Thanksgiving weekend came almost too quickly, and Lily was very, very nervous.
Not only was she going to meet her older foster sister for the first time, but apparently the Tonks family had been invited to the Weasly family thanksgiving dinner, which was tomorrow night - one day after Nymphadora came home.
"Breathe, Lily, breathe," Andi tried to calm her young foster daughter down as she paced back and forth in her room.
Lily's hair, which Andi had loosely braided down the side of her head, cycled rapidly through a string of neon colours, though it miraculously stayed in its braid. It had popped out and gone crazy textures three times already.
"What if she doesn't like me? What if the Weasleys hate me? What if I never make any friends my own age? What if I never make any friends at all? What if-"
Andi grabbed Lily's shoulders and gently forced her to stop pacing and make eye contact. "Lily."
Lily stared back up, one eye green and one eye slowly turning from purple to brown, both eyes large and innocent. "What?"
"Everything is going to be fine. Ok? I need you to trust me on that," Andi said. pulling the young girl in for a hug.
Lily automatically tensed up, then forced herself to relax and sink into the hug. Although she had gotten much, much better at social cues over the past month of foster care with the Tonks, she still had trouble tolerating touch even from Andi and Remus, and usually refused direct contact with others.
Just then, Remus popped into the room. "Time to go to the station," he smiled. "Everyone ready to go and pick up your new foster sister?"
At these words, Lily forgot all anxiousness and gasped excitedly. "Yesyesyesyesyes!" she cried, bounding over to him and jumping up and down to release the sudden excited energy.
"You have Robert?" Andi asked. Lily held up her white stuffed rabbit in response, who was beginning to look a bit beat up from being carried around everywhere, though still loveable and fluffy.
"Alright then, time to go,"
Lily looked around the train station in awe, her eyes alight. As with every new place she went, there were so many new sights and sounds and smells overloading her senses after the years of isolation living in her barren room, and Lily couldn't get enough of it.
Slightly confused, she asked her guardians, "Isn't this a muggle train station?"
Remus nodded, and whispered down to her secretly. "We're going to a special secret platform: wizards only,"
Lily's eyes bugged out, bright with wonder. and turned purple. "Woah," she breathed. Looking around, she asked, "I don't see any secret platforms,"
"Well," Andi smiled teasingly at her, "It wouldn't be a very good secret if you could see it, now would it?"
Lily cocked her head, thinking on that. "I suppose that makes sense," she decided. "So where is it?"
"Right this way, my impatient little cub," Remus said, pointing to a brick wall in between station platforms 9 and 10.
Lily stuck a blue tongue out at him cheekily. "Har dee har, Remus," she said, her tongue shifting back to red. "Seriously, where is it?"
"He's being serious," Andi said. "It's through that wall,"
Remus grinned. "Station 9 and 3/4, right this way." And with that said, he ran at the wall.
Lily gasped. "Remus!" she cried, but instead of hitting the wall and coming down hard, he... vanished.
Lily's eyes practically bugged out of her head. "Where did he go?!" She asked Andi. "Right through that wall, like he said. It's enchanted," her foster mother responded.
Lily gulped. Even though she had just seen Remus do it, Lily still did not want to run at the wall. Andi seemed to sense her fear. "We'll go through it together, ok?"
Lily nodded. "Ok,"
Once she gave her consent, Andi scooped Lily up into her arms and straddled the small girl on her hip before rushing at the wall. Lily closed her eyes, embracing impact... but none came.
A train whistle blared out, and Lily opened her eyes to a whole new station. "Woah," she exclaimed. Witches and wizards rushed around, dressed in both muggle-style street clothes and more formal robes.
Most of the robes had the official Hogwarts emblem on them, and Lily picked out the four different colours of ties and hats that she remembered symbolized the four different Houses.
"Ravenclaw, slytherin, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff," she recounted to Andi, who was still carrying her, pointing out each different colour as they passed, and changing her hair colour to match.
Since she was almost completely caught up on all of the muggle studies wizards needed to learn before attending Hogwarts, Andi had tried in vain to slow the learning process by halting formal studies and teaching Lily about things like her future wizarding school, quidditch, and everything else about the wizarding world.
Still, Lily was a quick learner and was already past her age's reading, writing, and maths skills, even though she had only been studying for a month. Andi had also started teaching her other languages such as French and Latin, but Lily absorbed material like a sponge and was already almost fluent and starting to grow bored with schooling.
Soon, Andi thought apprehensively, she would need to find other ways of keeping Lily occupied and challenged.
Andi grinned. "Very good! You're getting quite clever," she praised. "What else can you remember learning about the Houses?"
"Lots!" Lily cheekily replied. "The House animals are Badger for Hufflepuff, Snake for Slytherin, Eagle for Ravenclaw, and.. uh, Griffin for Gryffindor,"
"Close, but..."
"No, wait! Lion for Gryffindor!"
Andi smiled. "There you go. What else?"
As Lily launched into a detailed and factual response about the history of each House, Heads of Houses and famous wizards' accomplishments from each House, as well as the entire Sorting Hat song, Andi half-listened, half-looked around for Remus and her daughter.
Andi spotted Remus holding a trunk by one of the compartments, and though she couldn't see who he was talking to, Andi had a pretty good guess that it was her daughter.
"Great job, Lily," Andi said absently as she pushed her way through the crowd. "That was all correct. I'd be surprised if you don't get in Ravenclaw someday,"
"No it wasn't," Lily said, saucy, "I said Merlin was in Hufflepuff on purpose to see if you were listening,"
Andi, although she knew she should be sterner at the cheek, burst out laughing. "Nakiti was right; you are turning into a spunky little punk," she squeezed Lily's ribcage playfully. "We'll make a Slytherin out of you yet,"
Lily opened her mouth to come up with an even spunkier reply, but her voice caught in her throat when she spotted a teen with purple hair coming over. She instantly recognized Nymphadora and pointed over Andi's shoulder as she squirmed to get down.
Andi put her down and rushed over to her daughter. "Dora!" she said, pulling her teen in for a hug. "Mum, I told you, don't call me that," came the muffled reply as Dora returned the hug. "Call me Tonks,"
Andi rolled her eyes. "But that isn't your name," she said, looking her daughter over. Dora, or Tonks, as she had stubbornly insisted she be called for a while now, had certainly hit her rebellious stage.
Under her untucked Hogwarts robes, she wore a short plaid skirt in her yellow Hufflepuff colours - emphasis on short. Not to mention the tattoos, choker necklaces, and heavy makeup. "Oh, get rid of all that," Andi chastised lightly as she tried vainly to smooth down her daughter's wrinkled robes. "You'll scare Lily,"
Tonks, who was mid eye-roll, sassily sighed, "Fine," and the tattoos and makeup disappeared. Andi sighed as well, but was grateful at least that her daughter was a metamorphmagus - she could have real tattoos otherwise.
"Thank you," Andi smiled in a softer voice as she took her daughter in. Tonks may be sassy, but Andi knew she already had a soft spot for Lily. Tonks had always wanted a sibling when she was Lily's age, making her mother transfigure into a younger face to play "pretend sister".
"I missed you, baby," Andi suddenly said, realizing how long ago that was with a wave of nostalgia. Tonks rolled her eyes, but she softened. "Mum, it's only been six weeks," she said. "Where's Lily?"
"Here," Lily whispered, peeking out from behind Remus, who was standing nearby. Although she was very excited to meet her older foster sister, seeing her in person had filled her with a whole new wave of nerves.
"Hi, Lily," Tonks said with a happy grin. "I know mum told you I'm Nymphadora, but you can call me Tonks,"
Lily furrowed her brow. "Isn't that your last name?"
Tonks nodded. "It is. Anything's better than stupid Dora,"
"I like Dora," Lily said, "But ok. Did you get my letter?"
Tonks grinned. "I did, but it only arrived yesterday, so it was too late for me to reply. I read it on the train ride here," Tonks said, thinking back to the letter. It was positively adorable; written in cute little-kid writing and filled with sweetness and excitement. Lily had even attached a candy and a picture of herself, so Tonks would recognize her.
"I really enjoyed it. Think you can send me more of those for the rest of the year?"
Lily beamed with delight. "Of course! I'll write to you every day!" she declared, ecstatic that Tonks had liked the letter. "Did you like the picture? Andi's been teaching me about magic photography," she told Tonks, who listened and reacted with appropriate amounts of excitement, as she was also an avid photographer.
As the family walked out of King's Cross and headed outside to apparate home, Lily and Tonks chattered on about RP vs FM pictures and other technicalities about magic cameras and muggle cameras and so much else that even Andi lost them.
While Andi knew the difference between RP and FM (Repeating Photo, which was a picture where the movement was a filmed action that repeated itself in the picture over and over and was used in magazine ads and polaroids, and Free Moving photos which were pictures that interacted in real time and live subjects came and left the frame) Lily had quickly taken more of a shining to photography than Andi ever would.
Which, Andi noticed, was very similar to Tonks. In fact, the two girls were very similar, almost as if they were blood sisters.
Already the girls were laughing and entertaining themselves as they walked, making literal duck faces by metamorphmasizing bills and beaks onto their faces as they chatted about a whole host of things. Smiling to herself as she watched them, Andi knew the girls would get along famously.