?" exclaimed Ron from the closed door.

"She needed it and she doesn't use it for her own purposes. She uses it to find out about the children," Harry responded. "We can wait if you want."

"No they've been dead so long that it won't be too hard on me," she said, sitting up. She spun the ring around and asked, "Mom? Dad? Could you come? Please?"

"All you had to do was ask dear," a woman's voice said.

"We've wanted to meet you formally for a long time," said a man.

Two people appeared slowly. Harry recognized his parents from the last time he had called them. "Hello Mum, Dad."

"Hello Harry, Ron." James Potter said, nodding to them. "We are so proud of you, so proud of you both."

"Dearest, how could you think that we wouldn't love you?" asked Lilly Potter, kneeling down to Martha's level.

"You didn't know about me, you only knew about Harry. You had him for a year."

"Oh darling," her mother said reaching for her cheek.

"We actually didn't know about Harry at first," James said, joining his wife. "We had a Muggle ultrasound. It said we were going to have a girl. Harry didn't show up for some reason. We just figured there had been a mistake."

"We were going to name you Lillian Petunia Potter," their mother said.

"Isn't there a magic about naming babies though? If her name was supposed to be Lillian how can she be Martha?" asked Harry, handing the giggling baby to Ron before walking over.

"I never could respond to Martha easily. I had to learn how. It still takes me a while to answer sometimes." Martha said quietly.

"That's because your name is Lillian," Lilly said with a smile. "Unless you don't like it."

"No, I love it. Thank you. I'm sorry that I never called you before," said the red head, hugging her parents.

"How'd you do that?" Harry asked the three of them.

"It's the ring. If the people from each side want it enough, they can touch; but the person on the living side must supply the energy. Come on Lily, if you keep hugging her she'll collapse," James said, pulling his wife.

"We should go and let you two talk some more. You can call us again if you'd like," their mother said, smiling softly.

The two elder Potters faded off, waving.

"Your parents seem nice enough, Harry, Martha."

"I suppose we oughtn't call you Martha anymore. From now on its Lillian Petunia Potter, unless you'd like to keep your adoptive parents' last name," Harry said, hugging his sister.

"No. They do love me of course, but they were so confused while I was with them that they are more like older friends now. Older dead friends anyway, " she responded. "I am Lillian Petunia Potter," she said, standing up with a smile.

Harry caught her just before she fell. "Like brother like sister. Always trying to do too much," Ron told the little baby. "There's something else I've wanted to ask you Mar-- Lillian, since lunch. You have a red spot in the same spot as Harry's lighting scar. Do you have all his scars like that?"

"Yes, and he has mine," She said softly.

"So what is this scar here?" Harry asked pointing to his left shoulder. "It appeared after the Battle, I just supposed it was a bug bite."

Lillian pulled the top of her robe down a bit, showing a lighting bolt scar; a reflection of the one on Harry's forehead. "Voldemort was aiming for your heart, but it hit me first. The spell passed through me and destroyed the Horcrux that was in you." She finished. "I could heal that if you want," she said, pointing to Harry's head. "I just can't heal myself."

"That's another question I've had," Harry said, sitting. Ron put the baby in the crib before taking a seat himself. "You said something about some people having this 'ambient magic' but others don't?"

"Firstly, all beings have magic. Some beings, such as magical creatures, can use it from birth. Humans are different, only a few can use their magic. Muggle born wizards are Muggles who have abnormally high magic , while Squibs are the opposite. They are wizard-born people that have abnormally low magic. Some wizards are the opposite of squibs, wizards like me and you Harry, can work magic without a wand naturally, without taking wandless classes. This magic can be just as strong or stronger than magic with a wand, as the wand just concentrates and focuses the magic. Normally ones magic is concentrated in some area. Mine is in healing and physical strength. That's why I could heal Fred and some of the others. I can heal almost everything, including curse scars. The only thing I can't heal is a genetic defect like Tanaya over there," Lillian finished, nodding to the crib where the baby slept.

"So you could heal George's ear back?" asked Ron.

"I suppose I could. I could also heal Bill so that he is no longer half werewolf as well," she said." But not right now; I need to rest for a while. And I need to get working on the Christmas gifts soon. I make each child something personal," she explained.

"Oh that reminds me," Ron started, then looked at Harry, "why don't you ask her Harry?" he finished with a grin.

Harry rolled his eyes and said, "Martha? Ginny, Hermione and Mrs. Weasley wanted us to invite you over for Christmas diner."

"I would love to but can't. We have a big party here you see, and I can't get away for even a night. All of my students from Hogwarts come. Some of my graduates come back and bring their families if they have them," she said glumly.

"I understand. We told them that you would probably be busy here," Harry said equally glum.

Ron looked at them for a second and exclaimed, "Hey! why don't we just come over here mate? I saw a nice big field out back while you two were talking. The girls would probably go for it; Mum defiantly would. Grimmauld Place is nice enough for these big dinners, but it would be nice to have somewhere to go flying over Christmas. We can set up a large tent for diner and smaller tents for us." Ron finished excitedly.

"That's sounds fantastic Ron. We'll run it by the girls and your Mum. We can send you an owl Lillian, or come ourselves. That is unless you don't want us to come Martha -- I mean Lillian." He said hugging his sister.

"That would be great," she said with a great big smile.

"If they agree I'll send Kreacher and Mali over," Harry said, looking up at her.

"Oh, how is Kreacher?" she asked

"How do you know Kreacher?" asked Ron staring at her.

Lillian sighed and said "Dobby introduced us. I was sick in the infirmary and Dumbledore was checking up on me; it was right after the first task. I had gotten sick from staying up all night making sure that you wouldn't run into teachers or Mrs. Norris. Dobby over heard Dumbledore saying that I was your sister. And you know how excitable he was; he came out asking a million questions. Well Dumbledore made him swear not to tell you about me. Dobby didn't want to but Dumbledore was his master. We became good friends and he let me know what you were up to when I couldn't find out for myself. While I was at school for my seventh year, Kreacher appeared saying that you were dead. Dobby brought him to me, and I told him that you weren't dead. I asked him to keep my secret and he did." She explained.

"Why'd he obey you?" Harry asked, slightly confused.

"House Elves belong to families. Anyone in your family can command him unless you tell him not to. I'm your sister, but I promised not to ask him to do anything else as long as he kept my secret."

"Well he's fine, Mali is his wife and they have three children of their own." Harry said, finally understanding.

"I would be glad of their help if you want to send them." She said.

"We need to get going, Harry" Ron said looking at his watch.

Lillian led them to the front gate. She watched them as they Disapparated. She stood still, reflecting on the last few hours. While turning the sign over, the gate caught her eye. She smiled looking at it. Her Hogwarts graduates gave it to her last Christmas, and she was very proud of it

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Welcome to Sanctuary Orphanage

A Home to those that have none

Orphans who have graduated: Natalie Johnstone

Shannon MacKreey

Kevin Livingshin

Kalin Linan

Markus Lindian

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Each of their names was magically signed with plenty of room for more. Seeing their names she thought of the first years she had put on the train only a few weeks earlier. Romulius had sent a jokingly angry letter home complaining that houses represented by the orphanage this year were Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. Heather wrote that Raymond was coping fine. Leonard, a Ravenclaw prefect, had sent an owl saying everything was fine with Lissil in Ravenclaw. 'I'm going to go write them and tell them the good news,' she thought. 'Should I tell Roger though? I will, just to annoy Shela.' She sighed again and walked back through the gate.


Thanks again to my ever so gracious beta parter respitechristopher.

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