County Orphanage

March 7th, 1909

Lily has been trapped for 6 months

Lily Evans had a splitting headache when she first landed on the hard, cobblestone roads of London, 1909. She had no idea as to why she was in this specific place or time, but she found it was usually best to start walking and the people she would need to meet would just find her. Quickly doing some mental calculations, she concluded that none of her professors would be alive. Only Albus Dumbledore, who would be sixty-six years old, was alive. Lily really didn't want to see him though.

There was an orphanage across the cobblestone road. Lily quickly decided to get out of the road although it was night and there wasn't much horse and buggy traffic. The orphanage wasn't well-kept, but its door was solid and had a brass knocker in the shape of a serpent's head. Lily involuntarily shivered.

Suddenly, the door opened. A portly, middle-aged Muggle woman was squinting at her.

"You need a place to stay?" she asked sharply.

Wondering how the woman knew she had been outside of the door, Lily nodded. Why not? She didn't know where else she'd go in a London barely out of the nineteenth century.

"Come in. Quickly."

Lily obeyed and the woman shut the door behind her. Inside, it was dark with a single light bulb lighting up the hall. The rooms were cluttered with bodies of sleeping children, but other than the bulb, the only light came from kerosene lamps and candlesticks strategically placed on a nightstand or a shelf.

"You'll need to work to earn your keep here—

"I'm just staying for—

"I don't care. Even if you're going to leave in the morning, you need to work before you leave to earn this night's stay."

Teeth clenched, Lily sucked it in and agreed.

"Good. Go sleep with Cae. She's the strange-looking girl with red hair."

Sure enough, Lily saw a ten year-old girl with red hair smeared with black charcoal resting peacefully. Gingerly, Lily stepped around the sleeping bodies to the empty spot next to Cae. She noticed that the sea of children seemed to avoid the ten year-old girl so that a large, open circle was left around her. Lily hoped it was for some silly, childish reason and not because the girl was dangerous.

"I'll be upstairs. Don't disturb me unless it's an emergency," the woman with gray hair said crisply. "You can call me Madam Lund."

With that, she whirled around, black dress billowing—Lily was forcibly reminded of a grown-up Snape.

Lily quietly set herself down to the floor, which was only covered with a scratchy blanket. Several of the kids around her were shivering with cold, but Cae seemed to sleep peacefully, a warm glow emitting from her body. As Lily lay herself down, she heard a crinkling of a piece of paper in her robes.

Intrigued, she searched in her pockets for the piece of paper. She removed a piece of lined, notebook paper—and instantly recognized it from the future. Even worse, it was the piece of paper Hermione had given her with the written destination the future Professor Flitwick was supposed to pull her out of! She eagerly opened it, but then her heart sank:

Dear Lily,

I'm so sorry for what has all happened. You're a very courageous young girl, but after all these years, I've been stumbling on quite a few facts that seem to be connected with you and your endeavors in time. I can't quite specify—to preserve the timeline as you know—but you must travel a bit longer. It pains me to do this: I'm not sure if I'm preserving our timeline or simply just unnecessarily unleashing an evil into the wizarding world. BUT YOU MAY BE ABLE TO FIND A WAY. Once you arrive in October 31st, 1925, arrange the meeting of the two persons Marvolo Riddle and Caedmon County. IT IS VITAL THAT YOU DO THIS. I will give you two chances to find the way, but then I will retract you on the approximate date of January 1st, 1975. Good luck.

Flitwick

Find a way? Lily crumpled the paper back into her pocket with dismay. What was Flitwick talking about? Even worse, Lily still had no idea if she was nearing the date of her rescue or not. And what who was Marvolo Riddle? And Caedmon County? The name sounded vaguely familiar….

She quickly looked at the girl sleeping next to her. Cae? Could her full name be Caedmon? And this was called the County Orphanage. Could it be possible that Cae, having no parents, took the surname of the orphanage? It was very likely. Cae was the right age now for her to be an adult in 1925. Twenty-six years old.

Lily was suddenly very tired. She would sleep now and figure this out later….

A/N: There's a lot of major clues in this chapter if you want to try figuring out the story. I think I hid one really, really well that will surprise you (you know, to balance out the oh, so obvious clue about Marvolo Riddle…) if you take the time to look for it. Hint: it's a description. :-D