Disclaimer: I do not own these characters.

Chapter 24

October 31st 1980

Lily Potter sat on the bench in the local park as she rocked Harry back and forth in his pram with her foot, feigning a casual look as she pretended to read a book. No one would ever know that she had been stalking the woman who was sat next to her for months. Today was the day to make contact she had decided.

Lily sighed loudly and put her book away.

"It's lovely to get out in the sunshine isn't it?" Lily said to the woman smiling.

"Yes it is, especially with all the rain over the last few weeks, I thought we would go mad cooped up inside" The woman smiled back at her.

"I know what you mean, I was going stir crazy, thankfully Harry here is not mobile just yet" Lily laughed.

The woman peered over the edge of the pram to look a the baby inside and smiled.

"How old?" The woman asked.

"12 weeks today actually." Lily beamed. "How one is your little one?" Lily asked gesturing to the little girl bundled up in a coat sat on the floor on a blanket playing with some cardboard books.

"She's 13 months, and into everything at the moment, thankfully she can be easily distracted by her books, I swear sometimes she sits staring at them as if she is reading them" The woman laughed.

"She's a cutie, thats for sure!, I'm Lily by the way, and this is little Harry." Lily said

"I'm Helen, and this is Hermione." Helen replied.

"It's lovely to meet you." Lily said. "to be honest, it's nice to meet another mother." Lily continued, hoping she had not come on to strongly, but she had been following Helen for ages, she didn't appear to have many friends.

Helen smiled softly "I know what you mean, none of my friends have children, when Hermione came along, my life changed, of course, but theirs just carried on as it had before. I still talk to the from time to time but its different…" Helen said staring at the floor, embarrassed that she had let slip that much personal information to a stranger.

"My girlfriends had much the same reaction, when I wasn't going out anymore they stopped asking me to. I have one friend with a son the same age as harry but she lives quite far away." Lily said thinking of Alice.

The pair were silent for a little while, just watching their children. Hermione was babbling to herself and Harry was asleep in his pram, lulled by his mothers gentle voice and soft rocking.

"This is going to sound awfully forward, but would you like to come back to my house for a cup of tea? I only live up the street a bit, it's just I need to get Hermione her Lunch you see and…"

"I'd love to." Lily smiled.

Helen beamed back at her and started to pack up the toys that Hermione had scattered across the blanket.

Once everything was put away and Hermione was safely strapped into her stroller, they made their way out of the park. Lily made conversation while they walked, feigning astonishment that they lived on the same street. Helen seemed please that her new friend was close by imagining dinner parties together, happy to have a friend who was a mother, though Lily was quite a bit younger than herself, they were getting along wonderfully.

Upon entering the home of Helen and Daniel Granger, it was clear that the family was fairly well off, the furnishings were classy and spoke of excellent taste. Lily knew all about them of course, she had seen the memories that Hermione had left them, and read the diary she had kept, but she knew she had to behave as if she was learning everything for the first time.

Lily was truly excited to make a friend so close who was also a mother, her sister Petunia had recently had a baby herself but they were not in contact. Petunia did not approve of her lifestyle, as if having magic was a personal choice and not something she was born with. Lily fleetingly worried that being around someone who also had magic would trigger Hermione's magic to flare much earlier than it had in her previous life, but that couldn't be helped, she had already noticed that Harry was manifesting magic his early age. Still should that happen she would be there. Hopefully she would be able to explain to Helen when the time came.

24th November 1980

Tea had been lovely that first afternoon and soon Helen and Hermione were good friends, often found chatting over a cup of tea at one or the other of their houses. When tea was at Lily and James's house they were careful not to use magic. Helen had met Remus and Regulus, who were regular fixtures at the potter house now, but Sirius seemed to make himself scarce whenever Helen was around. At first Lily thought that he was worried about using magic accidentally in front of her, but he had had muggle girlfriends in the past and had never had any issues. Lily was stumped until Remus let slip the problem. He had a bit of a crush on the woman how had saved his friends and brother, and it made him uncomfortable to be around her toddler self, knowing this, she understood and did not comment on Sirius disappearing at the mention of Helen and Hermione coming for tea.

Hermione really was a little sweetheart, she was fascinated by baby Harry, and insisted on helping Lily whenever she was changing him or feeding him, by helping she means holding his hand usually, or shaking toys at him. Whenever they were in a room together Hermione would wander to her nappy bag and get out her books and pretend to read to Harry in his bounce. Lily thought it really was the cutest thing she had ever seen, and had taken many pictures of the pair she knew would grow up to be best friends.

Today was one such day, Remus and James were in the kitchen planning something, she knew, but they would stop talking anytime she entered the room, and just smile at her until she left. So when Helen and Hermione arrived, they took their tea to the living room and happily watched Hermione babbling at Harry. She could say some words but was not quite making sentences yet.

Lily watched as Hermione was sat on the play mat with Harry in his bouncy chair as usual, however, instead of getting up to get her book as usual, Hermione simply held up her hand and the book came zooming out of its place in the bag, and flew directly into her hand. As if this was perfectly normal Hermione then opened the book and began to 'read'.

Helen blinked repeatedly, her mind obviously trying to make sense of what she just saw. Lily could only assume this was the first bout of 'accidental magic' Helen has witnessed. Although Hermione seemed to have meant it so accidental was really an inaccurate term Lily mused.

"Helen it's ok, No need to panic." Lily said soothingly

"But, but..she just…and it.." Helen panicked

"I know, I saw what she did, but there's no reason to panic, I promise." Lily said reaching for Helens hand in comfort.

Hermione noticing her mothers distress, got up and toddled over to her and tried to climb up on her lap as she usually did but Helen flinched away from her. This made Lily react more strongly than perhaps she normally would have, but growing up with a sister who called you a freak at every opportunity had taken its toll. Hermione had started crying at being pushed away by her mother. Lily got up from her chair and scooped Hermione into her arms and whispered quietly that everything was fine, and that she hadn't done anything wrong. Hermione quieted and rested her head on Lily's shoulder.

"James, Remus can you come here for a moment please." Lily called after setting Hermione back on the floor with Harry.

James and Remus came into the living room one after the other and looked around expectantly, they could tell something was wrong from her tone when she called. Hermione was red faced on the floor with Harry, Lily was angry and Helen looks terrified. They could guess what had happened and they had been expecting it.

"Helen and I are going to go to her house for a few minutes. Can you watch the children?" Lily demanded rather than asked.

"Thats fine, you go on." Remus said. James had already gone and sat on the floor cross legged next to Hermione who instantly crawled into his lap and summoned the book again. Helen squeaked as James and Remus both beamed at Hermione's display of Magic.

Lily grabbed Helens hand and dragged her out of the room and out the front door. Helen allowed herself to be pulled along and only snapped out of her panic when they reached her front door and she needed to unlock it.

Lily walked immediately to the kitchen and put the kettle on, it was a bit forward for only having known the woman for three weeks, but they had grown quite close in that short time. Desperate times called for desperate measures and all that. Lily could not let Hermione grow up with parents who thought she was weird.

"What just happened, how did she do that, she's not normal!" Helen began to rant.

"It's perfectly normal, it's just not common." Lily said annoyed.

"it's not, how can we take her to nursery now, what if that happens again, she'll be called a freak, they'll take her away and study her!" Helen spiralled.

"It is normal, they won't study her, she is most certainly not a freak, I can help her." Lily said

"How on earth can you help her?" Helen asked disbelievingly.

Lily had thought a lot about how she would tell Helen and Daniel about Magic, as she knew something like this would happen eventually.

"I can help her because of this" Lily said, and waved her hand at the kettle which lifted itself off the stove and poured the boiling water into the cups at the same time two teabags zoomed from their pot and landed directly inside the cups she had removed from the cupboards. With another wave of her hand the fridge opened and the milk flew out, the lid popped off and the milk poured into the cups too, then flew back into the firmed and the door closed. The teabags floated out of the cups, squeezed themselves and floated gently over to the bin and dropped inside.

Helen sat the mouth gaping as Lily picked up her cup and sat down on the other side of the table opposite Helen and took a sip.

"Err.." Helen started

"Helen, I can assure you that you are perfectly safe, with me and with Hermione. She is a witch, as I am." Lily said plainly.

Helen let that sink in for a while, she was safe with Lily, she had trusted her from the moment she met her. She knew her daughter. Suddenly she gasped, as the image of Hermione's face as she was pushed away by her mother flew through her mind.

"My baby, Oh my poor baby" Helen said getting quite distressed for an entirely different reason now.

"She is fine, I'm sure she won't even remember this at all, just take some time to calm down, perhaps drink your tea, and then we can go back. OK?" Lily said placatingly.

Helen nodded. "You forgot the sugar." She said after a while with a small smile on her face.

"Oh right sorry." Lily smiled back and waved her had as the sugar bowl came zooming to a stop just on front of Helens cup. Helen laughed for what seemed like the first time in ages as she put share in her tea and stirred it. Everything would be ok now she thought.

A/N: Sooo... What did everybody think?