Seven- A Place of Our Own

Lily was lifted off her feet and thrown into the wall. She gasped as she slid down the wall and quickly had to roll out of the way to avoid a curse from the magical mannequin that she was supposed to duel in today's dueling class. Before fighting each other, the students had to defeat an enchanted mannequin in Death Eater robes, but so far no one had been successful. Even Lily who usually conquered the tasks set to them in a matter of minutes was being thrown across the room like everyone else.

"Expelliarmus!" she shouted, the mannequin easily blocked. Lily cursed.

Most of the children seemed happy that Lily was having just as much trouble with this assignment as they were. Lily couldn't really help that she was so good in classes. The spells and charms assigned to them just came so easily to Lily. She only had to try the charm once or twice until she perfected it. Her friends were usually quick to follow, although most times Cora struggled until either Lily or Teddy helped her.

Potions, (taught by a very large old man named Horace Slughorn) was in Lily's opinion rather easy and very useful no matter how many times Cora said she thought it was rubbish. Herbology on the other hand, (taught by a man named Neville Longbottom) Lily thought was absolutely pointless even if it was a bit exciting. Defense Against the Dark Arts was one of Lily's favorite classes (other than Dueling class) and Professor Lupin was one of her favorite teachers. Transfiguration (taught by an old strict woman named Minerva McGonagall) was fascinating even if it was a little challenging for Lily although Teddy seemed to have a knack for it. History of Magic was frightfully boring for everyone it seemed except Katie who was fascinated not only by the class, but by the teacher who was a ghost named Cuthbert Binns. Astronomy (taught by a kind woman, Aurora Sinistra) was interesting enough, but Lily thought of a million things she'd rather be doing than stare at an enchanted ceiling at the late hours of the night when the real sky was separated from them by rock and water. Charms was Lily's third favorite class and other than Defensive Spells, these came most naturally. Occlumency class (taught by a mean snide dark haired man named Acutulus Superstes) was one of the hardest, but the need to keep people out of her head, and keep her memories secret was what made her the best in that class. Healing classes (taught by the Matron: Madam Poppy Pomfrey) were also relatively easy and very useful. Strategy class was taught by Professor Pius Amicus (a funny, kind, joker of a man) and was another favorite because she was rather good at it. She didn't really count Flying as a class, (it took place on Saturdays and was optional) but Lily loved it none-the-less. She was a natural at flying and was swift and agile, favoring the spot of seeker, where as Teddy favored the position of Beater. Katie was rubbish on a broom and Cora dreadfully afraid of heights.

She cursed again as the mannequin blocked yet another one of her spells. This was normally her favorite class, despite being taught by Fogsburn, but now it was just down right frustrating. Most of the teachers liked her enough, all except Fogsburn and Superstes that is, who seemed to dislike her even more every time she did something right in their classes. Professor Slughorn thought the world of her, and declared she could do no wrong even when (unknown to him) that she and Teddy roamed the halls of the school in the late hours of the night, Lily hell bent on mapping Fogsburn just as she had Muggle Camp 18. She wished she could read a book about maps, but there weren't any in the school Library. When Voldemort had taken over, he'd burned all the books he could get his hands on, the school had a very small supply of books, not all of them in the best condition. In most of the classes you participated and books weren't needed, but for the ones that were you had to share.

She shook her head, fighting to keep in the present as the mannequin fired another spell but Lily didn't react fast enough.

It wasn't a very powerful spell, just enough to make her stagger back a few steps, but she felt the strangest sensation as it hit her square in the chest. The spell hit her, and spread throughout her whole body, from the top of her head to the tips of her fingers and toes, she felt it travel through her body, within her body, but she could feel something else too.Lily felt the sensation the same way you would search for a light switch in the dark, not knowing what's there but letting your fingers encounter it.

She felt it as clearly as the blood pumping through her body; she could feel it pulsing and beating, running through her. And without knowing how she knew it, she was positive that it was her magic, running through her. She could feel its core, right in the center of her chest, beating away like another heart sending magic to her body. She felt another thing, nestled in the middle of her magic's core, a spherical thing, it just seemed to stay there, not beating, not pulsing, just there. The same instinct that told her what her magic was came through again. My soul. That's my soul.

The sensation began as suddenly as it had started, as if the lights had suddenly switched back on, but you still knew exactly what was in the previously dark room. She could still sense her magic, could still feel it pumping through her veins, tingling on the surface of her skin, pulsing in her chest, along with her soul, still sitting there. It felt almost warm. Lily stood there, hands to her chest, gasping in shock and awe. Her mind reeled, her thoughts a jumble.

She almost didn't notice the mannequin raising its arm to fire another spell. She tensed as the mannequin fired yet another spell. She knew she would never be able to cast a charm in time she felt what she thought was a rush of adrenaline and braced for the impact of the curse, but it never came. An instinctive shield suddenly expanded from her body, and the spell rebounded, the mannequin staggering back a few steps from the force of it. Lily stared at the wand in her hand, that was still clutching her chest, and back at the mannequin. A grin forming on her face.

She raised her wand. "Impedimenta!" she shouted grinning as the dummy slowed, coming almost to a full stop. Just as she was about to send another spell at the mannequin, disarming it, Professor Fogsburn's voice rang through the dueling hall. "Wands away!" he shouted, and with a flick of his own wand he sent the mannequins flying to the back of the hall lined up in a neat order. "You all would have been dead by now if those were real Death Eaters in a real battle. I thought that at least one of you would have defeated a wooden doll by now." Fogsburn's eyes met her own as he continued, "Apparently I was wrong." He looked away from Lily and checked his wristwatch. "Class dismissed."

Lily stormed out of the class fuming. Stupid wooden mannequin! Stupid Fogsburn! Thinks I can do anything since I was the only one to find something wrong with his stupid speech! He didn't even know what happened! I was seconds away from defeating it!

She stormed down the corridor, knowing Teddy was there without looking. He was always there, but today he seemed to be very tired, nodding off in nearly every class, looking even more pale and sickly than normal. Several times that day Lily had asked him if he wanted to go to the hospital wing, but he refused saying he would be better in a few days.

She looked at him out of the corner of her eye now. He was very pale, sweating slightly with a pinched pained look on his face. She decided she was going to put what happened in dueling class out of her head for the moment and focus on her friend, who was clearly sick. Besides, becoming aware of your magic was probably common amongst wizards, and she could think about it later. Instead of following Katie and Cora who were a few steps ahead of them heading to potions class, Lily took a right turn instead of the left that lead to the classroom she and Teddy were supposed to be in. "Where are we going?" even Teddy's voice sounded weak. "The classroom was over there."

"I know. We are going to the hospital wing, it's that or I go to your parents."

"I've told you, I feel fine."

"And I've told you I'm not buying a word of it." She pulled open one of the double doors and glared at him. "In."

He stood there, glaring at her for a few moments before stomping inside, muttering under his breath. Lily followed, trying (unsuccessfully) to wipe the smug smirk on her face.

Inside, the Head Matron was in her office, and the subhead Matron (Mary Smith, a kind woman with red hair that was now mostly gray) was bustling around, straitening already straight books, and fluffing already fluffed pillows. There were rows of hospital beds, all empty except one. "Professor Lupin!" Lily had to fight to keep the surprise out of her voice. It didn't work. "What are you doing here?"

Professor Lupin looked up from his newspaper. He looked even worse than Teddy did but still smiled good naturedly at her. "Ah Hello Lily. I'm just feeling a bit under the weather. Ted I thought you were feeling fine?" Lupin eyed his son in concern. "Your mother will be upset if you've lied to her."

Teddy grumbled and gestured in Lily's direction. "She made me come." He skulked as he dumped his bag on the bed next to his father.

Lupin's lips twitched. "Yes, your mother had the same idea with me."

"Well," said Lily smirking, "women always know best."

Teddy glared at her. Lily's smirk grew wider.

Professor Lupin laughed. "Indeed."

"Professor, if you're in here who's gonna be teaching your class?" Lily asked.

"Ah, Professor Amicus. He has a free period and said he'd stand in for me. He's a nice bloke." He paused, smileing giving her a knowing look. "But shouldn't you be in class?"

Lily frowned. "Yes Professor." She said in a sulking tone. She picked up her bag, and said "see you later Ted."

"Yeah," he grined. "Bye Flower."

Lily hurried out of the hospital wing and was almost out of breath by the time she reached potions class. "Sorry I'm late Professor, I had to stop by the hospital wing."

"Oho! Lily! It's no problem, no problem at'll!" Slughorn said merrily, "You're a bright witch, I'm sure you can catch up with the rest of the class."

"Thank you Professor." Lily said as she sat down and began brewing the Hiccupping Potion that was today's classwork, making sure to take good notes so Teddy could use them the next day.

But Teddy wasn't in school the next day. Lily tried to go visit him in the hospital wing at lunch, but was shooed away by Madam Smith: "He's ill! He needs rest and you hanging about pestering him is not going to help!" she huffed, and slammed the hospital wing's doors in Lily's face.

Teddy wasn't the only one missing in class that day. Once again, Professor Lupin was absent and Amicus was in his place. Amicus was kind enough, and a good teacher but nothing compared to Professor Lupin. He was very tall, and his blonde head would have towered over even Lupin. He was fun, and constantly cracking jokes, something Teddy would have liked. Although when the class was taking notes, Lily looked up to see Amicus staring out the window, face crumpled in pain showing that even the most cheerful still hurt.

Later that night as she was sitting down, preparing to finish her charms essay, with Katie and Cora when Teddy walked through the Common Room door, a gigantic bruise dominating the left side of his face. "Holy Hell!" Lily exclaimed as he sat down next to her. "What the bloody hell happened to you?"

"Got caught by a couple of older Slytherins coming out of the hospital wing." He grunted. "Doesn't matter though."

Katie frowned. "That looked like it hurt."

"Must have been one hell of a punch if it showed up that fast." Cora said.

Teddy shrugged, "Like I said, it doesn't matter."

"Doesn't matter?" Lily echoed. "You got the living shit beat out of you by a couple of older wankers who thought they were better than you and it doesn't matter?"

"It was a punch, and it most certainly did not beat the living shit out of me, and all three of them are currently dangling upside down in the charms corridor so no, it does not matter."

A feeling of unease settled in her stomach. Lily couldn't shake the feeling that Teddy was lying to her. She wondered if she should say anything, but in the end decided against it and pushed her notes across the table to him. "'ere, you can copy these."

"Thanks Flower." They worked in silence, only the occasional question asked or swear word uttered, it was never uncomfortable though.

During Teddy's absence she had been trying to find out more about what had happened to her in dueling class, but there weren't any books in the library about it. She learned that the feeling often faded, but if she concentrated on her heartbeat, it would come back. It never fully faded, just became less noticeable.

Eventually Katie and Cora got tired and returned to their dormitories muttering sleepy goodnights. When the last student had cleared from the Common Room Teddy looked up and asked, "Are we gonna go out mapping tonight?"

"Are you up for it?" she asked eyeing his still weary form.

He snorted. "Course! Now common, are we going or not?" he asked, "We've got to be more careful though, last time was a close call."

Lily bit her lip. So far she had heeded her mother's words and told no one about the cloak, but Teddy had quickly become her best friend, not replacing Oliver, he would never replace Oliver, but he was now, with-out-a-doubt her best friend. Katie and Cora were good friends, but there was still a shadow of the rivalry that had once existed between the three and there were things she told Teddy that she would never tell Katie or Cora. She still loved Katie and Cora, but Teddy she could trust with her life.

"Teddy," she said abruptly, cutting off what he was saying, "do you trust me?"

He blinked. "Of course Flower."

"Do you trust me with your life?"

He looked concerned now. "Yes Lily, of course. Why? Is something wrong? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," she smiled at him reassuringly and he visibly relaxed, "just stay here for a moment; I need to go get something. I'll be right back."

She rushed down the stairs to her Dormitory and rummaged through her duffel bag, cursing under her breath. When she had grabbed the cloak, she ran back upstairs and stopped in front of Teddy. "You have to swear," She said seriously, "on your life that you won't tell no one 'bout this, ever."

Although Teddy looked confused he said with meaning, "I swear."

Lily smiled, "Good." and let the invisibility cloak unfold and fall to the ground in a cascade of silver folds.

'Merlin," Teddy breathed, eyes wide and fixed on the cloak, "How…?"

"My Mum bought it at the Black Market and gave it to me to keep me safe but told me not to tell anyone about it unless I trusted them with my life."

"Wicked." Teddy grinned, "One of my Dad's friends had a cloak like this. Oh and er, thanks. For you know… er… trusting me."

Lily smiled. "Any time. Now come on, we've got a school to map."

They threw the cloak over their heads and exited the common room, passing under the lion statue that growled when it could see no one. When they were out of ear shot Lily muttered, "What floor were we on again?"

"Er… the eighth I think. Yeah, the eighth, we'd just finished mapping the seventh."

"And how many floors are there again?"

"Er… nine. Not counting the dungeons and the kitchen."

"Amazing we've done all that work in a little over three weeks." Lily said as they made their way to the sixth floor.

"Yeah well when you do it nearly every sodding day…"

"Well it's good to know all about the underground cave you're trapped in."

"Don't sound too optimistic."

"Never."

They wandered around the eighth floor, going into each room, Lily carefully adding each room to the map. There was one point were the tunnel split off in two directions, left and right. Teddy and Lily looked at each other.

"Which way?" Teddy asked.

"Er…" Lily looked both directions; the right tunnel broke off to the transfiguration corridor, lit with torches and the left stretched on, dark and unlit. "Left."

"Left!" Teddy whined. "I didn't think you'd actually choose it! There's nothing down there anyway except an old door that no one's been able to open since the school was built."

Lily was curious but she snorted at the pouting look on Teddy's face. "Fine you prat, we'll go right. Happy now?"

"Overjoyed."

They continued down the corner heading towards one of the classrooms. Lily opened the door which admitted a small creak. The door swung open and Teddy rushed in, tripping over the hem of the cloak and tumbling out, pulling it off of Lily. "Oi, watch it you idiot!" she said, stuffing the cloak in her bag. "What if someone saw that?" Teddy smiled apologetically from the ground.

"Yes indeed. What if someone did see that?" said an unknown voice.

Lily jumped and with a scream, spun around while Teddy scrambled up from the ground. The voice belonged to a tall dark haired boy who looked to be in at least seventh year and wearing Slytherin robes who was lounging carelessly on one of the desks, with three of his friends standing behind him, Lily recognized a girl who had made fun of Cora at dinner. One of the boys had his sleeves rolled up, exposing the Dark Mark branded onto his arm.

Lily's breath caught in her throat, a mix of fear and hate rising within her. Teddy seemed to have frozen staring at the Dark Mark with a mix of disgust, fear and horror on his face.

The one with the Dark Mark visible smirked at the sight of them and smiled. "Now what have we here?" he drawled. He smirked again and in a baby voice said, "Ickle Firsties out of bed?" they took a step closer to where Lily and Teddy were standing, the dark haired boy jumping down from the desk, his combat boots slamming on the ground, the noise sounding defining in the tense silence. "Ickle Firsties," the other boy continued, "shouldn't be wandering around, walking in on things they shouldn't." he gave a smile that would have been angelic if not for the wicked gleam in his eye and the Dark Mark standing out on his pale arm. "Otherwise," he said in a deadly sweet tone, "they can get hurt."

Lily whispered in Teddy's ear, "Run." And they did.

Their combat boots pounded the floor as they thundered down the corridor, the Death Eaters not far behind. Lily twisted around and screamed "Locomotor Mortis!" she heard one of them swear as her spell flew by the girl's head, but she did not slow.

"Incarcerous!" The dark haired boy roared.

Lily ducked as conjured ropes flew just over her head and through the air wrapping themselves around a statue only a foot from her. "Petrificus Totalus!" Lily heard one of them hit the ground but didn't turn to watch instead she kept running.

Suddenly as she and Teddy rounded a corner, everything went dark. She screamed to Teddy, "Keep running! Lumos!" she cried, and the tip of her wand glowed white-blue. They hurtled forward until Lily smacked head first into a door. "Open it!" she screamed at Teddy. He yanked it open, shoved her inside, and slammed it shut after them.

Lily quickly scrambled from the ground and went to help him brace the door. "Lock it!" she shrieked at Teddy as a body slammed into the door from the other side making the door shudder under their touch.

"There's no lock!" he screamed.

"FUCK!" Lily heard the Death exclaim, "It won't open!"

"You idiot! They're first years! All they did was lock it!" said the voice of the one who mocked them.

"I heard them say there was no lock!"

"Well they can't stay there forever Sebastian! It's your entire fault we're in this mess anyway! If you had just put your bloody sleeves down-"

"Oh shut up Lester! Just take Lucian and go unfreeze Isabelle would you?"

Lester's footsteps faded down the corridor as Sebastian paced outside the door. "You can't stay in there forever Ickle Firsties," he hissed at the door, behind which Teddy and Lily stood breathing heavily on the other side. "Eventually you will come out and we will kill you."

Lily shivered, and slowly stepped back from the door, with a nod to Teddy telling him to do the same. He slowly released the handle and stepped back, standing next to her staring at the door as it shuddered under Sebastian's attacks, but never gave. "Why can't they get to us?" Teddy asked in a hushed whisper.

"I dunno." She said. She took a shaky breath and looked around, the only light coming from the tip of her wand. Her heart was racing and she could feel it pulsating along with her magic, but this time it felt different. Instead of ending at her finger tips, her magic coursed through her wand and ended at its tip. She stared at it, turning it over in her hands as an idea struck her. She took a deep breath and felt the magic coursing through her to her wand and willed the magic to extend from her wand. The light at the tip of her wand stretched, shimmering and swaying in the air like smoke. She willed her magic to abruptly stop at her wand tip, and the string of light disconnected from her wand and hung in the air, before shaping and forming a sphere that floated above their heads.

Teddy stared at it in shock, mouth agape, "H-How in the hell did you do that?"

"When I was in class the other day I got hit by a spell and I felt it ripple through my magic core next to my soul." Lily answered shortly.

Teddy stared at her. "You sound like Luna Lovegood."

Lily sighed exasperated "I don't know who the hell that is! I don't know about Hairy Porter or Moody Eye or Dumb Door or any of those people you talk about!"

"Harry Potter, Mad Eye Moody andDumbledore." Teddy said infuriated and a little wounded.

Lily sighed. "Okay. Look, I'm sorry alright mate? I'm just frustrated and scared and we're trapped, but snapping at each other won't help."

Teddy nodded, "I'm sorry too." He got up and hugged her, and at first she stiffened, unused to people besides Ginevra hugging her, not even Oliver had done that, but she relaxed and returned the hug.

"Where the hell are we by the way?" Teddy asked peering around. "It's just a dark tunnel."

Lily took out the unfinished map of Fogsburn. "Well we found those sodding wankers in this classroom," she said pointing at the map, "and we ran down here," her finger travelled down the map, "to the fork in the tunnel. We must have gone down the left turn."

"But that's impossible!" Teddy exclaimed. "That tunnel is a dead end!"

"No." Lily's brow furrowed, "You said there was a door-"

"-That no one could ever open." They finished together.

Lily looked at Teddy. "Holy shit." She whispered.

They both looked at the door, then in the other direction where a new tunnel lay ahead. "So… okay… we're behind the door that no one can open… now… what do we… er… do exactly?" Teddy asked.

"Well you may be as content as a cucumber to wait for them to break down that door and kill us, but not me."

"But we don't even know where this tunnel goes."

"Exactly."

He smiled. "Knew there was a reason I was best friends with you."

"Cheers to that."

"But… what about the Death Eaters?"

Lily looked at the door. "There's not much we can do."

"True. Alright, let's go."

Lily picked up her bag, and together, Lily and Teddy started off down the tunnel, the orb of light following overhead. The tunnel continued straight for a while until it began to slope upward. After about ten minutes of this, walking began to get hard, and after twenty their legs were aching and their breath came in gasps. "How… long," Lily panted, "Can this… go on?"

Teddy wiped sweat from his brow. "No… idea."

"Let's… hope it's not… to far off." After they had caught their breath they continued the trek.

Not to long after, the tunnel stopped.

Dead end.

Nothing.

"What!" Lily shouted in outrage, "That's it!" she stormed up to the offending wall knowing it would do no good yelling at an empty wall but she did it anyway. "We walk all the way here and there's nothing even at the end!" she punched the wall in frustration. THUMP.

Ignoring the pain in her had, she was about to open her mouth and yell at the wall some more, when Teddy interrupted her. "Hang on," he said pressing his ear to the wall. "That's not the sound stone makes." He raised his fist, and knocked three times on the wall. A hollow, KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK sounded with each blow.

Lily and Teddy stared at each other, eyes wide. "A… door?" Lily whispered. Simultaneously, they both started clawing at the wall, clumps of rock and dirt falling from their hands and landing on their previously polished combat boots. Soon, Lily's fingers encountered something other than stone, and with her wand she directed the orb closer so she could see. "Wood! It is a door!"

Their clawing became more rushed until their hands were blackened with dirt and Lily was sure she would never get the dirt out from under her nails, but about five minutes after they started, they both stepped back and stared at the door they had uncovered.

They turned to each other grinning, both with smudges of dirt on their faces. "Shall we?" Teddy smirked and offered his elbow; Lily laughed and linked her arm through his.

With a grunt, Lily pushed open the door, wide enough so they could both step through, and poked her head around the corner. With the orb shining by the ceiling, casting and odd glow about the room, Lily stared as Teddy slid through and stood beside her. "It's- It's an office." Teddy said surprised.

And indeed it was. There were ancient filling cabinets stacked up against the walls, stacks of dust covered books spread about randomly, and a table pilled high with stacks of ageing yellowed paper. There was a door on the other side of the room, but they could see nothing through the panel of warped glass imbedded in it.

They walked through the room, their combat boots raising small puffs of dust with each step. Teddy reached the door first and pulled it open, the hinges squeaking. "It's a library!"

"What?" Lily shoved the door open wider and stared.

It was indeed a library and everything seemed to have a thick layer of dust on covering it, while cobwebs hung from the ceiling. It was bigger than any library Lily had ever seen or even imagined. It was nearly triple the size of Ollivanders wand shop. "My God," Lily whispered, "it is." The orb still hung in the air, admitting light that spilled over the room, and cast creepy shadows on the walls. "This is… amazing! Imagine all the stuff we could learn from these!" she exclaimed, picking up the nearest book and blowing dust off its cover. "Quidditch Through the Ages! See? I hadn't even heard of that before!"

"I know!" Teddy pulled another one down, "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, I've actually heard of this one before." Lily thought he had a kind of angered, disgusted, sad undertone to his voice, but she shook off the feeling as he continued in a bright voice, "Look! There's a whole section about Harry Potter!" he ran over to another bookshelf and pulled down a scarlet book, "Fallen Heroes! Merlin! It has Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and all the Weasleys! Even Ginny Weasley! She tends to get left out quite a bit it's rather sad. She has a really good biography in here though. Brilliant!" He said flipping through the pages.

"Who are all these people?" Lily asked, looking over his shoulder at a black and white photograph of a man with a heavily scared face, a chunk missing out of his nose, and a much enlarged eye glaring at them, the normal eye blinking. "My God! What's wrong with his face!"

"That is Mad Eye Moody. One of the most famous Aurors of all time, he broke the record for most Dark Wizards caught in a lifetime. He got kind of paranoid towards the end though, convinced everything was about to attack him." Teddy flipped to another page. "This is Sirius Black," the picture showed a man with yellowed skin and sunken eyes laughing at the camera, "the first known person ever to escape the wizarding prison Azkaban. He was convicted of turning over his best friends to the Dark Lord, but he'd never. It was really his other friend Peter Pettigrew. Black is also Harry Potter's Godfather, and was one of my Dad's best mates." He looked at the page sadly. "I've heard so many stories 'bout him, some that no one will ever know." Teddy shook himself and flipped to another page. The next picture showed an old man with both long hair and beard with a crooked nose and half moon glasses. He was smiling, and Lily found it unnerving that the photo's eyes gave her the impression he was staring right through her. "This is Albus Dumbledore. He was one of the most powerful wizards of all time, brilliant according to my dad, but a bit cracked too. Had an obsession with lemon drops he did. He was most famous for the defeat of the Dark Wizard Grindelwald in 1945. That must've been hard for him though, they were best friends when they were young."

"He was best friends with a Dark Wizard?" Lily exclaimed, "Why?"

"Well he was in love with him, so when you're in love you tend to overlook things I guess."

Lily was surprised, "Wow, and he still killed him?"

"No, just defeated him in a duel, and won the most powerful wand of all time, the elder wand." He pointed to Dumbledore's picture, "See? He's got it in his hand."

"So where is it now?"

"The Dark Lord has it."

"Voldemort." Lily automatically corrected, "And bloody hell, if he has the most powerful wand in existence, why are we even trying?"

"It is possible to beat someone who has the elder wand, Dumbledore did it after all." Teddy continued, "Anyway" he flipped through more pages, "This is Hermione Granger." The picture showed a pretty young girl with bushy hair smiling shyly at the camera, waving. "She was one of Harry Potter's best friends and helped him go on this mission to try and defeat the Dark Lord. She was really smart, reminds me a lot of Katie actually." The pages filliped again and landed on the picture of a freakily boy smirking at them. "This is Ron Weasley, the picture doesn't show it, but he's got red hair. He's another one of Harry's friends. He was really loyal to Harry and Hermione and helped them on the mission too. Ron and Hermione were in love before they were both murdered."

"But hang on, they're just kids!"

"Yeah, they got forced out of childhood early."

"What was the mission they went on?"

"No one knows." Teddy flipped to the back of the book, and landed on a picture of a skinny boy with messy black hair, round rimmed glasses, and a lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead. He frowned at the camera, looking annoyed at the attention, and swiveled his head around as if to look at the walls. "This," said Teddy, admiration shining through his voice, "is Harry Potter. The Boy Who Lived."

"I thought he was dead?"

"He is. But when he was one year old, there was a prophecy made about a child that would be born at the end of July with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord."

"And it referred to him?" Lily asked gesturing at the photo.

"Him and Neville Longbottom."

"Wait, Neville Longbottom, as in our teacher?"

"Yeah. So anyway, the Dark Lord targets the Potters. On Halloween of 1981 goes to their home and immediately kills James, and Lily is-"

"Lily?"

"Yes she has the same name as you, now shut up. So anyway, Lily is upstairs with Harry and she'd left her wand downstairs so she was defenseless. The Dark Lord goes up there and orders her to move out of the way, and she can live, but she wouldn't do it. She kept pleading with him not to hurt Harry, and to kill her instead so eventually the Dark Lord gets irritated and kills her. He moves in on Harry's crib, points the wand in his face and… BAM!" Teddy clapped his hands together loudly, causing Lily to jump, "the spell back fires. Lily's love saved him."

"Wow." Said Lily in awe, "He survived the killing curse?"

"Yup! Only person known to do it too. So the Dark Lord disappeared that night, wounded badly and Harry became savior of the wizarding world at one year old. Funny thing was he didn't even know he was a wizard until he was eleven!"

"Wait, but the Dark Lord didn't even die."

"Yeah well no one knew that of course. Except Dumbledore and a few others, and even then they didn't really know they just suspected."

"Well, how did Voldemort come back?"

"Well in Harry's first year at Hogwarts, Dumbledore's friend Nicolas Flamel asked him to hide his Philosopher's Stone at the school to keep it safe. Well originally, Harry Ron and Hermione thought that their Potions Professor was after the stone 'cause he hated all three of them. So they figure out he was going to steal the stone and go to tell Dumbledore, but he isn't there and none of the other teachers believe them, so they go and try to stop the Professor. But when they get to the chamber where the stone is at, they see the teachers put all sorts of enchantments to protect the stone, so they had to get through all of them. Ron got knocked unconscious when they defeated the giant chess board, and Hermione solved Snape's potion's riddle but had to go back because only one could pass which left Harry to go on and defeat his Potions Professor, only it wasn't him, it was really their Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher who had been a servant of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named all along and had Voldemort bursting out of the back of his head. But Harry defeated him and prevented him from rising to power."

"Bloody hell," Lily said, now staring at the photo with new admiration, "To think, he was the same age as we are."

"Yeah, but his story gets better. So his second year, before he goes to school, a house elf shows up at his house and warns him not to go to Hogwarts that year. Of course Harry says he'll still go even if it will be dangerous, and the house elf won't even tell him why because he was ordered by his family not to. So when Harry says no, the house elf casts a hovering charm and drops cake all over Harry's Uncle's house gests and gets Harry in trouble with the ministry and his family who tell him he cant go back to school. So they lock him in his room and put bars over the window-"

"They what?"

"Oh yeah, forgot to mention; his Aunt, Uncle and cousin all hate him."

"Why?"

"They hated all wizards. Anyway, so Dobby the house elf had been blocking his mail, so Ron got worried and came to get him in a flying car in the middle of the night with his two older twin brothers. Harry stayed at the Weasley's house for the remainder of the summer, and at the start of term when they go to platform 9 3/4 Mr. and Mrs. Weasley go on first to get their younger daughter on the train, and when Harry and Ron try to run through the barrier, they can't. So they fly the car to Hogwarts and crash the car into a giant tree that beats up anything that goes near it and nearly get expelled. But they don't of course, and during the school year students would get petrified and Harry was suspected because he's a Parselmouth, which means you can talk to snakes." Teddy said in response to Lily's confused look, "But of course it wasn't him, it turned out that it was actually Ron's younger sister Ginny who had been possessed by a piece of the Dark Lord himself, hidden in a diary that was full of dark magic. She was forced to set a basilisk on the students, luckily no one was killed, just Petrified, so she was forced to go down to the chamber where the diary fed off of her and started to re-form the Dark Lord. But Harry found out and showed up in time to kill the basilisk and stop the Dark Lord from rising again.

"So the next year he's back at his Aunt's house and his Uncle's sister is coming to stay for a while and she hates Harry even more than they do. So the day she arrives, the escape of Sirius Black is all over the Muggle news, and of course this doesn't mean anything to Harry. Yet. Marge comes over, and at dinner she starts insulting Harry's parents, all sorts of horrible stuff, and Harry loses it. He blows her up-"

"He killed her?"

"What? No! He just blew her up like a balloon. So of course his family freaks out and he runs away, leaving Marge bobbing on the ceiling and his family running around like headless chickens. He accidentally hails The Knight Bus and learns from it's conductor that Sirius Black was really a wizard criminal, convicted of betraying his best friends to the Dark Lord and blowing up a whole muggle street, killing thirteen people after murdering one of his best friends. Everyone thinks that he escaped to kill Harry, and Harry finds out that the people Sirius betrayed were really Harry's parents, and that Black was his Godfather. Harry was furious of course, and swore he'd kill Sirius as soon as he looked at him. But then they went down to the gamekeeper's house to comfort him about his pet hippogriff that was scheduled to be executed that day, and on the way back Ron got attacked by a giant black dog and dragged under the Whomping Willow and through a secret passage way that lead to an abandoned building called the Shrieking Shack along with his pet rat Scabbers. So of course Harry and Hermione go in after him. Well the dog turns out to actually be Sirius Black and they find out that my Dad, Sirius, James and Peter were best friends and school; they were always together and formed this group of pranksters that they called the Marauders. Earlier that year Harry had gotten a magical map of Hogwarts called The Marauder's Map and that they had created it. My dad was Moony, Peter was Wormtail, Sirius was Padfoot, and James was Prongs; the nicknames they got from their animagus form. So Harry Ron and Hermione still think at this point that Sirius is the murderer and were about to attack him, but then my Dad bursts in, and tells them that Sirius never betrayed Lily and James and that the real traitor was Peter Pettigrew."

"What? But isn't he dead?"

"Hold on! I'm getting to that bit! Unknown to his friends Peter had become a Death Eater and a spy, but his friends all still loved him, so Lily and James trusted him with their location, but told everybody else that Sirius was the one who knew it. So when Lily and James were killed, everyone thought it was Sirius, so Sirius, hell bent on revenge, went to go track down and kill Peter. But before he could get the chance, Peter blew up the whole street and transformed into a rat, leaving Sirius to rot in Azkaban. So twelve years pass and then, Sirius sees Peter in the paper, as Ron's pet rat, Scabbers. So he escapes to go after him, not Harry. So they transform Peter into a human and are on the way to the castle when Snape shows up and almost ruins it all. But then Harry stunned him and demanded they tell him what was going on. So they tell him and Harry finally see's Sirius is innocent and they decide to bring Wormtail up to the castle to clear Sirius's name. But…"

"What?"

"Oh, err… I just forgot what happens next, but I remember now. So then Snape come out and starts cursing everyone, and in the confusion Wormtail knocks out my Dad then escapes, the dementors go after Sirius, and Harry passes out. So when he wakes up, Hermione tells him they're going to give Sirius the Dementor's Kiss and suck his soul out of his mouth." Teddy paused and smirked at Lily's horrified expression. "But then they use Hermione's TimeTurner and go back in time and save Sirius and the gamekeeper's hippogriff."

Lily whistled. "Bloody hell."

"Yeah, but there's more. In his fourth year, Hogwarts hosted the Triwizard Tournament, a tournament where three different magical schools come together and compete. Each school had a champion of seventeen, and those champions would have to compete in three dangerous tasks to become the Triwizard Champion. So the champions were Viktor Krum, Fleur Delacour, Cedric Diggory, and Harry Potter."

"But wait, I thought you said there were only three champions! And they had to be seventeen, and if Harry was only in his fourth year then he was only fourteen!"

"Well someone entered his name illegally. So Harry had to endure the three tasks, but he had a little help from Mad-Eye Moody."

"The bloke with the scarred face?"

"That's the one. In the fist task, he has to defeat a dragon and get a golden egg from it, (and from what I hear he did it using one of the fastest brooms ever made, and his flying even rivaled Viktor Krum's!) in the second task, he had only an hour to find and save Ron in the black lake, and in the third task he had to get through an enchanted Maze with all sorts of magical creatures and curses. But while he was in the Maze, he came across a bewitched Viktor torturing Cedric, so he disarms Viktor and he and Diggory decide to go their separate ways, and soon after they're racing each other to the Triwizard Champion Cup, when a giant spider launches itself out of the hedges and attacks Harry. Diggory would've gone on, but he remembered how Harry saved him, so he stopped and did the same. When they finally get to the cup, both refuse to take it, so they come to an agreement to both take the cup. But when they grab hold, they find out the cup is a portkey that had taken them to a graveyard that Harry recognized from the nightmares. Peter Pettigrew appears from behind a tombstone, carrying an almost dead He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and kills Cedric and ties Harry to You-Know-Who's father's tombstone and uses his blood to once again rise to power. He ends up escaping, dueling the Dark Lord and finding out about the connection of the twin wands."

Lily felt a shiver run throughout her body. In a rather high voice she said, "Voldemort killed Cedric with my wand?"

"Remember Flower, the wielder decides the wand's fate."

Lily rolled her wand between her dirt encrusted, dusty fingers. "I know. What happens next?"

"Well after that, no one besides Dumbledore and Harry's friends believed that He-Who-Must-Be-Named returned. Dumbledore organizes a group called the Order of the Phoenix, a group that was around since the first war, trying to find ways to stop the Dark Lord."

"Well why don't we go to them for help?"

"They were wiped out at the end of the second war. Professor McGonagall and my parents are the last of them I think."

"Oh my God. Haven't they tried to start it up again?"

"Course. Only problem is, their secret keeper was murdered; they can't find their way back to headquarters without him being able to tell them where it is."

"So that's why they started the resistance."

"Yeah, so Dumbledore restarts The Order making Sirius's old house headquarters. Only now, the old Ministry of Magic started getting paranoid, so out of fear they target Order members, but especially Dumbledore and Harry and they even go so far as to plans spies in Hogwarts. At the beginning of the year, Harry starts having visions, sent to him by the Dark Lord, so Dumbledore made him take Occlumency lessons with Snape, but with Snape at his teacher he obviously wasn't doing so well, so he only continued to have the dreams. With the Ministry spy at the school, posing as their Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, the students weren't learning anything, and with the Dark Lord back, Harry Ron and Hermione thought they should learn how to defend themselves, so they create the group Dumbledore's Army and start training kids how to fight back. Then Harry learns that there was a prophecy made about Harry and the Dark Lord."

"What did it say?"

"I dunno. My dad never told me, if he even knows is anyone's guess. But Harry found out about it, and knew that the Dark Lord would do anything to get it, because he only knew the first part of the prophecy. Then Harry got a vision of Sirius being tortured in the Hall of Prophecies in the Department of Mysteries within the Ministry of Magic. So Harry, Ron, Hermione, Luna Lovegood, and Neville Longbottom rushed off to the Department of Mysteries to save him, only he wasn't there. It was all a trap set up by the Dark Lord to get the prophecy. So they fight the Death Eaters, and try to escape and just when the Death Eaters almost get the prophecy, The Order shows up, and they start winning, but then one of the worst Death Eaters ever, Bellatrix Lestrange, kills Sirius right in front of Harry. Harry runs after her, into the Ministry lobby but doesn't get a chance to duel her because the Dark Lord is waiting for him. Just as he's about to curse Harry, Dumbledore shows up and duels him and saves Harry.

"Then in his sixth year, Harry goes back to school knowing the prophecy and promised lessons from Dumbledore. We dunno what for though; he never told anyone, expect maybe Ron and Hermione. This is when his story starts to get vague, whatever Dumbledore taught Harry never left his office but my dad thinks it had something to do with killing the Dark Lord. But in his sixth year, his classmate, Draco Malfoy, got forced into being a Death Eater, but of course, no one knew it back then. Harry always suspected Malfoy, they had never gotten along in school; but no one would believe him. Malfoy was potting a way to kill Dumbledore and had tried several times but instead had harmed another girl and almost killed Ron. Then one day, Harry and Dumbledore disappeared from the school, and Malfoy figured out how to let Death Eaters inside the school. My Dad was at the school, and he and my Mum were ambushed. While he was fighting Death Eaters he heard someone say that Harry and Dumbledore were up on the North Tower, but the next thing he knew, Harry was running past him after Snape and Malfoy screaming that Snape killed Dumbledore."

"And he just dies? What happened?"

"No one knows. Harry wouldn't tell anyone about it, and the next year he Ron and Hermione disappeared on their mission and no one saw them until the battle of Hogwarts. The last thing my dad ever heard from him was; 'There are seven and three. We got five, but there are seven. We found all three but they are lost.' And when my Dad asked what he meant, Harry just told him that he couldn't say and then he ran away and was killed only ten minutes later."

"How'd he die?"

"The Dark Lord got a hold of Ginny, his girlfriend, and he surrendered."

"He surrendered? After all he went through… he just gave up?"

Teddy looked at her sadly. "It's not that simple, he loved her. Isn't there anyone you'd die for?"

Lily thought about it. Was there? Oliver was already dead… she knew that if she and Ginerva were in a life and death situation she wouldn't let Lily die for her. Would she die for Teddy? He was her best friend, but really how long had she known him for? She'd known Oliver for years… "I dunno," she said out loud, "What about you."

He was silent for a second, looking at her. But then he replied, "I don't know. Maybe."

Lily wasn't paying much attention at the moment. Her head was spinning. Harry Potter! A real hero! A child who stood up to Voldemort, just as she'd always wanted to do. She scanned the Library, taking in the rows and rows of books, the rounded tables, the enchanted windows, and the space! It was just so big! They could have the whole Gryffindor house in here and still be comfortable.

We could use this space she thought suddenly we could just come up here and read the spell books. We could learn how to fight! Just like Harry! She turned to Teddy and said, "Think about what we could learn! All the spells in these books! We could get ahead in classes! We could learn how to fight!"

Teddy looked at her, a grin forming on his face. "We could! We could come here at night and practice! Within a few months who knows what we'll learn! Just wait until Katie and Cora hear about this!"

Lily froze. She knew it was selfish, but she didn't want to tell Katie, Cora or anyone else about the library. In the camp, she had secret places that only she and Oliver knew about, places where if she was feeling overwhelmed she could just go there, and sometimes Oliver would come and they would just sit, enjoying each other's company. And now Oliver was dead, and Lily was at Fogsburn where she didn't have a place to call her own. And she wanted one desperately, and this place seemed so perfect.

"Teddy," she began hesitantly, 'can we not tell anyone about the Library?" at his confused look she said in a rush, "I mean, the door opened for us. No one else could open it, and doesn't it just feel special? Like it accepted us?" she pleaded with him to understand, "Can't we just have this place to call our own?"

Teddy looked at her and smiled. "Okay Flower. A place of our own." They grinned rather stupidly at each other and Lily thought she would be miserable without the boy standing next to her. In the short amount of time that she had known him, he had already helped her so much; he'd helped turn the pain of Oliver's death to an agonizing wound, to a dull ache in her heart. Without warning she threw her arms around him and hugged him tight.

He laughed and hugged her back and they stayed that way for several moments until Lily said, "What do we do now?"

He looked at her solemnly. "We have to find a way around those Death Eaters."

"Right." Lily said, a look of concentration on her face. "Well if Harry Potter can face Voldemort in his first year, we can get past a few Death Eaters."

Teddy jumped at Voldemort's name. "That's because he was Harry Potter."

"And I'm Lily Prewett." Lily started to walk briskly toward the way they had entered, Teddy hot on her heals.

"So what do we do?" Teddy panted as they half walked/ran down the tunnel that lead to the library.

"I've got a plan." Lily said, a smile forming on her lips.

Isabelle Williston stood in the same dark musty tunnel they'd been standing in for the last half hour, trying to figure out how to open the door the little brats had hid behind. Sodding Sebastian! The Wanker just had to have his sleeve up! Her own fingers traced the hem of her left sleeve, under which her own Dark Mark was branded into her skin. It had been the best day of her life when the Dark Lord had accepted her. She showed them, all of them, Sebastian, Lester and Lucian that she could be just as ruthless, just as coldhearted and murderous as they were even if she was a girl.

Sebastian and Lester were fighting again over the damn door, and the little idiots on the other side. Her blood quickly boiled, and she shoved the both of them out of the way marching up to the door. " Alohomora!"

Nothing.

Isabelle growled. "Confringo!" She screamed. Smoke suddenly filled the air as the spell made contact with the door, but when it cleared the door was still undamaged. "Fucking little shitheads!" She screamed, bringing her wand down on a series of whip like motions, each blow intended to leave a flaming scratch in the wood's surface; but it remained maddingly intact.

She was about to just set the whole bloody door on fire when she heard a scratching from the other side. She paused and then a glowing white mouse suddenly appeared from under the door and darted toward her feet.

Isabelle screamed. "Get it off! GET IT OFF!" she jumped backward and slammed into Sebastian who slammed into Lester, the both of them falling to the ground.

"Stop jumpin' around you stupid bitch!" Sebastian screamed from the floor, "you're gonna step on my face!"

"I hope I do you fuckin' bastard!" she screamed at him, spitting her hair out of her face, "shit! Shit where did it go?"

The door suddenly slammed open, sending Lucian flying into the wall, his face smacking the stone, he came to rest on the ground unconscious. Isabelle looked up, but no one was standing in the doorway, and a few seconds later the door slammed shut again.

"Fuck!" Lester yelled. "Fuck where are they?"

A voice, somewhere to Isabelle's right suddenly screamed "Locomotor Mortis!"and Lester's legs suddenly flew together as another voice screamed "Expelliarmus!" and Lester's wand went flying into the darkness.

"Oh shit!" she yelled as the spells that Sebastian sent in that direction encountered nothing, "Shit there's nothing even there!"

Then from the left: "Petrificus Totalus!"Sebastian suddenly straightened up, his arms and legs snapping to his sides, before he toppled over.

Isabelle was breathing hard now; she spun in a circle the tip of her lightened wand casting a glow about the tunnel. The last thing she remembered was her dark mark burning before a girl's voice yelled, "Stupefy!"And everything went black.