A/N: Yeah, I know, its been more than a week. Sorry! Also, I changed George's wife in this chapter to Katie because that is what I said earlier... Sorry to those to read it as Angelina before! k thanks!

Chapter 11

Back to school already. It was different this time for Lily. Normally, there was the excitement of getting back to the magical world and the dread of leaving her mother behind alone. But now, it was the dread of leaving her magical family after just becoming acquainted with them and the excitement of new lessons and spending time with her father.

Lily's family had decided that they would all keep her new-found identity and her mother's reappearance under wraps for now. The last thing they needed was the media getting involved when Lily had enough on her plate with advanced lessons, and Harry and Ginny were still "reconnecting." They all knew it would have to come out someday soon, but they wanted to be as ready as possible for it.

So, to the rest of the school, Lily Finch was simply another girl returning from home after Christmas break. Only the Weasleys, Professors Potter and Longbottom, and Headmaster Flitwick knew the true story of her life-changing vacation.

Now, dear readers, we find our heroine running through the halls at Hogwarts. It was only less than two weeks after her separate Defense lessons had be reinstated, and Lily already had the bad habit of cutting it close or being late for her lessons.

She skidded into her father's office two minutes late today panting, "Sorry I'm late D--"

Lily suddenly stopped, noticing a seventh-year Ravenclaw student staring at her because of the crashing noises that came from Professor Potter's door.

"Er – Sorry I'm late for Defense Professor and – er – sorry for interrupting." She stuttered, emphasizing the 'D'.

"That's alright Miss Finch. Please sit down so I can finish my conversation with Mr. Banks here," Harry scolded but Lily could tell that inside he was laughing at the spectacle she had made.

Lily sat down and zoned out as the other two continued to talk about different types of advanced tracking spells. Finally, after ten minutes of boredom, she heard the door click shut and she turned to look at Harry.

"Lily, you know if you want to keep our relationship a secret for now, you are going to have to be more careful." Harry said softly to his daughter.

"I know… I just get all caught up in my own world or something. Really, I'm just excited to be able to spend time with you not as professor and student… Sorry."

Harry could feel his heart melting. It seemed as if every moment he spend with Lily-his-daughter instead of Lily-his-student made his insides move differently. He truly never imagined that having a child could feel this wonderful.

So, all he could do was grin down at her. "It's alright. I understand completely. So, what do you want to do today? Lessons or bonding time?" The two of them had been spending almost every evening together for one of the two previous reasons, and sometimes a Weasley (usually Fred) joined them as well.

"Well, if I had known that I had the option of not having lessons, I wouldn't have worried so much about being on time!" Lily responded petulantly. "Bonding time is so much less stressful!"

"So does that mean no lessons today?"

"No! I got myself all prepared to think and learn! So that is what we are doing." She said smugly before adding, "And really, with the Defense lessons we are basically killing tow birds with one stone since we are spending time together anyway. We just learn different things about each other."

"Wisely spoken. Alright then, we'll be starting work on the Imperius Curse today and I talked to Neville and we are set to start Occlumency on Tuesday."

"Okay, and you said Neville knows everything right? I don't need to be on guard all the time with you?"

"Right, he was actually the only person who knew about my dates with 'Eliza' too." Harry laughed, "And anyways, even if he didn't know, he would probably find out when he uses Legilimancy on you!"

"Oh…yeah…" She grinned sheepishly back at him. "Good point."

"Ready then? On the count of three..."

After two and a half hours of fighting off tap dancing, acting like a monkey, and drinking something awful Harry had claimed was coffee, they called it quits for the evening. Lily lingered for another thirty minutes, mostly discussing her parents' upcoming date that weekend. Their night came to an abrupt end, though, when Fred cam barreling through the office doors without knocking.

"Lily!" he yelled before noticing his professor. "Hi Uncle Harry. But Lily! You've got a slight problem. Your roommate Bianca found that necklace your dad gave you for Christmas and now they are gossiping all over the common room about who gave it to you. I don't know if you're lucky that they don't know or if it is worse, but they are mostly speculating on who you are dating that could have that much money." He said all of that in a rush before plopping himself down in a chair to breathe.

"How bad is it?" Lily asked tentatively.

"Well, Bianca's theories are pretty bad. I think the worst is that you are basically whoring yourself out to Scoprius Malfoy even though he's only a first year but –"

"WHAT?!" Harry and Lily yelled at the same time.

"Wait! Don't worry, no one actually believes that one! Most people just think you have some romantic secret boyfriend, who is possibly older."

At this, Harry practically growled, "That's not much better!"

Fred turned and grinned at his uncle, "For her reputation it is."

"That's not –" Harry replied furiously before being interrupted.

"Stop! I've got to get up there and sort this out. And no, you can't come Dad. That won't help at all."

"Yeah, Bianca would probably start a rumour that you were seeing each other," Fred chimed in.

"Ewww" Harry and Lily said simultaneously again.

"Alright, let's just get this over with. I'll just tell them it's a family heirloom from my mum's side. They won't think anything about it since everyone thinks she is a muggle."

"Um, that won't work Lily; it is a magical stone. No muggle would be able to get that unless by a rare and completely unlikely accident."

"Oh darn! I guess I can say I got it at a second hand store and didn't realise it was worth anything."

"Actually, that would be perfect!" Fred exclaimed. "All the Weasleys that are there at the moment are trying to do some damage control and restrain Bianca, especially Victoire since she's Head Girl. And they are all saying that you probably just picked it up somewhere not realizing it was so expensive."

"Why didn't you tell us this earlier?" Harry said, exhasperated. But before Fred could respond, Lily cut over him eyeing her father.

"Just how expensive is this necklace?"

"Enough. Just know that my dad bought it for my mum so I didn't have any control over that. I just passed it on." And before Lily could respond to that any more, he said forcefully, "Now go!" and watched the two fifth years exit his office quickly.

Harry left his office as well a few minutes later to retire to his rooms, wondering how many things like this would happen before it became known that Lily Finch was actually Lily Potter.

A few days later on Saturday, Ginny found herself cleaning up after a spectacular win for her football championships. They were officially declared the best women's team in the UK.

Therefore, she had a busy but exciting night ahead of her: first, dinner with Harry in Diagon Alley – both disguised as Eliza and Dylan of course – and then they will shed their glamour charms to go to a muggle pub with Ginny's (well, really Eliza's) team to celebrate their victory.

Ginny was practically acting like a 3-year-old in a toy store as she walked down Diagon Alley. And it was completely justified considering she had only stepped there once since her self-regulated exile. Plus, she had been a nervous wreck and was unable to appreciate the shops and world she grew up with.

Before entering the restaurant, Harry decided to drag Ginny into one store: Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. The shop was fairly busy when they entered for it being during the school year for Hogwarts. When the bell jingled as they opened the door, George looked over from where he was talking to a customer and waved, not realizing who the new people were. A few moments later, George walked up to them as they were admiring the next evolution of Pygmy Puffs.

"Hello there! Welcome to Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes! Is there anything you are looking for in particular? Or maybe just browsing?"

"Yeah, we are just browsing. Thanks." Harry – looking like Dylan – smiled at him.

"Sounds great! Well, let me tell you about these Pygmy Puffs. A type of these have been sold in the store since we opened 21 years ago. The differences between the original and the newest version are fairly slight, but important nonetheless." George spouted out in his most professional sales tone.

Ginny – looking like Eliza – decided to speak up and play with his mind, "Yes, I remember those. These seem to have slightly shorter hair yet they look fluffier. And their eyes are much cuter and larger on these new models. I must have bought over ten of those since they kept running away from me! Although, I'm still convinced you guys used to sell me ones that would return here after a few days. It's pretty funny in retrospect though…" Ginny trailed off with a thoughtful look on her face, if only to keep her from laughing at George's face.

He seemed to be both in shock and curious as to what was going on. "That – that doesn't make any sense! We only did that to one person! Unless my twin was flirting with you and he never told me but he usually – " George stopped talking at expression of disgust that was on both of his customers' faces. "What? What did I say? I'm sorry if – " Once again, George didn't finish his sentence because the two strangers burst into laughter.

"Really, George! Fred flirting with me is simply disgusting!" Ginny giggled.

"What? Who?" Silence. "Ginny?"

She giggled again as Harry replied in a whisper. "Yup, and I'm Harry we've having dinner in disguise and decided to stop by."

"Wow, you two definitely had me worrying about my sanity for a few moments there!" George laughed. "Well, what are you two doing after dinner? Fancy going out for a drink with Katie and I?"

"Oh, sorry, but we are celebrating at a pub with my football team tonight. But you are welcome to come to that! You definitely should!" Ginny exclaimed.

"What are you celebrating?"

"We won the championships! We are officially the 2017 best female footballers in all of the United Kingdom!"

"No way! That is amazing… But then again, you always were crazy at Quidditch too." George paused in thought for a moment. "Yeah, that sounds great. I'll double check with Katie but I'm sure it's fine. When and where shall we meet you?"

"Let's say 9:30 at the Leaky Cauldron? Then Harry and I can apparate you to my house, and from there we will all take a cab to the pub."

"Perfect. I'll see you then."

As they turned to leave, Harry turned back to George. "Oh! Don't forget! Since you will obviously be her brother, you have to George and Katie Finch. I am Dylan, and she is Eliza. Otherwise, we will end up confusing her muggle friends."

"Right. Got it. Because I would never want to confused anyone would I?" George said with a laugh as the couple left for their romantic dinner.

A few hours later found Ginny and Harry walking leisurely down the alley. Their dinner proved to be rather romantic and the food was excellent, but what both of them liked best about their meal was how comfortable they could be together: their deep past as Harry and Ginny, their new romance as Dylan and Eliza, and their overall love for each other as just themselves.

They walked into the Leaky Cauldron still in their own romantic bubble until it was interrupted by George's overenthusiastic yells of their fake names and Katie scolding him for having so little tact. They quickly greeted each other before Harry grabbed George and Ginny grabbed Katie and they both literally popped over to Ginny's house.

"I'm going to go call a cab quickly. Feel free to sit down in the living room or Harry can probably give you a tour." Ginny addressed her brother and sister-in-law before dashing out of the room.

Harry pulled out his wand so he could return to his natural appearance. "So, do you want to see how Ginny has been living as the muggle named Eliza Finch?"

"You bet we do!" George replied enthusiastically. "Plus, Katie here has this strange idea of moving into the muggle world after all the kids finish Hogwarts and move out, so it will be nice to get an idea of how things are."

"Well, the house is going to be generally the same; the main difference is the use of electricity. There are technologies that's use is second nature to muggles that would be hard for you two to get used to. Ginny was telling me that it took her a few months before she could walk into a store or home without embarrassing herself immediately, and a few years until she could go an entire day." Harry told them as they wandered down the hall and into the kitchen where the witch and wizard poked and admired the strange kitchen appliances.

They then went up-stairs to see Ginny and Lily's bedroom and the den before returning to the living room where they met Ginny who was, once again, a red-head.

"Good timing!" Ginny exclaimed. "The cab just got here. You guys can come back any time and I can show you around much more thoroughly. Alright, let's go."

The drive to the pub was uneventful and they quickly clambered out while Ginny paid the driver. Harry handed George and Katie a few pounds so they could properly enjoy the celebrations.

"Now, remember," Ginny told them slightly nervous. "My name is Eliza Finch, this is Dylan Ward, and your last name is Finch as well. Okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. Don't worry little sis! The two of us went over this while you were at dinner too. I unfortunately won't confuse your friends!" George replied with a grin.

Ginny signed shaking her head and walked into the pub holding hands with Harry.

"Eliza!" A blonde woman yelled as soon as they entered and ran over to greet them. "Our star player!"

"Sorry I'm a bit late. I ran into one of my brothers before dinner so it took a little longer to get over here. Anyway, Bridget, this is Dylan– " Bridget squealed as she shook Harry's hand telling him that she was so glad to finally meet him. "– and this is my brother, George, and his wife Katie. Everyone, this is my captain, Bridget."

"That's great that you guys could all come!" The blonde gushed. "The more the merrier! Plus, I have known Eliza here for just over ten years now and have never met any family or dates. She rarely even talks about anything like that!"

"Okay, let's all go celebrate. Looks like we have taken over this place tonight." Ginny said before anything else could be said about her years of isolation.

The four magical people circulated around the pub talking and celebrating with Eliza's teammates while everyone, themselves included, drank beers and celebrated the championship quite loudly.

Multiple times, they had to explain either how Eliza and Dylan had met speed dating, or how George was just one of the many brothers that were in her family. They fell into an excuse of moving around and sparse communication to explain Eliza's previous lack of mentioning her brothers.

A number of hours later, they finally filtered tipsily out of the pub, called a cab and returned to Ginny's house, all while talking and laughing and just enjoying themselves.

As Ginny lay in bed that night curled up next to Harry and her brother asleep a few doors down the hall, her last thoughts before she fell asleep were that she couldn't remember the last time she had so much fun, and it was probably because she was no longer hiding from herself. She no longer lived with regret and fear.

A/N: I AM A TERRIBLE AUTHOR/BIG SISTER! I completely forgot to thank my sister, lupintonkslove, in the last chapter for beta-ing for me! but she did both this chapter and the previous one, which is great since she catches all my typos and spelling errors that i don't get. And trust me, there can be a lot! So thanks darling!

There will be one more regular chapter in this story (and then an epilogue). But I need your help. I know I want the next chapter to have them telling the wizarding world that Ginny is back and Lily is really Harry's daughter. But I can't decide how. I know I want it to be their decision. No one forces them or finds out. But how? And when? Not before the end of this year… but maybe then? or will it not be until graduation? The one idea I got from my dear sister was that Bianca somehow too close to figuring it out and they decide to tell before it gets discovered accidentally. But how would Bianca figure it out? Gah. Help. Please.

And yeah… I just realized the timing for the football season is kinda wonky. Please ignore and just go with the flow :) thanks! (And REVIEW! Maybe? No? Oh, well… ok…)