Chapter Ten

A/N: Thank you, ClaireBear1982, BloodPixie140 and lunalovegood564, for being brilliant reviewers.

It had been only a month since Lily had been placed with her fellow Badgers, and she was now truly settled within the group. The only problem now was loneliness.

In her dormitory, late at night, the young girl found that she, once again, was unable to sleep. Her mind was still buzzing with thoughts and would not be calmed, meaning that no matter how much she tried, she was unable to drift away into the darkness.

Due to this, the girl had decided to do a little reading. She had already finished the book that she had borrowed from the school library, a trait she had certainly inherited from her aunt, Hermione, and all she had to hand was a few leafs of parchment. 'The letter Mum wrote me.' the girl thought, plucking it from the table beside her bed. 'She always cheered me up by writing before, so she should do the same now.'

With that thought still in her mind, Lily began to read.

Dear Lily,
I hope you are doing well at school, sweetheart, as I know you will be, and I hope that you do not miss your father and I too much. Even though I do hope that, I couldn't help but write to my little girl.
First of all, I want you to know how proud we are that you were put in Hufflepuff. Truthfully, that was where we always thought you would go, as you have always been kind and hard-working, and it was lovely to see that you had done so. Well done!
Now, I know you very well, so I know that you will be worrying about what we think of your House. Don't worry! Just because you are not a Gryffindor, that doesn't mean we would ever love you any less, exactly like we didn't love Al less for being in Slytherin, or James more for being in Gryffindor. We love you all the same, and your House will not change that at all.
Keep achieving and stay close to Teddy. He'll look out for you, I know he will.
See you at Christmas,
Lots of love,
Mum.

The words on the page had given Lily a sense of closeness with her family back at home, cheering her up no end. As she took in the familiar script on the parchment, the redhead felt that she was not alone at all, and never would be, not while she had them, at least.

"Is that a letter from your family?" asked a voice, a little louder than Lily's had usually been in the school, while she was around anyone but Teddy. Looking over, the young girl that the one who had spoken was Caitlyn Bones, the daughter of Susan Bones, a former Hufflepuff classmate of her father's. The pair had never conversed while they were at school, much like their daughter, and the redhead felt that she should change this.

"Yes. From my mum." Lily informed the girl, smiling as she spoke of the letter. Even mentioning the correspondence made her feel a little happier. A smile appeared only the other's face as well, presumably while she thought of a similar letter received from her own family.

"It must be nice, that she writes to you a lot." Caitlyn commented, gesturing towards the large pile of envelopes that lay beside Lily's bed, all tied together with a scarlet ribbon. "My mum tries to write a lot, but she's quite busy for a lot of the time, so she can't always. She tries, though."

"My mum works from home, as a writer, so she can always find the time to send me a letter. Sometimes, she finds a bit too much time, and I end up with ten pages to respond to!" Lily laughed, extracting a loud giggle from Caitlyn as she did so.

"What does she write about?" the brunette asked, showing genuine interest, something that Lily had not been showed by anyone at the school, other than her family. Not even the majority of her teachers paid much attention to her, bar Professor McGonagall, and Professor Longbottom, of course, and so this was a welcome change.

"She's the Quidditch columnist, for the Daily Prophet." the redhead responded, an evident note of pride audible in her voice. Caitlyn let out a gasp.

"Ginny Weasley?" she asked, her interest heightened to a point higher than it had been before, and became even higher when Lily nodded. "Then your dad is…"

"Harry Potter." she confirmed, with yet another nod of her head, which was beginning to hurt by this point, due to the amount of times she had confirmed Caitlyn's beliefs. Still, if it was the other way around, she supposed that she would show an equal amount of interest.

"I'm sorry, I really didn't want to pry. It's just that… my mum was in his year at school, she knew him, and-" Caitlyn began, but was cut off by Lily, who held up a hand in quite a lazy manner, due to the time she had been awake.

"It's alright, Caitlyn. Oh, Mum told me your name by the way. I'm Lily." she pointed out, feeling a little foolish for not having mentioned the fact earlier. "Anyway, I was wondering… do you want to be my friend? Maybe?"

"Me?" Caitlyn asked, sounding as if she did not believe she was good enough. "You want to be friends with me?"

"Of course I do. You're a really nice person, and I can't think of anyone at all that would be a better friend than you. I've seen you at things like reunions, when I went to them with Dad, and you're always looking about for the little kids, you're never meant to them. I just want to be friends with you."

"Alright." the brunette agreed, a huge smile illuminating her face. "Then let's be friends."

That night, when she fell asleep at last, Lily Luna was no longer alone.

A/N: A bit cheesy towards the end, but they're eleven. We'll go with it. Please review!