Drarryfanficsao3

by Suicide44

Dhhdgd

234. xx

Preface

The Twin: Book 1Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at /works/17275871.

Rating:

General Audiences

Archive Warning:

Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Fandom:

Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Character:

Draco Malfoy, Lucius Malfoy, Pansy Parkinson, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Lord Voldemort, Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, Rubeus Hagrid, Severus Snape, Harry Potter, Lily Potter, James Potter, Sirius Black, Argus Filch, Mrs. Norris, Narcissa Malfoy, Quirinus Quirrell

Additional Tags:

fem!Harry Potter - Freeform, Slytherin!Harry Potter - Freeform, Harry Potter Has a Twin, Kind Dursleys, Pureblood Politics, Wizengamot, Pureblood Customs, Orphanage, Kinda Manipulative Albus Dumbledore, Goblin Customs kinda, Sentient Magical Houses, Hogwarts, Godfather Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore Made Mistakes

Series:

Part 1 of

The Twin

Stats:

Published: 2019-01-02 Completed: 2019-03-09 Chapters: 11/11 Words: 51385

The Twin: Book 1

by effervesce_illusion

Summary

Albus Dumbledore made a mistake at Godric's Hallow; he misidentified the Saviour as Lloyd James Potter and left Genesis Lily Potter at Tanner's Orphanage. Upon her introduction to the Wizarding World, Genesis changes her name, distrustful of Dumbledore, and enters her first year of Hogwarts with too much power to be normal.

Notes

Hi guys! This is my first work on Slytherin female Harry so feedback is great! Disclaimer: if you recognize anything in this story or any character names, building names, places, etc. from the Harry Potter books, they're the work of JK Rowling and I don't take credit for it. Any other recognition you may experience is not based on real-life people, I promise.

See the end of the work for more notes

Chapter 1

prologue

—November 1st—

The old man is attired in an odd plum-coloured cloak, a matching pointy hat resting on white hair, and he leans over, muttering for a second. Immediately, a grey glow flashes, and then there's a sharp crack.

The old man is no longer there. At the same time, the lights in front of the building flicker on, illuminating the steps and the basket placed on the top stair.

The lights shine on three noteworthy things: first, the name of the building—Tanner's Orphanage—which is only slightly dilapidated; second, a girl in the basket on the top stair; and third, a slip of paper pinned to the basket. It's a letter, already open.

Dear Matron of this Orphanage,

Her name is Genesis Lily Potter. She is a year old. Her parents died tonight; however, they have ensured her spot at a boarding school at the age of eleven.

Take care of her.

It is a very short letter, with no closing. This will not be the first time Tanner's Orphanage receives such a letter, but it is the first time Tanner's Orphanage receives such a girl.

The raven-haired child does not flail, but her eyelids abruptly open to reveal startling pure green eyes. She does not cry, but she does not fall back asleep either.

On Privet Drive, the street the old man has just left, is an identical basket, though the letter pinned on is much lengthier.

Dear Petunia,

I sincerely regret to inform you that Lily has died. She died bravely in the war, protecting this child. I know you have made peace with your sister, so I dearly hope you take care of Lloyd James Potter as your own. You will always have a place in the magical world—please feel free to introduce him to our world.

I found it wiser to place him with you since, as the Boy Who Lived, he will be widely recognized. At such a young age, it is ill-advised for him to be extremely aware of this status, so we have placed him with you.

I am sure there are yet many things unrevealed, and I will attempt to clarify some of them. I know you have heard of the Wizarding War which has wracked the magical world lately. I am certain you have heard of Lord Voldemort. He himself killed James and Lily. I suspect that Lily, who died to try and save her children, is the reason for Lord Voldemort's curse rebounding off Lloyd and killing Voldemort instead. Lloyd will have the lightning scar on his forehead as the remnant of the curse, and forever will be remembered as the one who defeated Lord Voldemort.

The war is now over, as he is gone; however, I believe that there is a possibility of his return and we must keep Lloyd safe. This palace, in his blood relative's home, as long as he chooses to call it home, will keep him safe through blood magic. I hope you take him and care for him as your own son for this reason.

The letter goes on for a while, detailing more specifics of the Wizarding World and the new expectations placed on Lloyd. It finishes with the closing flourished signature of a well-known man.

Best wishes,

Albus Dumbledore

The red-haired infant lets out a loud wail, tears beginning to pour out of faded blue-green eyes.

—October 31st—

A dark, cloaked figure glides through the small town, passing a cottage. He pauses, turns, and peers into the window; inside are two children, both younger than toddlers, perhaps a year old. These—these are the Potters. He's certain. As if to make things clearer, two adults enter his field of vision; a fiery redhead and a dark-haired man. James Potter immediately pulls out his wand and starts amusing the boy with duller blue-green eyes; Lily takes the girl, only for the girl to immediately frown, eyes opening—the figure outside the window nearly startles as he looks at her eyes, like Avada Kedavras. This is a family, a family in war and in hiding, but a family .

A cruel smile curls the cloaked man's face. Not for long .

Inside the house, Lily sighs. "James, Genesis is fussier than normal. It's always Lloyd, not her."

James, still preoccupied with trailing bubbles from his wand, barely raises his eyes. "No idea. Maybe just a bad day?"

"I've been feeling worried and unsettled all day, maybe it's rubbing off on her."

"Dear, don't worry. I'm sure it'll be fine."

Famous last words , the cloaked man thinks.

"Not them, not them, please not them!"

"Stand aside, you silly girl, stand aside now."

"Not Genesis! Please, no, take me! Kill me instead!" Lily's screaming, pleading with the Dark Lord. He merely scoffs and sends a bright green curse at her; she crumples to the ground, lifeless. The cloaked figure ignores the body and walks up to the two children—one of them is still crying while the other, Genesis, simply gazes up at him with unnervingly bright eyes.

If it weren't for the prophecy, he thinks he would've taken her and raised her up properly. As it is, both have to go.

"Avada Kedavra!" he casts, pointing his wand at Lloyd Potter first. At the same time, Genesis's eyes narrow and she throws herself in front of the curse, the entire time staring accusingly at the Dark Lord—condemnation and awareness which is miraculously odd in such a young body. The green light hits her on the collarbone but rebounds, shaking the house and hitting the Dark Lord.

At the same time, a piece of stone drops from the ceiling and scratches Lloyd's forehead. A cut shaped like a lightning bolt appears.

Tanner's Orphanage

Chapter Summary

Genesis Lily Potter's life at the orphanage hasn't been as rough as some expected and what's better is that she's going to escape it soon.

Chapter Notes

Hello again, see the previous chapter for the disclaimer (I don't have to keep putting a disclaimer, do I?)

--Hi, I'm back, and I've edited all of this. Not much of the plot is changed, though (or at least not that I remember), so if you've read this and just want a continuation (I'm sorry!! I'll post it, I promise) you don't have to reread this.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Genesis Lily Potter impassively watches the two older boys towering over her, holding a thin grey sweater.

"Please give me back my sweater. It's awfully chilly."

"Aww, look at the poor cold little girl," he says, lowering his arm as if to give the sweater back. As Genesis reaches up, he yanks it away. "But this would look very good in the trash, don't you think?"

Genesis's green eyes grow brighter, almost seeming to glow, and suddenly the two boys have knives pointed at their throats.

"The sweater," the five-year-old demands, pale hand reaching out. The boys visibly gulp, eyeing the deserted corridor as if trying to find an exit, before the sandy-haired one reluctantly gives the sweater back.

"Just you wait, the Matron will hear about this!" the other boy shouts as the pair runs away. The threat is very clearly hanging for her, so Genesis quickly glares at the knives—they disappear— and runs to her room, avoiding everyone else. She puts her sweater back on and sits on the edge of the bed, reading The Hobbit once more.

She's nearing the end of the book when her door opens.

"Genesis? I'd like to talk to you," the Matron says. She's standing in the doorway with stern eyes and feet planted in what Genesis recognizes as a power position. She stands up with an innocent smile.

"Okay."

"So I heard from John and Ricky that you threatened them with knives for no reason? According to them, you tricked them into going into a deserted corridor."

Genesis gazes up, tilting her head. "But… I don't have knives?" she replies. She's distinctly aware of her long black hair brushing the edge of her pout. "Why would I want to hurt anyone?"

The Matron gives the girl a once-over and notices how far she is into The Hobbit . Quickly, she comes to the conclusion that John and Ricky must have been making things up again, although something about Genesis still unsettles the Matron.

Genesis is five, adorable with her button nose and soft cheeks, and smart—overall loveable, but something seems to lurk underneath all that, and the Matron cannot help but feel that the sheen of wetness in her bright green eyes comes from crocodile tears.

"Very well. I believe you," she says, against her instincts. "I'll have a talk with John and Ricky."

July 29th, the middle of summer break, is a rather ordinary day in Genesis's eyes. She is ten, maybe eleven—she has no idea of her birthday, but considering it's nearly halfway through the year, she's probably eleven. In fact, the only thing Genesis does know about herself comes from talking to the Matron's French assistant, a younger woman who had left the orphanage a few years ago.

It had been November 1st, 1981 when she was found on the step of the orphanage with basic information, but not her birthday. Genesis doesn't care too much about that since she knows her general age, and besides, you can't miss what you don't know.

Through the years, Genesis knows she could have melded into the rest of the orphanage, turned grey and unassuming and pathetic like the rest of them, but she stands out. Her raven black hair, flowing to her midback, and eerily bright green eyes have always put her in the spotlight. For less positive attention, her height a result of malnourishment, according to the school doctor— has been an obvious enough reason for regular children to go after her.

She has her own secret, which Genesis knows would get her attention—scars happen to do that, but showing it off feels almost sacrilegious, somehow. On her collarbone, which is often hidden, there's a scar shaped oddly like a lightning bolt. She calls it her rune, a term she came across while reading, but she supposes it's really just a birthmark. Nonetheless, she likes to imagine; after all, according to Giam-whatever Vico, imagination is important for young minds. Who is she to argue?

Genesis is nearly the textbook definition of an odd girl. She's always in the library instead of playing with other children (which does get her resentment from them), and somewhat introverted though not socially awkward—in fact, she's surprisingly eloquent for someone as young and quiet as she is. Combined with intellect and the gift of a quick memory (which she takes advantage of whenever she can) she charms most adults.

Some of these things cultivate jealousy and hostility from the children. At first, though, hostility came because of her young age and the way the Matron's assistant—and thus the Matron— favoured her. Then, it's because of her strange behaviour. Now, though, it's for entirely different reasons.

Genesis can do things. She does odd things which scare the others, so, rather illogically, they bully her. It backfires more often than not. Genesis nearly never gets in trouble, but she always gets her revenge, and even when she does get in trouble she watches the Matron with a calm, accepting face, scoring her more points with the Matron, and when the Matron leaves, she turns to the accuser and glares with eerily glowing eyes.

She doesn't strictly want to hurt the others, but she doesn't want to be hurt either. This way, nothing is traced and no one can prove anything.

When she first realized she could make odd things happen, she was three. She started perfecting the art. At five, she could conjure anything but food and water out of thin air, a result of necessity and practice, and vanish anything she wanted. The abilities serve her well here, to keep the children in line, and for the adults, she just shows her dedication to other intellectual pursuits, dancing, and martial arts. That, combined with politeness, has most adults wrapped around her pinky finger.

One thing that endears her to adults, in particular, is how often she reads The Hobbit . She doesn't tell them it's because that's the only book she has ready access to, and that she only reads it still because there's nothing else to do .

This morning is one of those mornings, the ones where she wakes up incredibly bored. She tries to focus on the words on the pages—still crisp because she's taken good care of the book. However, the quiet is shattered when a knock on the door sounds.

"Yes?" she calls out, muscles tensing.

The door creaks open in response, little paint chips and flakes fluttering onto the cement ground. Yellow flakes of paint, too, which is utterly disgusting.

"There's someone here to see you. A professor at a boarding school or something." Genesis raises an eyebrow as the Matron disappears from the doorway. In her place is a smartly dressed man in a suit, a turban wrapped around his head.

"G-g-good m-morning, Miss P-p-potter," the man stutters. "M-m-my n-name is P-professor Qui-quirrell."

Genesis stands. "Good morning, sir, please sit down," she says, ignoring the stutter and gesturing towards the sofa she conjured. The Matron hadn't asked about the sofa and Genesis has never offered an explanation.

"Th-th-thank y-y-you," he says, paired with a nervous smile. "I am a p-professor at a b-boarding sch-school wh-where y-you h-h-have b-been reg-registered s-since birth. You c-can be-begin th-this year on the f-first of Sept-september."

Genesis recalls that the letter dropped off with her says she's registered for a boarding school, but she never really believed it. She frowns slightly.

"What's the school's name?"

"H-h-hogwarts Sch-school of Witch-witchcraft and W-wizardry," he replies. The frown deepens imperceptibly as thoughts begin to swirl—is this a bad practical joke played by jealous orphans who'd heard about her position at a boarding school? But why would the Matron be on it?

As questions preoccupy her, Quirrell subtly changes.

"You are different, Genesis Potter, from the other children. That difference is your magic." The man leans forward slightly. "Those odd things you can do when you're upset—all those things are magic."

Genesis smiles, an unnerving but bright thing which often draws in the other orphans despite their mutual hatred. If Dumbledore were here instead of Quirrell, he might have had an inkling of suspicion for a link between her and the Dark Lord, but he would have quickly come to the conclusion that there are no similarities. After all, Genesis's smile holds all the world of a young child and all the world's hope, and there's nothing inhumane in it.

"I knew there was something different," she murmurs. Then she turns abruptly to him, a serious expression on her small face, green eyes (so similar to Lily Potter's) piercing. "Is it normal for children to have a grasp on their magic, or is it just random bursts?"

"Children often have no control over their magic. Do you?"

Genesis stares at him, contemplative. "No," she lies. She doesn't trust him.

He hums. "There's no need to worry. You will learn to at Hogwarts. Now, there are a few things you should know, at the very least, beforehand about our world. In the wizarding world, blood is an important matter. Generally, you'll hear the terms pureblood, half-blood, and muggleborn. A muggleborn is a witch or wizard with two parents of non-magical or muggleborn status. Pureblood and half-blood are obvious. Now, about your family—"

In a rare occurrence of impoliteness, Genesis interrupts him. "I don't have one."

He takes it in stride. "You do. One of your parents was muggleborn. Her name was Lily. The other parent was a pureblood, making you a half-blood. You also have a fraternal twin. His name is Lloyd, and he's currently residing with your Muggle aunt and uncle and cousin."

Genesis doesn't gape, but she comes close to losing control of her facial features. It's not as if she hasn't thought about family—every orphan does, certainly, at one point or another, but Genesis hasn't thought of them in quite a while. What's the point?

"A twin ?"

"Yes. Your parents were killed by a wizard called the Dark Lord Voldemort. Most people prefer not to say his name out of fear; he's called He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named or You-Know-Who."

Genesis mentally laughs at the two substitute names—one is ridiculously long, the other is just dumb —and says, "Isn't a name just a name?"

"Very true. He started a war and caused chaos for years. Then he began targeting your parents, on the other side of the war, and killed them. He tried to kill you and your brother, but the spell rebounded. No one knows why, but he disappeared."

Genesis wonders how the Wizarding World knows these things, since certainly she and her— her twin were too young to remember, the parents are dead, and the other witness (the murderer) disappeared.

"Did he die?" she asks instead.

"It is unclear. Both twins survived the night and your brother was found with a cursed scar, a lightning bolt on his forehead. For this reason, he was declared Boy-Who-Lived and sent to live with his relatives since he would be safer there. The place has magical protections and Dumbledore, the leader of the other side, believed that Voldemort would reappear and target him. The family is muggle, but he has lived knowing of the magical world and has made several visits to magical places."

Genesis unconsciously rubs at her collarbone, where her own lightning bolt scar is. "Why was I left here, then? Couldn't he target me to reach him?" She loses the regular control she has over her emotions, only for a second—her eyes flash, the weak lightbulb in the ceiling dims. Then, contriteness splashes across her face as she realizes and abruptly reels it back in. The professor only smiles slightly.

"That is true. I cannot speak for the logic in Headmaster Dumbledore's actions," he says. "But on a happier note, happy eleventh birthday."

Silence falls for a second. "It's my birthday?" Genesis asks.

His smile drops. "You did not know your birthday?" The professor looks displeased, perhaps more so after Genesis tells him she's never particularly cared so it's not terrible. Nonetheless, he quickly moves on and tells her about Diagon Alley—her family is rich , and apparently she has access to their bank account in a place called Gringotts, run by goblins—and the four Houses of Hogwarts. Apparently, most Potters have been sorted into Gryffindor, or at least the most recently living Potters.

"Would you like me to accompany you to Diagon Alley?" he says before he leaves.

"No, thank you," Genesis says, and shortly after the professor bids her adieu.

Lord Voldemort relaxes, letting Quirrell retake control of his body as Voldemort falls into thought. He never forgot the Potter twins, and though he knows his sanity may be a little frayed on the edges, he knows his curse hit Genesis, not Lloyd.

He'd been confused when he realized Lloyd was named the Boy-Who-Lived. He still remembers Lloyd's hideous bawling as Genesis curiously watched him, eventually jumping in front of Lloyd with a glare in his direction. Too perceptive for her age, really. Only days ago, he'd seen Lloyd in Diagon Alley, constantly demanding attention. His magic is light grey; not a fully formed light core, but certainly not neutral, either.

Genesis's, on the other hand—hers is perfectly neutral, neither light nor dark. She's practically the opposite of her twin brother; in fact, Voldemort thinks the only similarities he can draw are the stunningly similar facial structures. She reminds him of himself.

Drily, he thinks of one distinction between Tom Riddle in the orphanage and Genesis—at least he'd known his birthday.

Chapter End Notes

Thanks for reading, and again if there are any grammatical/spelling errors feel free to tell me. Any input or questions about aspects of the story are also accepted and appreciated!

Diagon Alley

Chapter Summary

Genesis meets Hagrid, goblins, Diagon Alley, and Knockturn.

Chapter Notes

Hello again! The new chapter is here, yay! Again, disclaimers and all feedback is appreciated. Hope you enjoy the chapter :)

Genesis leaves the orphanage with the Matron's permission, wearing an outfit she conjured because she refuses to go out in the tattered uniform. Which she met the professor in. It's a little embarrassing, but she's grateful for the professor for at least one thing—unlike everyone else, he's overlooked the entire monetary situation (perhaps because he knew she wasn't actually poor?). In fact, at first, most people don't look at her twice because of her orphan status, disregarding her intelligence, cunning, athleticism, and potential kindness.

Hogwarts is her redo button to fix mistakes she'd never made—she has money, and she has plans to make use of that. Money cannot buy everything, she knows, but it comes very close to buying everything.

Albus Dumbledore had left her on the top step of the orphanage in a basket with her name and a "take care of her". Her small stature screams that they hadn't "taken care of her", but it wasn't like he'd ever checked in—she's the afterthought, isn't she? But Genesis knows how to work with being underestimated.

Genesis looks around the pub, observing the people milling around before she decides to go find Tom. He finds her first, however, and without many questions, allows her into Diagon. She makes her way in and, after dropping by Flourish and Blotts—a bookstore—just to figure out what pricing looks like (she ends up being drawn into a book on goblin customs, but certainly a small delay is fine) she walks up to the large grey bank.

When she reaches the gates, she sees the poem sculpted on:

Enter, stranger, but take heed

Of what awaits the sin of greed,

For those who take, but do not earn,

Must pay most dearly in their turn,

So if you seek beneath our floors

A treasure that was never yours,

Thief, you have been warned, beware

Of finding more than treasure there.

Genesis studies it for a little before she steps through. The massive marble hall is impressive just for sheer magnitude, but Genesis is drawn to watching the flickers of movement. A long counter, behind which are goblins, holds the weighings and examinings of coins and jewels, multiple notepads being scribbled on, and people conversing with the goblins. Some of them are being led through doors, presumably to their vaults of money.

"Is that you, Genesis?" a loud voice booms out from behind her. Genesis doesn't react until a hand falls on her shoulder, and she whirls to face probably the tallest man she's ever met.

"Oh. Hello, yes, I'm Genesis," she says. "What's your name?"

"Hagrid, Groundskeeper at Hogwarts. Haven' seen yeh since yeh were just a little baby! Are yeh here for school stuff?"

When Genesis nods, Hagrid decides to accompany her to the teller. Genesis sticks behind as Hagrid talks with the goblin and when he withdraws a small brown package from vault 713. It intrigues her, certainly.

Later, when Hagrid leaves, Genesis goes back to Gringotts to talk with the teller. She's still a little wary of everyone, so while Hagrid was there Genesis hadn't done anything.

"Hello," she says. "I was wondering if you did family trees?" She knows they do; it's mentioned in the book she read at Flourish and Blotts.

"Yes, yes. Genesis Lily Potter, correct? Come, I'll bring you to Griphook."

"Three drops of blood," Griphook orders the moment Genesis enters. He hands her a thin needle and steps back as she pricks her finger, letting three drops drip into the thimble-sized glass cup. Griphook disappears for a minute before he returns with a scroll, handing it to Genesis.

Curiously, she reads through the paper of her family tree, in addition to inheritances.

Name: Genesis Lily Potter

Mother: Lily Potter (née Evans)

Father: James Fleamont Potter

Godfather: Severus Snape

Godmother: Alice Longbottom (née Prewett) (inactive)

Magical Guardian: Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore

Siblings: Lloyd James Potter (fraternal twin brother)

Magical Inheritances:

Veela (Black gene, Quarter-Veela, expect dual Inheritance and wings)

Magical Abilities:

Parseltongue (Slytherin)

Metamorphmagus (Black)

Natural Occlumens and Legilimens (Selwyn)

Natural Elemental (Slytherin)

Possible Ladyship of Houses:

Slytherin (through conquest of Tom Marvolo Riddle)

Gaunt (through conquest of Tom Marvolo Riddle)

Potter (through owning Lloyd Potter's life debt)

Gryffindor (through owning Lloyd Potter's life debt)

Scion to Houses:

Peverell (through testing)

Black (through owning Lloyd Potter's life debt)

Carrow (through owning Lloyd Potter's life debt)

Selwyn (through conquest)

Lestrange (through conquest)

Blocks:

Metamorphmagus Block (successful, placed by Albus Dumbledore)

Occlumens and Legilimens Block (successful, placed by Albus Dumbledore)

Animagus Block (successful, placed by Albus Dumbledore)

Veela Block (failed, placed by Albus Dumbledore)

Glamour (successful, placed by Albus Dumbledore)

Parseltongue Block (failed, placed by Albus Dumbledore)

Magical Core Block 75% Neutral and Dark (failed, placed by Albus Dumbledore)

Cognitive Ability Block 30% (failed, placed by Albus Dumbledore)

There are a lot of emotions that spout from this paper. Genesis tucks everything but curiosity away and focuses first on the life debt her brother apparently owes. That means she's saved her brother at some point in her life, defeated Tom Marvolo Riddle at some point in her life, and Genesis is pretty willing to bet anything but her life that she saved her brother from Tom Marvolo Riddle.

Evidently, though, she doesn't remember it, so that dates this back to before the orphanage. She recalls Professor Quirrel talking about the cursed scar, a lightning bolt, and silently she reaches conclusions which are equal parts shocking and infuriating.

She puts those two emotions aside, too. There's no mental space to deal with them. Tom Riddle is Lord Voldemort, she is the supposed Saviour, and her stint in the orphanage was for nothing. That alone is enough to occupy her, but there's still the entire issue where Albus Dumbledore is her magical guardian and nonetheless misidentified the saviour, left her on the orphanage, and tried to place a multitude of blocks on her—a pretty bad job as a magical guardian, if you ask her.

That's the more immediate problem, anyway, so she says, "Is there a way to remove Mr Dumbledore as my magical guardian without notifying him?"

Griphook doesn't even look surprised. "You could if you claimed the Ladyship of the Houses you've inherited. None of them have age restrictions and none need Mr Dumbledore to be notified."

"What responsibilities would come with being a Lady of a House?"

Griphook gestures for her to sit. She assumes they'll be here for a while. "Taking Ladyship of a House would include taking on political obligations. Each House has seats at Wizengamot. You would inherit seven seats in the House of Nobles and be expected to inherit thirteen more from Peverell, Black, Carrow, and Selwyn. Mr Dumbledore has cast these votes ten times and also made odd withdrawals, including priceless artefacts from the Potter vault."

The more she hears about the Headmaster of her new school, the less she trusts him. Instead of saying that, she leans forward and pins Griphook with a bright green gaze. "Explain Wizengamot to me."

The words Griphook rattles off are like he's reciting a manual. "Wizengamot is the court of law. It has two houses: the House of Nobles and the House of the Common. The first house has 333 seats, 76 of which are currently active. By taking Ladyship, you'd activate seven and make 83 seats active. The second house is through elected officials, with 60 seats. The second house also has, debatably, less power, since its main function is proposing legislation and joining for judicial sessions. Politically, there are three parties—two major ones. The first is headed by Albus Dumbledore, who is currently Chief Warlock since his party, the Phoenixes, is the majority. The second party, Garnets, is headed by Lucius Malfoy. The third party is the least prominent and is called the Holstered Party. They do not have a leader. Currently, the person holding the most seats in the House of Nobles is Lucius Malfoy with twelve, a result of the seats the Malfoy and Black lines have collected over the years. Most people will, therefore, try and flatter to him. Your brother currently has two seats as a result of will dedication, due to his fame with the Dark Lord. Mr Dumbledore has also cast those votes."

Genesis takes a moment in silence to absorb the information. "When will I be allowed to participate in Wizengamot?"

"The moment you accept Ladyship."

"Alright. Is there anything else I should know?"

"Houses include rings of Lord and Ladyship. As a result of years of backstabbing, most ancient Houses will have rings with protective magic. Slytherin's will alert you when someone has attempted to control you by spell or potion and will resist the potions. Gryffindor's ring can store energy and will assist you in physical exertion, Gaunt's ring will assist your duelling although it currently is lost, and the Potter ring will store energy." It looks as if Griphook brings the three rings out of nowhere as he displays and identifies each one, but Genesis suspects they've been expecting her and have prepared beforehand. "Here's a pamphlet guide reserved for new Ladies and Lords of Houses," he continues.

Genesis quickly scans the pamphlet and decides she'll take the Ladyship—it seems the safest option for her, anyway.

"I'll take it. As long as you can remove Dumbledore as my magical guardian and prevent others from taking money from the vaults. Is it possible for you to regain the things he's withdrawn? And if possible, could you send a record of withdrawals made in previous years and continue to send me those yearly?"

"Of course. We can also remove your blocks without his notice," Griphook says. "A couple of Dark books, Gryffindor's sword, and the Peverell Invisibility Cloak were taken from the Potter vault. We'll be able to regain those."

As he speaks, his long thin fingers quickly work magic, revealing Dumbledore's blocks in dark inky blue strands, which he promptly snaps by slashing the ties in half. "Now that the Glamour is removed, your face is somewhat different from before. A mirror, if you'd like," he says and hands her one. "What would you like to do about withdrawals made by your twin?"

Genesis falls quiet, half of her mind cataloguing the differences—her high cheekbones are prominent, her nose is more of a celestial nose, and her hairline is most definitely a widow's peak. She's a little paler, too.

A second later, she says, "Allow him access to his trust vault, but return all the artefacts taken."

"Ah… your parents did not think that one through. Neither of you have a trust vault."

Genesis frowns. "Could I create one for him?"

Griphook takes the request in stride, jotting it down on his notepad. "Perhaps we should perform the ceremony first. Then we can continue this discussion."

Genesis hums her agreement.

"Do you, Genesis Lily Potter, accept these Ladyship rings and agree to take on the responsibility which comes with each one and the following consequences, which will include the stirring of new abilities and the loss of life-debt which Lloyd James Potter owes you in return for gaining the right of the eldest from him?"

Suddenly, Genesis knows, deep in her bones, what her response should be. "I accept these Ladyship rings and agree to take on the responsibility which comes with each one. I accept the loss of life-debt in return for Lloyd James Potter's inheritances to Ancient and or Noble Houses which include any Wizengamot seats. So mote it be."

Griphook mutters words in goblin tongue—Genesis decides she must learn, sometime—and eventually finishes, surrounding Genesis with an electric green glow. When it fades, she moves towards the three jewellery objects and carefully slides each one on.

"Lady Slytherin," Griphook says, and nods.

"Thank you, Griphook." It's apparently a pureblood custom to call a person by the purest and oldest title they had unless they're a close friend. "I've read a little on the money system, so I'd like to create a trust vault for Lloyd James Potter with 500,000 Galleons. This, with his compounded interest rate, ought to last him until the end of his school days and a few years past that."

"It shall be done. Is there anything else?"

"Any information on all vaults and properties. If those could be mailed to me, too, that would be excellent."

"We'll mail it to you. There's nothing in the Gaunt family vault, but every other vault is full. You have two Manors in France, Potter Manor here, a cottage near Brighton, and the Gaunt family house, although that one is a bit rundown. Because you are Lady Slytherin and Lady Gryffindor, you have Hogwarts as well. If someone were to claim the house of Hufflepuff or if Ravenclaw suddenly had an heir, you would split ownership with them. Of course, Hogwarts comes with a large host of house-elves, and the three Manors each come with house-elves as well."

Genesis decides to not ask what house-elves are right now; she can always figure that out herself. "Thank you," she says. "Could you place 500,000 Galleons in the Gaunt vault, from any vault I have."

Griphook nods. "Any other adjustments?"

"Actually, is there a way to pay like a Muggle credit card?" Genesis asks. While at Flourish and Blotts, she caught sight of the coins, and they look heavy.

"There is. It costs 20 Galleons to start the service, and requires you to be able to reveal your magical signature."

"This?" Genesis asks, pushing out a soft silver glow from her hand.

Griphook conceals his surprise well. "Yes. It will recognize your magical signature."

"Please set that up." Genesis falls silent for a moment. "Would you also be willing to be my accounts manager?"

"I'd be honoured, Lady Slytherin."

Genesis cracks a small smile. "Perfect. I think that should be it for today," Genesis says. "May your gold overflow."

Griphook's face after Genesis properly bids him goodbye in goblin custom is priceless in and of itself.

"Hogwarts, dearie?"

"Yes. Madame Malkin, correct? I was wondering if it was possible to pull together a new wardrobe—of reasonable material for someone who is growing, and comfortable, please—and four sets of school robes."

Madame Malkin's eyes light up. "Not an issue, dear!" Madam Malkin quickly measures and fits her for her clothing—it takes a while, unsurprisingly, as Genesis is getting an entirely new wardrobe. She leaves the shop with three rather large bags, all three reminding her that she really needs a trunk.

She enters Johnson's Quality Trunks next. The bell rings, rather loudly, as Genesis steps into the store, and she's immediately greeted by a middle-aged brown-haired thin man.

"Hello, here for your Hogwarts trunk?" He looks bored.

"Yes," she says, remembering the advertisements on the windows of trunks charmed to be lightweight, expandable, and resilient, with multiple compartments. "Could I get one of the more advanced trunks?"

"This way. Would you be interested in trunks with separate rooms?"

Genesis raises an eyebrow. "What rooms?"

"There's the new featured Apartment line we've developed which can fit essentially an entire manor inside a trunk. Gardens, ballrooms, libraries, kitchens, bedrooms, you name it and it fits. Additionally, we have compartmented trunks. They're great security, to open them you have to unlock the correct lock with the correct key."

Genesis suddenly as a very distinct image of what her trunk will be. "I'd like one with seven compartments, in the seventh with a duelling room, a bathroom, a library, an office, a garden, and two bedrooms, please. Obviously, charmed to be lightweight, expandable, and resilient. If it could be black with silver fastenings, that would be excellent."

He raises an eyebrow. "Can you afford it?" he asks bluntly. "It'll be roughly 100,000 Galleons."

Genesis knows it'll be expensive. "Yes. When will you have it ready?"

"Well, we'll have to send it to multiple masters of Charms and such, so in roughly three weeks."

"Can you make it one week? I'll pay extra."

Johnson's eyes light up. "500 Galleons, we'll make it work."

"Perfect. Do you have the credit system in your store?"

"Yes," he says, looking slightly surprised by the question. Genesis ignores it and lets her right hand emit an eerie silver glow. The tabletop lights up green for a second, showing that the transaction is successful.

"Thank you! I'll be back in a week to collect my trunk."

"Honour doing service with you," he says, and bows. Genesis notes that there's a lot more respect in his voice now.

The things money will buy never ceases to amaze her.

By the end of the day, Genesis has retrieved everything but her wand. She's bought several unnecessary books for her first year, but—well, books . Other than The Hobbit . Some are fairly innocent, while others are less so, such as the book on Forbidden Curses, the one on presumably dark potions, and several others. She's also bought some purely for practical purposes; one on pureblood custom, and the other, Hogwarts: A History.

When she reaches Ollivander's, she's greeted with a surprise pop-up before he talks to her about her parents and their wands. She's not unaware of his eagle-like eyes, watching her for a reaction. Ollivander ends up going through several boxes of wands, one after another. Each one Genesis holds feels as if she could use, as it shoots up bright emerald sparks (except for the holly wand, which does nothing), but she denies each one. There isn't a connection, which Ollivander notices as well. He beams with each refusal and continues going through boxes. One of them is an applewood wand and upon taking it in her hand, the applewood seems to cause rather severe damage, topping a bookcase over. They keep moving further back into the store. It's been nearly half an hour.

Ollivander has learned, however, and keeps every applewood wand out of her hands.

Finally, Ollivander excuses himself and walks all the way back in his store. When he returns, it's with a box which seems to draw Genesis in and a surprising announcement.

"This was made by a hermit living in the mountains of Lesotho. He grows his own wand trees, makes friends with the bowtruckles living in them, and spends a year crafting one wand. He gave this to me, telling me to give it to whoever the wand chose, as a dream instructed him to. Try it."

At first touch, the wand lets out a shower of silver sparks and immediately fixes the shop to its proper order, filling Genesis with a thrilling rush of power. Her smile is enchanting. Ollivander beams, too, self-satisfied before he educates her on the peculiarities of the wand.

"Like all of his creations, this wand combines several kinds of wood and cores. This one is elder, beech, and red oak with a core of flaming phoenix feather, liquidated and reformed basilisk fang, and dragon heartstring. This is the only wand in history with dragon heartstring willingly given. It's flexible, eleven inches, and the hilt has a large black diamond and bands of small emeralds which you can use to store energy in. The guard is made of black elm. Most wands do not have a guard."

"Won't elder wood leave me?" Genesis asks.

"Elder wood is extremely powerful, and often switches owners if there's one more powerful, but it's negated by the core. The phoenix feather and dragon heartstring were willingly given, so that boosts its loyalty. This wand is in careful balance, you understand. Dragon heartstring, after all, is temperamental, but the black elmwood negates it as the least erroneous wood in magic. The woods are meant to complement each other; beech focuses on subtle artistry, red oak on adaptability and duelling, and everything else either balances something out or adds power. The basilisk fang, especially, since it still contains venom, should aid aim and power. It still contains venom, so your wand is grey, but if it breaks you must be cautious."

Genesis figures the last part is especially good to know.

"Wands speak volumes of their wielders," he says. "And yours says more of you than most wands do."

She hides a grimace.

Nonetheless, he continues to speak. "Elder wood matches with power, ambition, and spectacular destiny. Beech often finds a person wise beyond their years, generally open-minded. Red oak prefers someone adaptable, with a quick wit, like the wood itself. Flaming phoenix feathers, according to the hermit, symbolizes someone reborn and rising from the ashes. The Wizarding World did assume you to be dead. The dragon heartstring normally indicates power and loyalty. The gems are balance and clarity, authority, energy, and regeneration. Your wand is flexible; so are you. The length of eleven inches, considering your height, speaks more to your ability to fill a space than actually fitting your height." His eyes narrow. "And the basilisk fang reveals an affinity to more harmful spells."

Genesis decides she doesn't like the way he stares at her. "Thank you," she says, anyway.

"I believe we can expect great things from you. Orphans have a tendency to do that."

She raises an eyebrow in surprise that Ollivander knows of her orphanage upbringing, but she chooses to not say anything. Instead, she gives him the eleven galleons and leaves.

Ollivander watches after the small, dark-haired orphan with an unreadable expression save for the tint of sadness. He's surprised she hasn't changed her name yet; the last person he genuinely promised would be great had revealed, at that time, that he was already thinking of new names for himself. He'd also been an orphan with an undeniable allure which drew people to him like moths to a flame.

Yes, she would grow and do great things. Terrible, perhaps, but great.

A Train To Slytherin

Chapter Notes

Hi again! The chapter is up and again, disclaimers and all feedback is appreciated! Hope you enjoy :)

For the past weeks, Genesis has consistently worn the three rings and necklace. She doesn't want to risk the others stealing it, which is completely possible at this orphanage. Lately, nightmares have been haunting her, memories, which Genesis attributes to becoming the Lady of different Houses. Griphook had warned her about something like this. The nightmare which comes up most often is two flashes of green light and riding on a motorbike. Originally, Genesis wanted to dig into that dream, and she got as far as the say that the dream is a memory from before the orphanage, but eventually, she decided it's better to focus on the present, first.

She spends most of her time reading a plethora of her books, sorted in the first compartment of the compartmented trunk with her ballet things. The second compartment is for school, with her uniform, textbooks, bag, wand, and wand holster, while the third holds money, toiletries, and the rest of her clothing. The fourth and fifth compartments remain empty.

Before the term starts, Genesis takes it upon herself to write to the Goblins, asking them to legally change her name to Lily Genesis Smythin, with future plans to change it to Slytherin. They grant her request—surprisingly, since she's only eleven, but she won't complain. Apparently, her legal status as a minor changed since taking up her Ladyship roles, and the Trace, too, is off of her.

Really, she just doesn't want to attract the Headmaster's attention as a Potter. Or anyone's really, so she also arrives early to the train station to take the Hogwarts Express, and finds a seat quickly. She finds a compartment at the end of the train, where she sets down her trunk and relaxes on the surprisingly comfortable bench before she takes out the book Misconceptions of Magical Cores . It's disapproved of by the Headmaster, which only makes her more willing to read it.

She sees why, soon enough; the book lays out, very clearly, that Light, Grey, and Dark magic corresponds with Light, Grey, and Dark cores, not Good, Neutral, and Evil. It then proceeds to critique the way Hogwarts caters specifically to those with Light cores, and then the Ministry policies which have apparently been uninformed and dangerously stereotyped.

Genesis might have a new favourite author, not that JRR Tolkein is bad.

She also hopes she can maintain a Grey core, as it seems to have a wider range of freedom, able to dabble with all three types of spells. She doesn't claim to be an expert on Wizarding spells, but as a general rule, the more options the better.

A surprising amount of people pass by her compartment anyway. Then, two students come in, both looking a little awkward; they look about her age, a boy and a girl. Both have brown hair, though the girl's is much bushier, and they both seem to have some form of buck teeth.

"Sorry, do you mind if we stay here? There aren't any other open compartments," the girl says when the boy makes no move to talk, just awkwardly scratches his arm.

"I don't mind." Genesis shrugs. The pair enters, struggling to place their trunks before they sit across from her. There's a distinctly awkward silence where no one speaks. Then Genesis withholds a sight and thinks she might as well be polite.

"I suppose introductions are in order. I'm Lily," she says. The boy looks up, relief evident in his eyes, while the girl smiles and starts to speak.

"I'm Hermione, Hermione Granger," the brown-haired girl says.

"Neville Longbottom," the round-faced boy replies as a slight blush appears and he averts his eyes, obviously shy.

"It's nice to meet you." Genesis smiles. "Are you first-years as well?"

That begins a more natural conversation of Hogwarts, the houses, families, and interesting classes.

"I really just want to learn everything. It's all quite fascinating, don't you think?" Hermione asks with bright eyes and a large smile, bouncing subtly in her seat as if she can't possibly contain her excitement. Neville begins scooting slightly away from the girl after that statement, amusing Genesis. Then the conversation turns to families, where Genesis reveals her half-blood status and upbringing the muggle world. Neville acquires a rather contemplative, searching look when she says that—a rather odd expression on his round face—but Genesis chooses not to comment and notes to herself to be more careful around purebloods; they know quite a lot and might very easily find out her history if they get too curious.

The three of them get along well, somewhat surprising to Genesis since the encounter seems to go against nearly every former experience she's had with children her age. There were those times when she genuinely smiled or laughed while at the orphanage or at school and everyone would turn, seemingly entranced, but now Genesis knows it was just residual Veela peeking out, so she figures those incidents don't count.

The trolley witch comes through a couple of hours after boarding and Genesis buys a few pastries to sate her hunger, smiling as she remembers that money isn't an issue anymore. After eating, the conversation turns back to Sorting.

"My gran didn't tell me. She said that I should wait and see," Neville says, shrugging. "None of the professors would tell me, either."

"Professors?" Hermione asks with raised eyebrows. "You know them? Professor Sprout gave me my letter and didn't mention sorting."

"Neither did Professor Quirrell. None of them, I'm guessing, told you to get used to writing with a quill? I didn't realize how hard it was until I tried writing with one." Genesis doesn't roll her eyes, but it's close, as she recalls the hours she spent practising her writing until it looked as neat as with a normal pen.

"Are quills that hard to use?"

"Unfortunately. They really ought to tell us these things."

"That's incredibly stup—" Hermione's cut off by the compartment door sliding open. The three occupants snap their heads up.

In the doorway is a platinum-haired boy with a rather pointy face. Genesis observes that he should be in first-year as well. His eyes sweep past Hermione, pause for a millisecond on Neville, and land on Genesis.

"Are you related to Lloyd Potter?" he asks. Hermione and Neville turn to look at Genesis with shocked faces, obviously having heard of Lloyd.

Genesis conceals her panic. She didn't expect people to be actively looking for her. She certainly did not account for the surprising knot of emotions emerging in this confrontation—mostly resentment, bitter and ashen, at her twin's name. Genesis tries not to dwell on it; instead, she tilts her head as if contemplating the well-dressed boy's existence.

"It seems as if you've caught the wrong person. My name is Lily P—Smythin," she says.

The pale boy's eyes narrow infinitesimally before widening in recognition. "Genesis Lily Potter," he nearly whispers. Neville seems to have the same lightbulb moment.

"Lloyd's twin sister!" Neville says. Hermione seems to be about to speak before Genesis does.

"Actually, Lily Smythin. I'm sorry, but I have no knowledge of any Potters," she says, sitting a little straighter, her green eyes cold and piercing. The pale boy tilts his head as if evaluating her before he smirks. Lily knows he doesn't believe her, but that's fine so long as he doesn't go around telling anyone.

"Draco Malfoy," he introduces, offering his hand. Lily recognizes this as an offer of alliance, and she regards the pale fingers for a second before she takes it. Thankfully, all the rings are on her left hand, and concealed under a glove.

"Pleasure."

Releasing Lily's hand, Malfoy inclines his head before leaving.

"The books never mentioned that Lloyd Potter had a twin. I had no idea," Hermione says with a frown, obviously upset. Neville stays quiet.

"I had no idea, either," Lily says, and shrugs, concealing the bitterness. Hermione blinks in confusion.

"Did she die?" Hermione asks. Lily shrugs yet again and Neville jumps in.

"I don't know. I remember meeting the Potter twins at a very young age. They're well known among Pureblood families. Her disappearance was odd."

"No idea," she says. Neville changes the topic, obviously sensing the tension in the compartment.

When they dismount, there's a loud shout.

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here!" Lily figures it's Hagrid shouting. As they gather, they begin following Hagrid. Lily glances around, trying to glimpse her brother—what is her twin like?

She takes a moment to appreciate the sheer size of Hogwarts and the magnificence of the architecture, surrounded by stunning scenery; a pitch black glass-like lake and mountains behind the turreted castle are illuminated by torches.

For the journey, Lily joins a boat with Hermione, Neville, and another boy. The boats move on their own, which Genesis is fascinated with. There obviously isn't technology here, so it must be magic, most likely a route fixed into the boat by a web of charms. The castle towers above them as they approach, and they sink into a cave beneath the castle. After departing from the boat, they're herded into a hallway and greeted by the Deputy Headmistress, McGonagall, and then let into the Great Hall.

The Great Hall obviously stuns some people; it stuns Lily, too, but she refuses to show too much of it. First impressions matter, after all.

The long four tables headed by a table reserved for faculty are rather bare, although impressive, but the enchanted ceiling and floating candles add another layer of beauty. The gold plates on the four tables help as well. Behind her, Lily hears Hermione whispering about the enchanted ceiling to someone else and she smiles briefly.

After watching a ratty hat being placed on a stool, Lily lets her attention drift. She knows that the hat is how they'll be sorted, and she figures that's all that matters. The names are called, the students walk up, and then the hat shouts out a House name, and the student joins the House at the House table. Hermione and Neville are put in Gryffindor. Malfoy is in Slytherin, which Lily isn't surprised about since his entire family is Slytherin through and through. Then, the Patil twins are placed in separate houses and her interest is piqued; apparently, twins can be in different houses. She wonders if that matters—does she want the same house as her brother?

"Potter, Lloyd!" The Hall is cheering, mixed with some whispers, and Lily gets her first glimpse of Lloyd. The twinness is not extremely striking, though it's there. Lloyd has reddish hair, messy and covering his scar, wire glasses which Lily would never consider wearing as a general rule, blue-green eyes, and he is significantly taller. Despite this, they have the same facial and bone structure; nurture can't change that.

Lloyd is smiling brightly, exuding confidence and pure satisfaction. Lily realizes that Lloyd's happier than Lily has ever been in her life, and she doesn't know whether to be grateful for that or not. She doesn't know her twin.

"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat shouts, and the Gryffindor table erupts in cheers as Lloyd grins and strides over. Lily cringes internally, knowing her name will be called soon after. At the same time, McGonagall's face turns slightly confused as she notices no "Potter, Genesis" before Lloyd. No doubt she comes to the conclusion that Genesis opted out of Hogwarts.

A couple more people go past to get sorted, and then her name is called.

"Smythin, Lily!"

She walks up to the Hat, placing it on her head as she elegantly slides onto the stool. A voice makes itself known.

"Another Potter, I see!"

"I'm not just a Potter," Lily replies. The hat seems to chuckle slightly before continuing to speak.

"Of course." The voice is patronising and Lily holds back a snort. "So different from your twin, extremely different. Good mind, oh, and that's quite the memory. Nothing forgotten since you were dropped off at the orphanage. Quite a bit of talent from the Occlumency wall up in your head right now, if you could take that down—thank you. Ah, the purposeful revenge on the other orphans. Good control of your magic, I see—oh, there's a thirst to prove yourself, for sure. How very interesting." The hat hums. "Now, where should I place you?" A pause. "Though you could bear Hufflepuff, trust is not your thing. You could get along beautifully with others, but seeing them as equal could be an issue no matter where I place you. Slytherins will care the least, but Hufflepuff will be offended."

Lily internally scoffs; obviously, Hufflepuff's 'not her thing'. The last time she trusted someone at the orphanage, they almost killed her. Accidentally, but the point stands.

"Now, the other three? A toss up. You could be in Ravenclaw with your brains and desire for more… oh, but your ambition. That pure unrestrained ambition and resourcefulness is as clear a mark for Slytherin as is your thirst for knowledge for Ravenclaw. And your bravery, the pure stamina needed to survive in your situation, the morals you still have despite it, that could easily land you in Gryffindor if you didn't have the marks of the other Houses."

The hat falls silent, waiting for Lily's thoughts.

Lily scoffs internally again. Does it matter? She just wants to be here to press the redo button— which is more difficult now, but still, she's determined to prove herself to be more than they thought. Much more than anyone bargained for. They'd be learning her name in history books centuries after her death.

"Oh, you remind me of another student from decades ago. He had much the same mindset… yes, I know where to put you know," the hat says. It pauses, seemingly for dramatic effect, then exclaims, "SLYTHERIN!"

Lily winces slightly at the loud shout. The whispers seem to multiply—her Sorting had been long, and they'd noticed undoubtable similarities between her and the Boy Who Lived, and she's a snake to top it all off.

When she joins the Slytherins, there isn't much talk from them to her other than cool greetings, so she merely keeps quiet and listens, trying to pick up on House dynamics and character. She doubts they'll pick on her like the other orphans, but she simply doesn't know.

After the Sorting, the Headmaster speaks a few words including "nitwit". Lily frowns slightly at him but otherwise reveals nothing, and when the food appears she focuses solely on eating well and listening to the conversations around her. When dessert appears, Lily prefers to not touch it and looks up to see Professor Quirrell talking to another professor in black with a sallow, gaunt face. Her collarbone, where the scar is, throbs slightly, much like when she talked to Professor Qurirel the first day she learned of the magical world. That's interesting and something she thinks she should research, so she makes a mental note.

The food disappears and Dumbledore rises, probably to make a real speech. He mentions a couple of rules, a reminder that the Forbidden Forest is, as its name suggests, forbidden, and that Quidditch tryouts were being held soon and to check house bulletins for specific dates. Then, the surprising bit comes.

"And finally, the third floor corridor on the right hand side is out of bounds to anyone who does not wish to die a most painful death," he says, eyes piercing the crowd and landing on Lloyd as if directed specifically for him. Lily raises an eyebrow in surprise before the thoughts start running. More specifically, she begins wondering whether anyone will listen . The orphans would only be more set on entering, Lily knows.

After a few more minutes, they're dismissed and Lily decides to pay attention now so that she doesn't find herself wandering a random corridor or having difficulty entering the Slytherin dorms.

She's grateful that she does. The common room for Slytherin is incredibly difficult to find and enter—to even see the door, you need to tap a certain section of wall right in the centre. Then, it pulls behind and reveals a corridor leading to a portrait of Merlin, who needs to be convinced to let you in, and it's followed by another corridor leading to a seemingly innocuous door. To get past that, you need to knock the knocker, and on top of the door the silver snakehead asks for the password—currently, 'enchanted'—and if the password is wrong, traps are released.

After Merlin, Lily releases an exasperated sigh. Who would want to infiltrate Slytherin dorms, anyway? But when she sees the common room, she decides that even if the security is overkill, it is very much worth it.

The common room has floor-length windows which peer into the depths of the Great Lake, surprisingly peaceful. Lily's actually fairly certain she just saw a mermaid swim past the window and wave before disappearing. The decor is mostly silver, velvet forest green, and dark wood, all illuminated under greenish light filtering through the windows—half of them are concealed by closed dark green velvet drapes—and emanating from the charmed ceiling. The large fireplace has flames leaping about, casting long shadows, and on the other walls without windows are a couple of portraits and mirrors and, of course, the House bulletin board. The chairs and sofas are all low, despite the vaulted ceilings, and the floor is carpeted—it's soft.

Before Lily can get too caught up in the common room, the female prefect talks about the common room, curfew, and password changes before introducing the Head of Slytherin, Professor Snape. Lily recognizes him as the one talking to Professor Quirrell. To be honest, he looks completely bored and unimpressed with the first-years, though he gives Malfoy a slight smile.

"There are several things you need to know now that you are in Slytherin. The other three houses will always be against you. Be prepared for this and for the love of god, stick together. Present a united front. I, frankly, do not care about your love of each other or individual quarrels; you abandon all of them when you leave the Slytherin area and you will always have each others' backs. This includes telling others off when they do stupid things, but do so subtly. Other students from other Houses may prank you; I also do not care if you wish to exact your revenge. But do not get caught. If you do, I will play nice publicly, but you will get your due punishment later." With those words, he leaves, but not before levelling a glare at the two boys tussling behind Lily.

Then the female prefect directs the girls to their dorms. Lily moves out of the way right as one of the boys falls where she was just standing. According to the prefect, they have individual rooms with locks, unless otherwise requested. The Headmaster, Head of Slytherin, and Deputy Headmistress, however, can always open it. At this, Lily beams; she likes her privacy and locked doors, especially after the orphanage upbringing. (Never again; she's already made and finalized plans to live on her own at Potter Manor.)

Her room has much the same colour scheme as the common room, which Lily doesn't mind, though she does put in a couple of spells which brighten the torchlight to match those of regular muggle lights, and she charms her ceiling to match the night sky—she's always wanted that. The grey walls stay; she likes them, anyway, and then she puts a couple of succulents on the windowsill. Hopefully, natural sunlight will be able to filter through the lake and reach the plants, but if not, she can try to artificially imitate sunlight.

With that, she finishes the touch-ups to the room and bathroom, and rather satisfied with herself, she heads to bed.

She's asleep almost immediately—the bed is incredibly soft, softer than anything she's ever slept on in her life.

Settling In

The Slytherin common room, Lily realizes, always has a greenish tint. The watery sunlight is greenish, the water is greenish—it's calming, though, especially in the morning. The water and sunlight create rippling lights, ever-changing, but ones which provide more than sufficient light. Besides, the inside of the lake is beautiful, and Lily doesn't think she'll ever tire of seeing mermaids, fish, and the occasional Giant Squid swim past the windows, drapes pulled away.

When Lily walks into the Great Hall slightly late and makes a beeline towards the Slytherin table, she catches sight of her twin glaring at her. Lily raises an eyebrow, not expecting that level of hate in him already, though she's trying to reserve judgment. His attitude, she reflects, is making it rather difficult.

As she sits down, there's only one person acknowledging her existence. Oh, that'll change fast , she thinks before the rest of her mind throttles the rogue thought. Lily returns his nod before she reaches for a muffin at the centre of the table. Unable to reach it, she frowns, before pushing herself slightly up and trying for the muffin again. The boy who acknowledged her smirks and hands her the muffin, placing it on the plate.

Lily stares at it for half a second before her instincts kick in.

"Thanks." She's aware of his watching gaze, but for the most part she ignores it as she listens to the other conversations. By this time, Lily is well aware that the cause of her semi-ostracization is her last name—her unknown, Muggle-like last name. She supposes it's good, as Lily's already reached the conclusion that she isn't safe; she has a murderous Dark Lord madman who wants Lloyd, and to the same extent probably herself, dead; Albus Dumbledore is an old manipulative turd who probably will kill Lily himself if she doesn't pander to him, and with Lily's newfound power he'll try to snatch it again ; Lloyd and the Slytherins (excepting Draco Malfoy, but that's tenuous) already more or less want her dead, or at least don't like her because of her heritage. She finishes her small amount of food relatively quickly, knowing that she should ease herself into eating her recommended amount. She's acutely aware of the gaze of a couple older years— malicious glares, and she knows she'll be forced to reveal her own hand soon. All because of bullies , the never can leave her alone, can they?

She brushes it off and joins the pool of current first-year talk. People don't give her a second glance unless she gives them reason to, and she knows how to maneuver these waters— underhanded comments, subtly veiled threats, and a couple of stare-offs for establishing power, mainly. Lily doesn't know what gets the acceptance of her peers—perhaps her natural adeptness as she matches wits with them, maybe simply her posture, but by the end of breakfast there's more respect for her, a distant sort. No one dares to draw too close to her, which is unnerving but has its advantages.

An owl, ebony black, swoops into the Great Hall and deposits a copy of the Daily Prophet in front of Lily's plate.

"Oh… thanks, do you do the credit system?" Lily looks at the owl doubtfully. It seems to hoot an affirmative, so Lily shoots a beam of silver magic to the owl's left foot, held out in an obvious gesture to hurry up for goodness' sake.

"You have the Wizarding Credit system?" The question is incredulous. Lily hums.

"Yeah. There was a Gringotts break-in, they don't know the intruder. The vault was emptied earlier the same day," Lily reports. She glances at Parkinson, someone Lily has marked as a wealth of knowledge and also as someone who does not necessarily know when to keep things secret.

Parkinson does not disappoint. "My father told me it was vault 713 emptied, but it's supposedly confidential. Keep it on the down low," she says.

Lily's right eyebrow shoots up. Hadn't she seen Hagrid empty that vault, with that small grubby brown package that intrigued her so much? She'd asked why and Hagrid—what had he said? Something along the lines of nowhere safer than Gringotts but Hogwarts .

It's a bit of a jump to conclusions, perhaps even a leap of faith, but immediately Lily thinks of the banned third-floor corridor.

No , she tells herself sternly. You are not going to investigate this because the mysterious package is mysterious and there is evidently a very powerful person who can somehow break into Gringotts undetected who wants this package and you do not want to be on the wrong side of this person.

"This is the first Gringotts break-in in forever ," Daphne Greengrass says. "Whoever broke in and avoided all the protections and goblins has to be at least at the power of Dumbledore."

A very powerful person, Lily, don't you dare go searching , Lily tells herself. Dark Lord powerful. And then she thinks those words again. The Dark Lord. Lily decides to keep as far from the third-floor corridor as possible.

Not five minutes later, Professor Snape comes around passing out schedules. Upon receiving hers, Lily gives an absentminded "Thank you" before combing through her schedule, unobserving of his curious gaze. She has Herbology first in Greenhouse 1 with Gryffindor and she smiles slightly, knowing that she'll be in Hermione's class. Hopefully, Hermione's intellectual genius will cover for her.

Lily immediately swings her legs to the other side of the bench and stands up, knowing that her chances of not finding the greenhouses are extremely high and she ought to get a headstart.

She goes outside first, figuring that that's a good place to start, and then frowns slightly. The grounds are too big to just leave first-years floundering, yet still expect them to be on-time for classes. Maybe a ghost will be helpful. With that in mind, she turns back in and heads in the general direction of the first misty body she can find.

"Excuse me?" she asks. The ghost, a lady in flowing robes, immediately startles upon noticing Lily. Half a second later, her countenance is carefully schooled.

"Oh. Yes, dear?"

"I was wondering if you knew where Greenhouse 1 is?"

"Of course. Right outside, make a turn to your left and keep walking until you see the greenhouses. The numbers are labelled."

"Thank you." She leaves, striding quickly, and makes it a couple of minutes early. The greenhouse is rather large and humid, which Lily doesn't mind; in fact, she rather likes the pressing warmth. She's almost immediately fascinated by the plants; she's never seen most of them before, and since she has a couple of minutes, she makes a quick round to observe all the plants. She's aware of someone watching her before she turns around and comes face to face with the boy who gave her the muffin.

"I suppose I should introduce myself," the boy says. "I'm Theodore Nott."

"Lily Smythin," she says, shaking his hand.

"I know," he says, and lets out a small laugh. The introductions don't make anything less awkward until Lily takes pity and starts the conversation. By the end, she decides that Theodore Nott is a rather interesting person with a hatred of his father which probably rivals the Wizarding World's hatred of the Dark Lord.

All the Slytherins, when Lily returns, are whispering among themselves and rolling their eyes. This, Lily has realized, is very regular behaviour. She watches for a little while before deciding to increase inter-House bonding by sitting beside Hermione and Neville.

They tense. Obviously, they've bought into Slytherin prejudice.

"Hey, Lily." Hermione smiles, although it doesn't reach her eyes. Neville acts the exact same.

Lily conceals a sigh and then brings out the one thing which Hermione will always fall for— excited rambling about knowledge, accompanied with a large smile just for Veela points. "Have you seen these plants? They're amazing!" Lily exclaims, even bouncing a little.

The effect is instantaneous. Both of them relax.

"I know! A lot of these are really useful in potions and some of them have healing properties on their own. Some of these are also dangerous, but they're all really pretty," Hermione says, full of knowledge as always.

Lily slaps away a vine creeping towards Neville's neck. "How are you finding the castle?" she asks.

"Hogwarts in general is fascinating. I haven't actually been much anywhere but Hogwarts: A History shared a lot about the school," Hermione says. "It was hard to find the greenhouses, though, it was a lot of wandering."

"Oh. I asked a ghost. She was pretty tall and had a long flowy dress on."

"Helena Ravenclaw talked to you?!" Neville asks.

"Who?" Lily coughs in surprise.

"Helena Ravenclaw, daughter of Rowena. She was killed by the Bloody Baron in a forest in Albania. She never said why she was there, but she said that the Baron killed her because she wouldn't go home to face her mother and because the Baron had anger issues," Hermione says. "Her story is in Hogwarts: A History ."

So maybe Lily skipped that part. But she doesn't really need to know each ghost's backstory, sue her. "Oh. Does she not talk to students?"

"No," Neville says. "That's what my gran told me."

"Oh. Well, she was pretty friendly. Maybe you have to approach her. Why was she upset with her mother?"

"No one knows," Hermione says, and shrugs. "Her mother, Rowena Ravenclaw, apparently had an artifact, the diadem. It's supposed to grant intelligence to the wearer, apparently, but no one knows where it is."

"Doesn't each of the founders have an artifact? Gryffindor's sword, Ravenclaw's diadem," Lily begins.

Neville finishes it off. "Hufflepuff's cup and Slytherin's locket. Hufflepuff's cup used to be with the Abbotts, I think, but then it disappeared. It was a huge family scandal for a little bit because everyone was waiting for—what's her name? I always forget, but gran says she hoarded lots of magical artefacts. Anyway, they were waiting for her to die so they could get the cup, and then it was gone."

It's then that Lily decides that she needs to keep Neville as a friend. It's also then that Professor Sprout arrives, calling the first-years to order.

Hermione earns an inordinate amount of points for Gryffindor. As she does that, Lily identifies Professor Sprout as someone who's likely to make favourites, and make favourites known. Of course, Lily still makes an admirable effort towards the subject, earning herself a place in Professor Sprout's list of approved people. It might be useful someday when I'm taking over the world , Lily thinks jokingly. Professor Sprout ends up assigning them a footlong essay on Moly, which Lily learned about at age five when she was fascinated with Greek mythology. Then she'd wished for it and somehow, it appeared in her small hand, but that doesn't matter right now.

What matters is the way nearly everyone is already complaining about writing a foot. That's less than a page worth of typed writing. Most of the other muggleborns seem to have come to the same conclusion; Hermione's already lamenting about how she won't be able to fit everything on one page and has already raised a hand to ask if there's a maximum length.

"No, Ms Granger. There's no official maximum length, but please do be reasonable. Keep in mind that I will not read ten full feet on the properties of Moly."

Lily sighs. Why adults always think that children will do stupid things like writing a full ten pages on a stupid, though useful, plant, confuses her. Then Lily catches sight of Hermione's crestfallen expression and concedes that maybe children are inclined to do those stupid things.

"I can't, for the life of me, figure out where Genesis Potter is!" Professor Dumbledore exclaims, throwing up his hands.

"Headmaster, you're her magical guardian. I'm sure you'll figure out a way." McGonagall rolls her eyes. "What if, for starters, you contact the goblins at Gringotts?"

"Excellent idea, Minnie. No idea what I'd do without you."

"Die, probably."

"No information whatsoever on Genesis Lily Potter?"

"No. We do not track our clients, Mr Dumbledore. In addition, she has not visited her vaults nor has she set foot in Gringotts. We have no record of her."

Dumbledore leaves Gringotts seething and worried. If Lloyd dies, he no longer has a backup saviour, unless… unless he can rediscover Genesis Lily Potter and bring her back to Hogwarts. At the same time, he recalls one sorting which stood out—Lily Smythin. But she wouldn't—couldn't—have changed her last name; she's not a legal adult, yet. Dumbledore dismisses the idea; Genesis Lily Potter most likely opted out of Hogwarts, and now he has to go on a worldwide search to find her. He lets out a hefty sigh. Maybe he doesn't need a backup saviour.

Defence with Quirrell perks Lily's interest, if only because of the strange teacher who caused her collarbone scar to ache.

She's sorely disappointed by the class but intrigued by the teacher. He's a stuttering mess, suddenly reminding Lily of what seemed off when she first met him. She'd first been met by the same stuttering mess, hadn't she? And after, that facade dropped and her scar ached. Another intriguing thing is the way Lily's scar reacts only when she looks to the back of Quirrell's turban, a conclusion she reaches through an inordinate and silly amount of testing.

She contemplates the teacher, his turban, his stutter, and her scar's reaction to Quirrell as she eats lunch. Lily doesn't have quite enough information of the Wizarding World, so she decides it's off to the library. She hurries there after lunch, politely brushing off Parkinson's wheedling to stay and try the desserts and critique them with her.

"Madam Pince, would you happen to have any books on scars?" she asks. "Magical scars, preferably, and ones which react under certain situations."

The librarian shoots her a curious glance but directs her to the correct section of the library, anyway. After a while of fruitless searching, Lily's almost certain that her scar is dark, or contains something dark, that links her to something the professor has or is. She's skimmed through almost every book on scars in the library—admittedly not very many—and there's only one interesting statement which fit too closely with her circumstances for her to dismiss.

"There is an ancient story of Merlin and a famous left hand scar which had properties akin to that of a human Horcrux. This fantastical tale states that Merlin often felt the scar ache when in King Arthur's proximity and through the scar, could feel King Arthur's moods. Why, they might as well have stated that Merlin had a piece of Arthur's soul residing in him and left it at that, and even that would be so inherently unbelievable so as to render it nothing but a myth. Horcruxes are rare and human Horcruxes even more so. We will not dwell on this fictional scar for longer than necessary."

She makes a mental note to research Horcruxes. She has a lot of mental notes nowadays.

Lily's next class is also with the Gryffindors, and she hopes with all her might that she doesn't accidentally kill anyone if they choose to pick on her. She's obviously the weak link in Slytherin anyway, and with House prejudice, it's a wonder she hasn't been picked on yet.

She turns the corner into the dungeons.

"Ah, Lily Smythin . Did you know, my little sister had the first name. But I'm sure she would've been in Gryffindor, not whatever your snakey house is called," Lloyd Potter says with a smirk. Lily holds back a sigh. Potter's insults are some of the worst she's ever heard, and besides that, she is his twin sister which somehow makes everything funny in a very tragic way. She's not sure whether she should laugh or be sad.

Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Draco Malfoy starting to move closer with a sneer. She'd forgotten that he knew she wasn't just some regular first-year with unknown heritage.

"Malfoy, don't," Lily hisses, too quiet for the others to hear. He hesitates before acquiescing with a small nod.

"What, are you not even going to answer? I know your house values blood purity, so, Mudblood—" Potter begins.

Lily turns and glares, her green eyes glowing. "Your uncle and aunt must've spoiled you so much for you to stoop this low. Your mother was muggleborn and both parents died fighting against Lord Voldemort; I doubt they'd enjoy hearing that slur come from your lips. In fact, I'm sure your dear younger sister, who was dropped off at an orphanage by the way, wouldn't be too impressed with you."

And Lily is not impressed with him.

"My twin was not dropped off at an orphanage! The Headmaster told me she was with a Wizarding family!"

Lily keeps the frown off her face, but it's through a lot of control. How Albus Dumbledore keeps finding ways to dig Lily's distrust of him deeper, she cannot tell. So many lies , already.

At the same time, the redhead—Ronald Weasley—charges Lily with his wand drawn.

"Take back what you said!' he demands, looking for all the world an enraged tomato. Lily raises an eyebrow.

"Do you know any spells? Come to think of it, do you even have all your books?" It's only a subtle jibe to how poor the Weasleys are, but she catches a glimpse of several Slytherin faces full of glee nonetheless. Weasley's red face turns a glowing shade of crimson.

"What are you insinuating, huh, Smythin?" Potter asks with his wand raised, taking a couple of steps closer. Lily's right hand flexes imperceptibly as she switches onto high alert to slide her wand from her wrist holster if need be. Otherwise, she keeps her stance relaxed. She smirks.

"Insinuating? I'm not insinuating anything," Lily says, and laughs. "The truth doesn't need to be insinuated, does it?"

His wand is waving in front of Lily's face. "You—you!"

"Me! The girl you just called a Mudblood," she says, nodding agreeably.

He jabs his wand more firmly. There are little sparks coming off the end, but those are more or less harmless.

Right then, Professor Snape exits the dungeon room to see Potter already brandishing his wand at the smaller Slytherin girl.

The smaller Slytherin girl called Lily, who looks like Lily Evans reincarnate with black hair instead of red hair. Briefly, he wonders what possessed Genesis Lily Potter to be so damn obvious.

When she notices him, she immediately assumes a smaller position and beckons tears to her eyes. Professor Snape catalogues the immediate change in posture and the new suspicious wetness in her eyes with a mental snigger. Lily Smythin might be the most Slytherin Slytherin he's ever met besides Horace Slughorn and Lord Voldemort.

"Wands out already, Potter? Thirty points from Gryffindor for assaulting a classmate," Professor Snape commands. There's an outcry of protest from the Gryffindors, countered by the Slytherins.

"He called her a mudblood, Professor!" is the general outcry from the House.

Professor Snape immediately stills and turns to face Lloyd, who suddenly looks very pale. "Mr Potter, is this true?"

The Gryffindors are much too upright to lie and cover for him, especially since a good portion of them are muggleborn.

"Fifty points. Detention," Professor Snape grits out. "Inside."

"I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses. I can tell you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death—if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

Lily smirks at this statement; potions is the only subject she didn't get to practise at the orphanage, and she's eager to try her hand. And perhaps his words are simply words, but they're tantalizing prospects nonetheless—Lily thinks she'd give a lot to learn how to "brew glory" and "put a stopper to death".

His promises, at least, are much more impressive than Professor Sprout's, who said something about protecting yourself from dangerous plants and identifying useful ones.

When she tunes back in, the professor is questioning Potter.

"Potter!" he says suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" Lily watches as Potter exchanges a confused look with Weasley before answering. Granger's hand is already shot up in the air; Lily exchanges an exasperated glance with Pansy Parkinson.

Professor Snape has called a surname for a reason . Lily is suddenly reminded of all her teachers at public school, who asked, "Is your name so-and-so?" when someone tried to answer in place of another student.

"I don't know, sir."

Meanwhile, Hermione's hand is straining upwards. Lily contemplates pulling Hermione's hand down, despite Hermione being all the way across the classroom, but she decides she might as well not. If she wants to dig her own grave in Professor Snape's classes, Lily won't stop her. And if Hermione really wants her reputation to be the one of the know-it-all, far be it from Lily to prevent her.

In fact, Lily used to spend all her time in the library, and she still avoided the title of Miss Know-It-All.

"You don't know? Tut, tut—fame clearly isn't everything. Well, let's try again. Where, Mr Potter, would you look if I asked you to get me a bezoar?" Professor Snape is clearly ignoring one Hermione Granger's hand, but let it be known that Hermione Granger is not one to comply with the cold shoulder, as her hand only begins waving more wildly than before.

"I don't know, sir." Lily takes note of the agitation beginning to show itself in his dull eyes. She decides on one more question until he cracks. She also gives Granger one more question before she stands up and waves her hand around like an idiot.

Honestly, Lily wonders if Hermione realizes , or even thinks , about how her actions come across.

Meanwhile, Potter is very obviously looking anywhere but Professor Snape and Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle. Malfoy is doing a remarkable job of not breaking out in laughter, whereas Crabbe and Goyle are shaking with the force of their suppressed chuckles.

"Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh, Potter? What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

"I don't know," Potter says. "I think you're supposed to teach us though, so we do know these things and besides, Hermione obviously knows."

Sure enough, Hermione is now standing and waving her hand wildly. Lily smirks, knowing Potter is going to lose points again.

"Ten points from Gryffindor, Potter. And Miss Granger… sit back down . I will not tolerate this behaviour in my classroom. Let's try again, then… Miss Smythin, I believe your recent introduction with the Wizarding World may excuse any incident in matching Mr Potter's ignorance."

Lily stands. "Asphodel and wormwood create the Draught of Living Death, which puts the drinker into a near-death state of constant sleep." She pauses. "Symbolically, it would refer to bitter regret for a death." She inclines her head, barely, but she's certain Professor Snape notices. "A bezoar is found in the stomach of a goat. Etymologically, it means 'protection from poison', and as the meaning suggests, it can counteract nearly all poisons. There is no difference between monkshood and wolfsbane, and it goes by aconite. It prevents werewolves from turning during a full moon."

"And would you happen to know the name of such a potion?"

Lily shakes her head. "It wasn't mentioned in anything I read."

"It would not be unless you specifically looked for the recipe. It's called the Wolfsbane Potion, for obvious reasons."

"My god, she sounds like she swallowed a book," Weasley mutters. Lily overhears and considers that if a barely-put-together answer sounds like a book, she should start writing nonfiction.

Lily isn't actually certain why she's here, other than political alliances. Lucius Malfoy, apparently is a very big political, aristocratic figure, and obviously Lily can't talk to him while she's at Hogwarts, so talking to Draco Malfoy it is.

They've made their way through discussing all of today's classes except Potions, so Lily steers the conversation to Potions.

"So what did you think of our Potions class?" she asks.

"Brilliant. You really put Potter in his place." He smirks. "The tears were impressive."

"Thanks, I've practised," Lily says and laughs. "So does our Head of House generally loathe lions?"

Malfoy rolls his eyes. "Yes. Every time he visits Malfoy Manor he brings stories of those 'ruddy awful lions'. He also eats all the dark chocolate and steals our expensive potions ingredients." He laughs. Lily can't help but think he's opening up rather quickly to her—either he's trying to get on her good side, or it's the spectacle where she got her twin to lose eighty points in one go.

"He's your godfather, isn't he?"

Malfoy nods. "If you want to get him gifts, do dark chocolate. It's what we always do. Father says he takes our potions ingredients enough as it is, and that's our excuse. Honestly, I think he's just scared that he'll brew some nefarious potion that makes Father die of embarrassment or something."

"That does sound like something I'd do. Remind me to try it on your father at least once." Malfoy lets out a small yelp upon hearing the voice.

"Uncle! Don't sneak up on me like that—"

"Perhaps you should practise situational awareness more often," Professor Snape says. "Miss Smythin, if I could talk to you?"

Surprised, Lily nods and stands. They go to his office and the lock clicks shut.

"This room is soundproof," he says. "Now, Miss Smythin, I must admit I'm curious." Lily takes one look at his face and knows he's figured it out.

"Do you swear none of this reaches the Headmaster?" Lily says. She doesn't want any part of his plans. Professor Snape evidently looks torn, but finally he nods.

"Very well. Continue."

"I believe you've guessed my given name, Genesis Lily Potter. I entered Gringotts and accepted some Ladyships, removed Albus Dumbledore as my magical guardian, and changed my name. I wiped myself off the records of the orphanage. He won't find even a mention of me there."

"An orphanage ? He said he left you with—"

"A Wizarding family," Lily says. "Yes, hence the removal of him as my guardian. Technically, I'm considered a legal adult, but. Well, while I was at Gringotts, getting my magical history tree done, I found that my parents appointed you as godfather."

Professor Snape's eyes go wide. "James Fleamont Potter appointed me ?" he says. "Certainly, I'll take the role, once I get over that bit."

Lily beams and relaxes. "Thank you." The role of godfather or godmother is nearly an oath of sorts, a promise of protection and guidance and confidentiality. Lily knows she can use all three right now, alone in a world she does not know as well as she'd like to.

"It was believed that Lloyd is the older twin. Is that wrong?"

"I accessed Slytherin and Gaunt through conquest, and the rest through a life debt Lloyd Potter owed me. I'm sure you can figure it out, Professor," Lily answers with a smirk. There's a pause, and then—

"Did the old man misidentify the Saviour of the Wizarding World?"

Lily nods. "I have a scar on my collarbone, a lightning bolt, so I'm guessing that the Dark Lord was aiming for my brother, and for some reason the one-year-old me thought it was important to save his life."

"So you are Lady of Slytherin, Gaunt, and Potter?"

"And Gryffindor. Scion to Black, Carrow, Lestrange, and Selwyn. The goblins told me there's an option for me to become Lady Peverell through some test."

Professor Snape grimaces. "Hold onto the test for now. I have no doubt it will be difficult, meant to weed out anyone but the best. They will become Master of Death if they pass the test, after all."

Lily's eyes go wide. "Is that story true ? I thought it was just a story. But the goblins did tell me that Albus Dumbledore withdrew an Invisibility Cloak from my vaults."

Professor Snape nods. "I think I will talk to Lucius Malfoy and get him in contact with you. He can provide better guidance in the pureblood politics realm than I can. No matter how prepared you think you are, pureblood society throws curveballs every two seconds."

Fair Folk Magic

Chapter Summary

Draco and Lily fight off some bullies (more like Draco jumps in once its safe but y'know, Slytherin characterisation is important too, even when it doesn't seem very kind or anything), Lily reveals herself as some sort of descendant of Slytherin, Draco and Lily have a talk which kind of explains more of the whole Muggle-born, half-blood, and pure-blood thing, there's some talk of genetics but it's been *three* whole months since I thought about the concept of genetics and stuff so there's *probably* some mistakes in the scientific terms used. Google helped me a lot when I was trying to figure out what the heck "epistasis" and "polygenic inheritance" was.

Also, the whole idea of the Fair Folk and their characterization was taken over from House Proud by Astolat (I think)-- I love that story and you guys should definitely check it out.

Chapter Notes

Disclaimers and the whole shenanigans again... and feedback is always appreciated! And thanks for everyone's interest and comments!

Lily settles in quite well, though she doesn't figure out how to approach the subject of Horcruxes for a couple of weeks. In those weeks, she keeps up regular correspondence with the goblins, reading studies they've conducted, and wins Madam Pince over with boxes of dark chocolate. Slytherin has more or less accepted her presence now and Lloyd Potter has yet to bother her again.

When Lily finally finishes planning out her request, she makes her way to the library. She spends a couple of moments in small talk with the librarian.

"What were you looking for?" Madam Pince finally asks.

"Oh. Well, when I was looking up scars, I came across the legend of Merlin's scar. The author compared it to a Horcrux, but I don't know what those are. Would you have any books on them?"

She gets a curious glance from Madam Pince before the librarian replies. "Unfortunately, Dumbledore removed all books on Horcruxes from the Hogwarts library at the rise of Lord Voldemort, so you'll have to look elsewhere."

"Oh. Are they Dark, then?"

"Extremely. Now, I suggest you go find another place. Perhaps your Slytherin friends' libraries would be helpful," Madam Pince suggests. Lily has the feeling she's speaking genuinely, and she makes a note to continue giving the librarian dark chocolate.

"Thank you!"

Lily smacks herself, figuratively because she's in public, on the head. Why she didn't think of this earlier, she has no idea. But she owns the vaults of four Noble and/or Ancient houses, and surely there must be some books on Horcruxes in at least one of them. So she sits down in the back corner of the library to write her letter.

Dear Griphook,

A rather pressing matter has occurred which has required my extensive knowledge on a particular Dark subject: Horcruxes. Books on these magical artefacts are nowhere to be found in Hogwarts' rather extensive library, not even in the Restricted section, so I must conclude that someone, most likely the Headmaster, has removed them from the library. However I still must find as much as I can on this subject matter, so please conduct a search of all my vaults to see whether there are any books pertaining to this.

I feel as if it would be insulting to say that this operation must be kept under wraps but still I must say it out of obligation.

May your gold overflow.

From,

Lily Genesis Smythin

Lily takes the stairs two at a time to the Owlery. She's had a growth spurt recently, and she chalks it up to the fact that she's getting regular meals now.

After selecting a pale tawny owl and making quick work of tying the letter to its leg, she sends it off. Gringotts goblins are often quick with their work, so Lily leaves the owlery expecting a reply very soon.

Her walk is interrupted.

"Ooh, the ickle little Mudblood's here! I think we should teach her a lesson about what happens to Mudbloods, yes?"

Lily reflects that she probably should've expected this, considering the indicators had been very up in her face—her rising popularity but steadily maintained distance, the way Dumbledore shoots worried glances at her when he thinks she isn't paying attention (the man had tried to infiltrate her mind once, only to get lost in the vast expanse of black ocean that made up her first line of defence. She kicked him out and easily got into the Hogwarts castle in his mind to see the sentiment that Lily is an unsettling student), the way older Slytherins grouped together to whisper in hushed tones as she walked past or ignored her or sneered. They evidently don't like her sudden prominence, especially since she doesn't seem to have any real power outside of Hogwarts.

My charming personality must've been too much for them , Lily thinks drily, and nearly makes herself laugh.

"Yes, and I think we need all the little firsties to know to not associate with this worm," the other girl snickers, a cackle which sounds a tad too close to insanity for Lily's comfort. The boy, probably a fifth or sixth year, starts to drag her towards the Common Room. Lily wonders if they aren't suspicious of anything, considering that she hasn't made a single noise or facial expression in the midst of their ambush.

Whatever. Lily's sure they'll learn next time. For now, though—a smirk curls her lips. She's read a few new curses and practised them in the Duelling Room—Dark curses, so she can keep her core grey in the face of Hogwarts' light-heavy curriculum—and she wants to try them on something other than dummies.

"Do I get to keep my wand?" She puts as much condescension into her voice as possible. When the look at her, surprised that she talked back, Lily realizes they must've shot her with a Body-bind or something. Her rings, however, block that. Well, she's dug her hole. "You know, the stick of wood that we use to channel our magic?"

They still look unnerved, like they're questioning their choice of target now. "I know what a wand is, Smythin!" one of the boys scoffs.

"And no, you don't get to keep it. I see it looks quite valuable… what, were your dirty Muggle parents loaded? Maybe we'll pay them a visit, too," the girl says.

"They're dead, good luck with that," Lily informs them. " I don't even remember them." She keeps her face neutral. She's glad for her extra practise in the mornings, pushing her Occlumency skill, because it serves her well in controlling her emotions. "But this wand was apparently made by a Lesothian hermit who gave it to Ollivander. I'm not sure you'll be able to keep it."

"Ah, I think you underestimate us," the other boy scoffs, before trying to kick her. It does not land. "See, you're, first of all, trapped, and second of all, a first-year, and third of all, a Mudblood."

They're in the Slytherin common rooms now. There's a crowd gathering, eager to see the oncoming fight.

"I would think so too, but then why would Albus Dumbledore try to put a magical block on me when I was a year old?" Lily replies. It's quiet; she doesn't need to project because everyone's already listening. Malfoy is watching with wary eyes—he's ready to either intervene himself or call his godfather over. Lily's glad for that support, but she doesn't think she'll need it.

Soon the dark-haired boy is moving away with her wand, casting some unknown curse that Lily wandlessly—and wordlessly—blocks. With her right hand, she thrusts out. Nothing happens; she's aware that the girl and brown-haired boy, Hornby, are beginning to laugh. Lily just smirks. She's not done yet. With her left hand, she beckons with her index finger and her wand jumps back into its holster in her right sleeve. Meanwhile, she throws up her right hand. Almost immediately, all three fifth-years are buoyed up on water, all desperately trying to tread the roiling waves.

Lily smiles up at them, an eleven-year-old perfect-toothed smile. "It's a natural ability, apparently," she says with a small chuckle. "But nice try. A very smart move, going up against a first-year to try and cement your positions." Her voice drips with sarcasm. The three fifth-years flinch.

Draco Malfoy, from where he's lounging on the sofa with a smirk (and a hint of pride, which Lily notices), strides over.

"Hornby, Rosier, and Yaxley," he says, pointing to each person.

Lily smiles, the edges of it curling in something predatory. "Would you like to help?" she asks.

"Whyever not?"

Lily begins to flick hexes here and there, nothing too Dark to be reported, but Dark enough to garner attention. Draco Malfoy is on her right side, doing the same.

When she's had enough, Lily meets Draco's eyes for a second before she inclines her head slightly. Then she drops the water and the three fifth-years plummet back to the ground with one thud. There's not a single trace of water left, not a single indication of what happened other than three fifth-years who are variously cut, soaking, and bruised—Yaxley might have a broken bone—and bleeding from various hexes.

"Can they get to the Hospital Wing?" Lily asks, grimacing in their direction.

From her right, Draco looks over to the other first years.

"We'll take them," Parkinson says, stepping up with Crabbe and Goyle. "You should sort things out here."

Lily nods and turns to the rest of the room. "If this gets leaked anywhere, I will find out who told and I will raise hell."

"Yeah, yeah. What could a first-year do again, especially one without any political influence?"

Lily has a poker face as she turns to face the person who spoke. "That's where you're wrong. Evidently, I'm not muggleborn, from that display of Elemental Magic." She inclines her head that the boy and smirks. "So which line is the only line with the ability to manipulate elements?"

There are a couple of disbelieving whispers until Draco sighs.

"Shall we get it over with? We all know that you know," he says, gazing at the rest of the Slytherins. "The Slytherin line is famous for not only their Parseltongue, but more famously known for their ability to perform Elemental Magic, an ability unable to be acquired unless one is part of the Ancient and Noble House of Slytherin. The girl you've all looked down on for being a Mudblood is the heiress to an ancient legacy which gives her Hogwarts as a property."

Lily smiles. It's more of a smirk. "And seeing as there are no living relatives with a claim, the castle does favour my will." She inclines her head towards Draco. In her mind, she's already made the switch to something more informal; it's awfully hard to keep calling one by their surname once they've hexed three Slytherin fifth-years with you. "Did I fail to mention that Professor Snape is my godfather?"

She leaves the room with that declaration, taking Draco with her.

"Uncle Severus is your godfather?" Draco asks, his brow furrowed. "How did you get into the Ancient and Noble House of Slytherin? And since you're the Heiress of such a prominent House, why have I never seen you at any Pureblood functions or galas?"

"Well, first, I'm a half-blood, which is probably enough to confirm every suspicion you've had."

"Genesis Lily Potter, yes. That doesn't explain your absence from Pureblood functions or galas. Or how you got Elemental magic."

"Oh. Albus Dumbledore thought I'd hate them so much that he placed me in an orphanage and attempted to place blocks on everything. So instead of Pureblood functions and galas, I learned to control my magic without a wand to threaten other orphans with conjured knives after they tried to bully me. I actually learned most of the magical world through Professor Quirrell, who's a very suspicious character to be frank, and the rest through Gringotts, where I learned I reached Gaunt and Slytherin through conquest and the rest of the Ladyships through a life-debt my brother owes me. We can debate semantics, but the fact that Dumbledore misidentified the Saviour of the Wizarding World was concerning, so I took Ladyships and removed him as my magical guardian and then changed my name to Lily Genesis Smythin in hopes that no crazy Dark or Light Lords would come after me."

"You're going to have to be at Wizengamot's winter session when it opens," Draco says. "Although I'm sorry for your loss. I would hate for Dumbledore to be my guardian."

Lily groans. "I know, don't remind me about it. I still need to learn magical customs and figure out what I believe about politics before I get thrown in there."

Draco hums. "Have you looked at Family Grimoires yet? And you'll probably need to learn some Mind Arts."

"Some of my inheritances include a natural affinity with the Mind Arts and I've done some practice. I doubt anyone can get through unless I lead them through."

"Arrogant."

"True," she counters. "Albus Dumbledore couldn't do it, he got lost and I kicked him out."

"He tried to read your mind?!"

"He thought I was odd. Or, that's what he was projecting when I breached his defences."

"You breached his defences?"

She shrugs. "I scaled a wall which guarded Hogwarts. It's ingenious, actually, since he knows the castle so well, so it makes sense that it'd be his defence. And that means he can order his secrets accordingly. I bet his darkest secrets are in the Headmaster's office. Anyway, what were you saying about Family Grimoires?"

Draco shrugs. "There's not much to them. It's just a book of spells suited to each family, but extremely confidential. Nearly no one sees it except for the Lord or Lady and family members can only read what the Lord or Lady gives them permission to. No outsiders can touch it due to blood wards and other protective curses, and they break some laws, too. There's some reason for it. Most old grimoires contain spells exclusive to the family which aren't Ministry-registered. Only we know them. Some also just contain spell combinations, potions instructions, and magical theories. The Potter Grimoire, for example, probably contains the recipe for Sleekezy's Hair Potions. If you flip back further, you'd probably see spells for pottery and ceramics, and a couple of specialized wards which the rest of the Wizarding World has no knowledge of whatsoever but would be implemented on all Potter Manors and properties."

"That's… that's brilliant, actually. I should retrieve them over winter break." Lily smiles, the smile she gave at the orphanage when she found out she could leave Tanner's Orphanage for a magical boarding school. "Oh, and I've been wondering. How did you learn how to read and write? We learn that in Muggle school, but you're purebloods."

"We're tutored, of course. We're also tutored in magical subjects and languages, especially Latin, and in mechanical workings of the government, manners, and our parents teach us the mechanical workings of the political arena. Family secrets, you know," he says. "Actually, Father told me he'd be helping you, so he'll probably be teaching those family secrets to you. To make it perfectly clear, that means he's essentially accepted you into the family."

Lily's a little taken aback by the odd feeling of warmth—is that happy gratitude?—overtaking her. She remembers her new status again. "Oh. That makes sense, kind of."

"The mention of a Lady Slytherin would be enough for him to extend a welcome," Draco says. "He's not an idiot. And Uncle Sev is your godfather, too, which is enough, even if you were muggleborn. Since, you know, you'd be trying to conform by seeking him out instead of insisting that we get rid of our culture."

Lily hums. "Professor Snape and I talked a little about that. I wanted to know where the muggleborn prejudice came from, and then suddenly we were talking genetics? Something about being descended from the Fair Folk, and that's where the customs and traditions come in, and if you have ancient Wizarding blood, the traditions come naturally. The manners and the magic, too," she says, recalling how both of them tore apart practically every area of the library—she did the magical half and he went to muggle libraries, researching genes and magic, and finally Lily had, in the past weeks, read through the studies the goblins sent her, as they had conducted an official study and came to several results.

One, muggleborns are almost always descended from Squibs, not actual Muggles. Two, there's a mutation which turns off the gene for a magical core, which happens in Squibs. In muggleborns, the gene is turned back on. Three, simply because of genetics, the families who are "pure-blooded" the longest also happen to be the most magically powerful—a result of natural selection. Four, without a magical core, the other genes for instinctively realizing tradition are turned off in a fine example of epistasis. Five, the genes for knowing tradition intrinsically is polygenic, and as a result, half-bloods can have the same instincts as a pureblood, though it's rarer.

Draco nods. The words he speaks next are without hesitation, spoken with the familiarity of a lifetime of hearing and repeating. "Yes. The balance was upset when Muggles began appearing, first as a genetic mistake. We called them Squibs. We didn't care until we realized that marrying with Squibs lost the chance for magical offspring, and the Squibs preferred to marry other Squibs anyway, so we started the separation. Now, anyone who is a sixth-generation Squib or further on is a Muggle. Their line loses the chance of magic again, and generally they hate us. Even as children, they generally feel the difference in power, and that's why we prefer magical children to be taken in as soon as possible. Your mother's sister, Petunia Evans, reconciled with your mother, but she used to hate Lily. And she's a fifth-generation Squib. Most of the Muggles who are kinder to us aren't even Muggles; they're Squibs. And so the separation occurred and the Muggles began to colonise. They cut down the woods and created rails and homes and aqueducts. Those of us with too much mountain, too much attachment to the tree and spring and earth, and much too wild to see and appreciate intricately worked metal arches and tanned leather and imposing castles of stone—they left. They went under the hills in the west for a new world, and they haven't come back."

Lily notices that Draco's face is all odd angles, but not really odd, it's an odd which feels like coming home, all elegance in way of sharpness and paleness. It's strange, certainly, but not much stranger than Hermione Granger's face, and Lily realizes the angles of Draco's face are dangerous , much like herself. Lily suddenly knows she has those features too, the same elegant sharpness, the same oddness that's not really that odd, the one that feels more like home than the soft curves of Hermione Granger's face, a face which gives off no danger. Home is in the steep angle, the sharp point, and it seems all of Slytherin has it, full of children who have accepted that danger in them, embraced all of it with the sharp elegance and odd angles.

"And the end result is here, with us—and I know you're one of us, Lily Smythin, trying desperately to continue our bloodlines and reduce the chance of Squibs, and everyone else condemning us. Half-bloods are much more accepted now. They're one of us when they find their own instincts and don't suppress them. It's difficult to explain how to accept the rage and sharpness of the Fair Folk, how to redirect it instead of simply suppressing it, but the ones who figure it out are often the ones who don't introduce Squibs."

"And you've had to think in these terms for centuries, haven't you? Either it was against the muggleborns for safety reasons or it was the fight to preserve magic."

Draco nods. "Most of us don't really care what they do. They can have legacies and make changes here, but they cannot tear us out by the roots. Then there are some exceptions. Sirius Orion Black, a Gryffindor, denied the Fair Folk instinct like your father, and enjoyed the company of muggleborns who flaunted our customs."

"Is he alive?" Lily asks, surprised.

"Yes. You'd know if you looked at the family trees you have in your activity log, since Potter's godfather is Sirius Black."

"There are family trees and actively logs? The pamphlet they gave me is apparently lacking."

"I'm sure you can pick it up during Christmas too; you don't want them to be sending Activo Relati through mail. It's not nearly safe enough, and an Activo Relatus is a lot like a Family Grimoire."

"So, hoarded and confidential? Duly noted," Lily says.

A Higher Perspective

Chapter Summary

Tbh I low-key forgot what this chapter concerns but somehow Lily gets on the Quidditch team and she doesn't like Quidditch all that much but Slytherin needs a seeker, like Gryffindor needs a seeker, and Lloyd witnesses something interesting but keeps his nose out of it,

Oh, and Lily makes a fluffy Cerberus friend while out on a late-night jaunt with Ron, Hermione, and Lloyd, Neville gets his Remembrall back, and Draco is a bit of a jerk but he's an adorable jerk. Lily's working on him.

Chapter Notes

Hi, sorry I didn't post last week. It was Chinese New Year and celebrations and then my wifi cut out and *internally screams*. Anyway. The same disclaimer, feedback is always appreciated :)! and I think my tenses *might* be mostly correct this time! Cuz, you know, sometimes I take a break mid-chapter and then write the rest of it in the wrong tense and then bad things happen.

Thanks for reading this and I hope you enjoy the update!

"Have you flown before?" Draco looks up from the couch, gesturing towards a flyer on the Slytherin bulletin board. "We have Flying lessons with the Gryffindorks."

"I've never flown on a broomstick before. But apparently my father was a great Quidditch player or whatever. Maybe I'll have inherited some… genetic talent?" Lily says. "But I've flown. I'm an Elemental. It can't be too different."

"I cannot believe you're actually serious. Did you know that the Dark Lord used to fly around without a broom but with a large black cloak for intimidation points?"

Lily laughs at that. "Believable. Anyway, flying lessons. Are you looking forward to them?"

"Of course! I've been taking flying lessons for forever. I can't wait until second year, when I can try out for the Quidditch team." Draco's evidently excited. Lily laughs, remembering a couple of choice stories where he nearly crashed into Muggle jets. Privately, she'd thought it was rather dangerous, as Muggle jets move at an alarming 885 kilometres per hour. When she brought it up, however, Draco had laughed, pointing out that they had magical potions and wards for a reason.

Apparently, every story of nearly hitting a jet or helicopter she'd ever hear isn't nearly as frightening due to the fact that most of them had gone out with wards around their brooms, making it impossible for harm to come to young heirs.

"Alright. I suppose we should get down to breakfast." Lily sighs and begins walking down, Draco next to her. She manages to ignore the other Slytherins—after she revealed her cards and they heard about the confrontation on the first day of classes with the Gryffindors, Lily's fairly certain they've created a schedule for the older Slytherins to walk with her. It's fairly unnecessary; after playing the "saviour" act enough times with other first-years, her relationship with Potter and Weasley is civil—a facade on her part, tenuously genuine on theirs.

"Are you looking forward to Flying?"

"If I'm good, I'm sure Potter also inherited some talent. So no, not particularly," Lily says, keeping her voice low so that no one else overhears. The other Slytherins flanking her are engaged in their own conversations, but Lily recognizes the tenseness of muscle in them, as if they expect Lily to be jumped at any moment.

"Oh. Well, there's that," Draco says. "Oh, Lady Longbottom told my mother that she just couldn't let Neville on a broom for fear of what would happen, so he'll probably have some nefarious accident to brighten your day… or your reputation, depending on how you feel." He's obviously calling her out on her 'saviour' act.

Lily, personally, can see Mrs Longbottom's hesitance; from a few observations of Neville, she finds that he gets into enough accidents with both feet on the ground as it is.

"Hey, hey. I was the one who saved the Wizarding World from an insane mass-murderer. Stop calling me out," Lily laughs as she drags Draco the rest of the way to the Slytherin table. She doesn't miss the way Hermione Granger frantically pores over Quidditch Through the Ages like somehow the rather useless tip of "grip your broom" will be helpful when she's hovering 50 metres in the air. Quickly scanning the faces of the other first-years, she's aware of the same sentiment being expressed on a couple of faces. Neville, on the other hand, is hanging on Hermione's every word and obviously frightened just at the prospect of flying.

When they reach the Slytherin table—late, as Lily reminds Draco with a raised eyebrow, all Lily hears are stories of nearly flying into Muggle jets or helicopters. She opts to just eat, tuning most of it to background noise.

Draco brings her back to the conversation, crowing, "It looks like Longbottom's been sent a Remembrall!"

"Oh, it looks like he's forgotten something," Pansy says mildly, noticing the red. Lily rolls her eyes.

"Probably something symbolic, like courage," Lily replies. "Goodness knows with the upcoming flying class he's nervous enough."

"Remind me how you notice all these things?" Pansy murmurs.

Lily's attention is divided, though. "Oh, no. Watch where Draco's headed. Do I go after him?" Lily asks, watching his retreating back. Pansy just rolls her eyes.

"Go right ahead. Maybe you can keep him under control. Sometimes he forgets that he can't bully everyone."

Lily stands up, wills Hogwarts to subtly move her faster to where Draco is, and after a couple of seconds, catches up with him. "So you're planning on bullying the Longbottom scion? Can I point out that this isn't your brightest moment? Maybe stop for some tea first, Merlin knows you need it."

Draco, passing the table already, snatches the Remembrall. It glows red before dissipating to its natural clear state. "Nope, don't need tea." Draco grins at Lily as Potter and Weasley jump up. Professor McGonagall is there in a split second.

"What's going on?"

"Draco decided to borrow Neville's Remembrall to prove to me he doesn't need to drink tea before doing anything stupid," Lily answers before anyone else can, giving the professor her patented helpless expression.

"I was just looking," Draco protests before setting the Remembrall back down and strolling away with Crabbe and Goyle.

"Sorry," Lily says, looking up at the professor and shrugs.

After Charms, Transfiguration, and lunch, a tight-knit group of six Slytherins begin their walk outside to the smooth, flat lawn opposite of the Forbidden Forest. Daphne Greengrass's laugh fills the air in response to Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott's banter; Pansy Parkinson chases Draco Malfoy as Lily Smythin watches the two and laughs. Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle lumber on in front of the group of six.

The Gryffindors don't arrive until all the Slytherins and all twenty-one broomsticks are lying in neat lines on the ground. After Lloyd Potter arrives, Madam Hooch makes her appearance with windblown, short grey hair and yellow eyes.

"Well, what are you all waiting for?" she barks. "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up." Lily receives the distinct impression that Madam Hooch dislikes this class. She looks down at her broom with some trepidation; the broom is obviously old and there are a couple… kinks in it which she doubts helps with its flying abilities.

Madam Hooch doesn't seem to care though, instead instructing in a rather loud shout, "Stick out your right hand over your broom and say 'Up!'"

"Up!" comes a chorus of voices. Lily watches everyone else as her broom jumps into her hand. Draco's gotten his on his first try, but it looks like Potter has too. Granger's broom looks like it'd just rolled over while Neville Longbottom's refuses to move. She laughs internally at the chaos and Granger's disbelief that even after studying, flying doesn't come naturally.

Madam Hooch proceeds to discuss flying precautions and then shows them how to mount the brooms. Lily reflects that maybe it would've been wise to discuss all safety measures before giving them a chance to even touch the brooms. Madam Hooch then walks through the rows, correcting grips. Draco's taken it upon himself to correct the less fortunate, namely Theodore Nott, who is apparently "holding the broom all wrong , Merlin, have you never seen a broomstick before? You don't hold it like this —" here he adjusts his grip to how Nott's holding the broom— limply, as if the broomstick is a rat he'd really prefer to not touch. Draco stares at Nott indignantly for a couple seconds, in which Madam Hooch comes and begins to correct him. Draco immediately brushes her off and corrects his grip before staring at Theodore again.

"See, Madam Hooch agrees with me! Your broomstick is not a limp disgusting rag! It is a broomstick which will give you the joys and experience of flying , Theodore." Lily laughs as he says this.

"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," Madam Hooch instructs. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly." Lily looks at her broom, then at Neville's frightened face, and decides she might as well not prepare because there's going to be some sort of accident.

"On my whistle—three—two—" She's cut off when Neville, nervous and jumpy, pushes off before Madam Hooch's whistle blows. Lily doesn't roll her eyes, but she does think called it .

"Come back, boy!" she shouts. Lily detects a hint of panic in her voice while she observes Neville rising straight up like the fizz in a soda bottle reacting with mentos—he reaches twelve feet, twenty feet, twenty-five and Longbottom looks down, immediately pales further, and begins to slip sideways.

Lily knows he's going to fall before he does and she promptly freezes the air around Neville Longbottom. There's a gasp as he freezes. Neville Longbottom's eyes look down to see Lily Smythin staring up at him, hands pulled up. He also notices all the Slytherins hungrily watching her display of magic, the Gryffindors instead focused up on him.

"Neville, I'm going to slowly lower you down, okay?" Lily calls up. This directs a lot of the attention to her, of which Neville is grateful. Lily slowly begins to lower her hands, still staring—Neville realizes abruptly that she's not staring at him, but rather… the air below him. "Okay, I can't lower you farther down than this. You'll be able to catch yourself, right? It's only two feet," Lily says. Neville nods. "Alright, be prepared in three… two… one." Neville drops onto the grass as the solidity of the air beneath him is abruptly dispelled. Madam Hooch rushes over to him to inspect the damage.

"Broken wrist from a two-foot jump," she mutters, a fair amount of disbelief in her voice. "Madam Pomfrey will be able to deal with this quickly. Come on, up you get." She turns to the rest of the class. "None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch'. Come on, dear."

Neville, in a show of surprising hardiness, stands up with a few tears. His wrist is at an odd angle, probably from his landing in an awkward crouch. He winces as he stands up but otherwise keeps his right wrist still. "Thanks, Lily," he says, nodding in her direction before walking off with Madam Hooch.

Once they're out of earshot, Draco bursts into laughter. Lily withholds a sigh and makes no move to stop the whole ordeal Draco's planned.

"Did you see his face, the great lump?" Parkinson barely stifles a giggle though other Slytherins are louder with their approval.

"Shut up, Malfoy," Parvati Patil snaps.

"Ooh, sticking up for Longbottom now?" Pansy smirks. "Never thought you'd like fat little crybabies, Parvati." Lily takes note of the preexisting enmity between them and that Parkinson calls the girl Parvati, not Patil.

"Look!" Draco exclaims, darting forward and snatching something in the grass. Lily silently applauds his eyesight. "It's the Remembrall Longbottom's gran sent him."

"Give that here, Malfoy!" Lloyd exclaims, surging up. Draco smiles—an evil smile that Lily has to admire for a couple seconds.

"I think I'll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to find—how about up a tree?" he says after a moment of pretended contemplation. Lily shakes her head slightly at the idiocy. A simple Summoning Charm will do, and even Longbottom ought to be able to accomplish the spell.

"Give it here!" Lloyd yells at Draco's figure on a broom. Draco's a talented flier, Lily notes as he hovers level with the topmost branches of an oak and calls back.

"Come and get it, then, Potter!" Lily realizes what he's doing; drawing out the Gryffindor to assess the new threat in Quidditch and Lily thinks it might be the stupidest risk the boy has ever taken. Potter falls for it. He grabs his broom even as Hermione Granger yells at him to stop.

"No!" she shouts. "Madam Hooch told us to not move—you'll get us all in trouble!" she continues protesting. Lily doubts they will; one of them is the Boy Who Lived and the other is the scion of Malfoy.

Lloyd Potter ignores Granger. He mounts the broom and kicks hard, soaring up—and up, and Lily really hopes that he doesn't fall because she doesn't really want to save him. Lily realizes that there is a chance he'll do that and the only way to let him fall without her catching him and having an excuse is if she's up in the air, too. She does just that, shooting Draco a menacing glare that asks why he felt it necessary to do this. Granger then turns on Lily even as a rousing cheer from the Gryffindors supports Potter. Ron Weasley lets out a whoop.

"Are you crazy? Don't touch the broom!" she exclaims. Lily looks at her, then shrugs.

"Sure. I won't touch the broom until Madam Hooch comes back," she concedes before a wicked smirk appears. "I'll still fly, though."

"Bloody show-off," Draco mutters, though not loud enough for anyone to hear. In very few seconds, Lily's up at the same level. At the same time, Potter does a quick about-face. Draco's surprise is quickly concealed.

"Give it here," he calls, "or I'll knock you off that broom!" Lily has to conceal a smile at the threat. It's more likely that he'll accidentally hit her, and she can claim her accidental magic created a wall in self-defence and really, it was just Potter's fault for trying to ram into her.

"Draco, when Potter charges at you with his broom, I suggest moving out of the way. My accidental magic has a tendency to get violent," she warns quietly, the last part said with a small smirk. "Are you trying to see how he'd be as a seeker?"

"Yes."

"Well, I'm sure you've figured out how to test it, so I won't waste my breath." She turns to see Potter rushing towards them. She gives him a bit more air resistance and moves to the side as Draco does the same, though obviously waiting until the last moment. Lily gives Draco an exasperated glance, to which he just smirks and gives her an air kiss.

There are a couple of people down on the ground who are clapping. Lily itches to just petrify the lot of them.

"No Crabbe and Goyle up here to save your neck, Malfoy," Potter calls. Malfoy smirks in response.

"There's a Lily Smythin though!" he responds brightly. "Politics means she won't let me die, because she cares about the Ancient and Noble House of Malfoy! Now… catch it if you can, then!" he shouts the last sentence and throws the glass ball high into the air. Lily turns to give him a quick smirk which he would doubt was there if he didn't have superior eyesight and he immediately feels a small sense of foreboding.

"Accio broom!" Lily casts as she hurtles herself towards the Remembrall. At the same time, a broom appears underneath her and she fully appreciates the thrill of flying. She readjusts her broom handle for the trajectory of the ball and in a split second she's gathering speed, passing Potter while the wind whistles in her ears. When she passes, she gives him a quick grin.

Lily's vaguely aware of a couple screams. She catches it right as it's about to hit the grass before pulling the broom up to hover, Remembrall resting on her palm.

"Hey, Draco, never make me do that again please," she says to the boy next to her. Draco shrugs.

"Well, if I ever become Slytherin Quidditch captain, you're definitely going to have to do that again. Are you sure you've never touched a broom?"

"Never. Neither has Potter, for that matter." Lily turns to him. "That was impressive flying, by the way. I have no doubt that you'll be Seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch team." She gives him the smile that draws everyone closer to her—her for sure effective manipulative tool. Potter smiles back, albeit hesitantly. At that moment—

"LLOYD POTTER AND LILY SMYTHIN!" Lily and Potter turn to see Professor McGonagall running towards them. Potter turns an ashen shade as he gets to his feet.

"Never—in all my time at Hogwarts—" She seems to be in shock, nearly speechless as her eyes flash. Lily winces. "—how dare you—might have broken your neck—"

"It wasn't Lloyd's fault, Professor—"

"Be quiet, Miss Patil—"

"But Malfoy—"

"He's not anywhere near his broom, Weasley—unlike Potter and I." Lily bows her head at the last part, the perfect definition of 'contrite'. At the same time, she makes a quick flick with her hand, performing a wandless Confundus so no one remembers the part Draco played, not even Draco himself. If McGonagall was even a year less of an experienced teacher, she wouldn't have noticed the flick and the sudden wash of magic. She raises an eyebrow suspiciously but realizes that it can't be Lily's fault; no first-year has the ability to cast wandless spells of such great magnitude. Perhaps it's an errant wave of magic Hogwarts decided to expel.

"Yes, that's enough, Mr Weasley. Potter, Smythin, follow me, now." Lily keeps herself calm, knowing that the Headmaster won't expel her—she's too suspicious for him to expel but not yet suspicious enough to warrant too much attention. She's aware of Draco's slightly horrified gaze though. She lifts her head just enough to give him a smile—a reassurance of sorts. Next to her, Lloyd Potter is doing his best to not hyperventilate. He's sure he'll be expelled and he'll have let down the Dursleys again; in fact, he'd promised to bring back his twin to meet them since Aunt Petunia had been so eager to meet her and he'd had to break to her the news that his twin was not, in fact, attending Hogwarts. Dudley, of course, had been thrilled, as he hated "freaks like him". Aunt had reassured him that Dudley would reconcile like she'd reconciled with his mother, but somehow Lloyd doubted it.

He'd be forced to live with Dudley again. He has no idea why Dudley hates him, but he does and now it's mutual loathing. Professor McGonagall doesn't say a word to either of them, though she does offer Lily a comforting hand on the shoulder. Lloyd bristles a little at that; how does Professor McGonagall so obviously prefer an unknown snake over a special member of her own House?

They march up the marble staircase. Lloyd has to take much quicker and larger strides to keep up with her and he glances over to see how Lily's faring. She's much shorter and probably has more difficulty. To his surprise, he sees her waiting at one of the arches, looking at the wall. When they pass under another arch, he's surprised to see her disappear. He looks around for her only to see her in the same position, one arch up. He shakes his head in surprise but continues walking; it's not his business, he supposes, and his curiosity is mostly overcome with fear of what might happen to him.

Professor McGonagall stops outside a classroom, opening the door with a creak and poking her head inside.

"Excuse me, Professor Flitwick, could I borrow Wood and Flint for a moment?"

Confusion washes over Lloyd before he realizes they must be surnames. At the same time, he's aware of Lily suddenly appearing on the opposite side of McGonagall.

"Follow me, you four," she says once the two boys appear. They march up the corridor again, Lily walking along with them—although it's more of the tiles shifting to carry her as she pretends to walk. None of the boys, however, notice the floor's odd behaviour.

"In here," she says. She ushers them into the classroom, empty save for Peeves, writing rude words on the board.

"Peeves, could you give us some privacy?" Lily asks. Peeves looks ready to respond, but an aura of Hogwarts' magic seems to compress on him. The poltergeist looks at Lily's staring eyes, gulps, and bows before leaving, all without a word.

"That was a miracle," Professor McGonagall says drily. "He rarely listens to teachers, much less students. Introductions, I believe, are in order. Potter, this is Oliver Wood. Wood—I've found you a Seeker. If you train him enough, he should be able to beat Smythin. Smythin, this is Marcus Flint. Flint, I would suggest you cast her as Seeker." Wood's expression changes from confusion to delight whereas Flint remains reserved.

"Are you serious, Professor?" he asks.

"Absolutely. The boy's a natural. I've never seen anything like it. Potter, Smythin, were those your first times on a broomstick?" Lloyd nods silently.

"Yes," Lily admits.

"She caught that Remembrall in her hand after a fifty-foot dive. Didn't even touch the ground afterward, just pulled up in a hover. And Potter raced her for the Remembrall, didn't even scratch himself. I doubt Charlie Weasley could've done it." Lily catalogues that Oliver Wood now looks like all his dreams have come true as he pulls Lloyd away to talk. He begins circling around Lloyd, obviously judging his body build. She overhears the end of the conversation.

"We'll have to get him a decent broom, Professor—a Nimbus Two Thousand or a Cleansweep Seven, I'd say."

"I shall speak to Professor Dumbledore and see if we can't bend the first-year rule, for Smythin as well if Flint allows her on the team. Heaven knows we need a Seeker compared to last year. Flattened in that last match by Slytherin, I couldn't look Severus Snape in the face for weeks…" Lily turns to see Marcus Flint smirking, obviously having heard the last bit.

"I was Captain of the Slytherin team last year, did you know? Our Seeker up and graduated last year so we do need a new Seeker. Last year Gryffindor didn't even have one, hence the crushing."

Lily hums and keeps her attention on the Gryffindors' conversation.

"Your father would have been proud," she says. "He was an excellent Quidditch player himself."

She can't help but wonder whether her parents are proud of her , in any way. She knows her behaviour in the orphanage was questionable, at best, and she did change her last name, too, but she hasn't called anyone a Mudblood , so….

When Lily refocuses her attention back to Flint, she's aware of him evaluating her.

"You're awfully short, but you have the right body build for a Seeker. Light and it's like you're streamlined to be aerodynamic. I think we'll get you a Nimbus Two Thousand, that's the newest broom out there and the reviews have been phenomenal."

"You're sure you want me playing Quidditch? What if McGonagall was lying?" Lily says.

"You're holding the Remembrall in your hand," Flint points out.

"Ah. Well. Could we talk as we go up to the Hospital Wing? I need to return this to Neville," Lily says. Flint shrugs.

"Sure. Have you ever seen a game of Quidditch?"

"Never."

"Bloody hell, we're going to have to go over every World Cup that's happened in the past five years so you get an idea of strategy."

"What are the basics of the game, first?"

"There are three types of balls. One Quaffle, a large round red ball. Three Chasers are responsible for trying to get that ball through one of the three golden hoops. Each time they accomplish that, they get ten points. The one Keeper on each time tries to keep the Quaffle from going through their goal hoops. There are two small metal balls which are called Bludgers. Two Beaters on each team with bats hit the bludgers towards the opponents. Then there's a small fluttering golden ball called the Snitch; it's wickedly fast and enjoys confusing the hell out of the Seeker by darting back and forth. You can barely see it when it's moving. There's one Seeker per team and whichever team's Seeker catches the Snitch ends the game and gains 150 points. Whoever has the most points in the end wins."

"You're sure you want to put the fate of each game on my shoulders?"

"If you could catch that without practice, you're our best shot to win the Quidditch Cup."

Lily realizes Draco Malfoy has just coerced her into the Seeker position and she cannot believe him.

"Is it considered illegal play if you don't use a broom?" she asks, breaking the silence.

"Ah, you're an Elemental. I'll check, because you could always pretend to use a broom to avoid notice and a new rule being created specifically for you."

"Perfect," Lily says, beaming. "Can I join you in your Charms class? I don't think we're going to do anything else in Flying, and I'm sure none of the professors will mind."

"Right. Nothing could possibly go wrong."

"Exactly," she says, and then falls silent as she enters the Hospital Wing. Neville is on the cot closest to the door, so she slides onto one of the seats next to him.

"Lily!" Neville exclaims.

"Hey, Neville. Sorry about the wrist, how is it?"

"All healed. Madam Pomfrey wants me to wait, though. Thanks for getting me to the ground."

"As far as the rest of the students are concerned, that was accidental magic, by the way."

Neville gives Lily a curious glance but doesn't press. "Sure. So how was class after?"

"Oh, we didn't finish yet. Anyway, here's your Remembrall, you left it in the grass."

Flint looks like he wants to tell Neville Longbottom the entire backstory of how Lily currently holds the Remembrall after a 50 foot dive, but he holds his tongue.

"Where were you, Lily?" Parkinson exclaims. "You never came back to Flying Lessons. Neither did Potter."

Lily notices, with a jolt, that Parkinson— Pansy —has just made the jump to informality. She beams. "I met with Marcus Flint and was coerced into the Seeker position. Then I returned Neville Longbottom's Remembrall and accompanied Flint to fifth-year Charms."

"You're the seeker?" Draco asks and pauses, his knife of meat hovering. Lily winces at it.

"Yes."

Draco sets the knife of meat down. "But first-years never —you must be the youngest house player in about a century."

"Yes, but only because I'm, what, a second younger than Potter? He's seeker, too, and I think Wood wants to keep it a secret but he's completely forgotten that we were in the same room when Potter became seeker."

"Gryffindors," Pansy says disparagingly.

"Ruddy awful lions," Draco says, in a remarkable imitation of their godfather. A burst of laughter initiates down the Slytherin table and Lily's own laugh—magnetic, really—has the table stopping for a second to hear and then give their own smiles and laughs in response.

Lily's aware of Dumbledore staring at her again. She scales the mental wall rather quickly and then watches the thoughts parade pass—a memory of her surrounded by older Slytherins, looking for all the world like bodyguards, and then it dissipates to make space for the thought That's not possible. She's a muggleborn, for goodness' sake!

"The Weasley twins just left. I think we should go—"

Lily stares. "Bully Potter? No, Draco. All the teachers see you, you know."

"I'm not an idiot . It won't be traceable and it's just laying a trap for him to suffer tomorrow morning."

"Oh. Go ahead," Lily says with a smirk. "In fact, is there anything I can do?"

Pansy looks completely fed up with both of them, but all she does is sigh and halfheartedly begin a protest. Draco cuts it off.

"Yeah, go up afterwards and subtly encourage them to fight me in a duel."

"Draco Lucius Malfoy, if this is what I'm thinking it is, you are going to die, either by Potter's hand or mine." Pansy raises an eyebrow, staring him down.

"Why does everyone think I'm an idiot ?" Draco asks, affronted. "My grades are fine, I have not gotten in trouble yet, and I'm not planning to actually show up to the duel!"

"Just go," Pansy says, shooing him away.

Lily focuses on his voice through the din of the Great Hall.

"Having a last meal, Potter? When are you getting the train back to the Muggles?"

"You're a lot braver now that you're back on the ground and you've got your little friends with you."

"I'd take you on anytime on my own. Tonight, if you want. Wizard's duel. Wands only—no contact. What's the matter? Never heard of a wizard's duel before, I suppose?"

"Of course he has. I'm his second, who's yours?"

"Crabbe. Midnight all right? We'll meet you in the trophy room; that's always unlocked."

She sees Draco turning and coming back, so she asks Hogwarts to spit her out next to Ron and Lloyd. In a couple of seconds, she sits down next to Potter as he asks Weasley a crucial question.

"What's a wizard's duel? And what do you mean, you're my second?"

"A wizard's duel is exactly what it sounds like," Lily says. "There are, of course, special duels to the death, but I assume he meant the more socially acceptable form. Either you're disarmed or you're not physically capable of holding up. I doubt it'll get to the latter, since you're only first-years, although I'll admit that Malfoy has a bit of an edge since he's been tutored. And a second is just someone to take over when the other duelist on their team is out. I do believe he expected you to refuse, anyway."

"Where did you come from?" Potter asks.

"The Slytherin table."

"And what if I wave my hand and nothing happens?" he asks, nervous. Lily wants to laugh and feels a brief flash of sympathy—he seems lost and confused. Then she remembers that he's had his whole life to adjust to the Wizarding World and just… did not.

"Throw it away and punch him on the nose," Ron suggests. Lily comes to the conclusion that Ronald Bilius Weasley is worse.

"Excuse me." The two boys look up to see Hermione Granger. Lily looks up and beams at her; Granger smiles back.

"Why don't you sit?" Lily says as she scooches over. At the same time, Ron speaks.

"Can't a person eat in peace in this place?" Ron asks.

"Lily, it's fine. I'll be leaving for the library shortly, anyway. By the way, your flying was impressive. But back to you two—I couldn't help overhearing what you and Malfoy were saying—" she says to the boys.

Lily sits back, realizing that no matter what Hermione Granger does, she'll only be encouraging them to go to the duel at this point.

"Bet you could," Ron mutters.

"You were a bit loud," Lily points out. "I could hear you across the Hall."

"Thank you, Lily. As I was saying, you mustn't go wandering around the school at night, think of the points you'll lose Gryffindor if you're caught, and you're bound to be. It's really very selfish of you."

"And it's really none of your business," Potter replies, obviously annoyed. Lily hides a secret smile, knowing she's successfully accomplished her goal.

"Goodbye!" Weasley says with fake cheer. Hermione leaves with a huff and Lily turns to them.

"I'll accompany you, that way the castle will help and nothing gets in the way of the duel, yes?"

"Where will we meet?"

"The entrance of the Gryffindor common room, of course. I don't think you'll be able to find your way to the Slytherin common rooms, much less get in." At that point, Lily disappears, only to reappear at the Slytherin table.

"Are you sure she didn't fool the Sorting Hat?" Potter asks Weasley.

" Why is she helping us after you called her that word ?"

"I know, I know. I was just upset because my twin isn't here and I had to tell Aunt Petunia and it was a mess."

Lloyd's having difficulty with his life decisions, especially since Ron told him earlier to dodge curses because he'd forgotten the spell to block them. Then Ron speaks again.

"Half-past eleven," he whispers. "We'd better go."

They make it to the Common Room before they run into trouble.

"I can't believe you're going to do this, Lloyd." A lamp flickers on as she speaks, revealing Hermione Granger, wearing a frown.

" You ! Go back to bed!" Ron says.

"I almost told your brother," she replies. "Percy—he's a prefect, he'd put a stop to this."

"Come on," Lloyd says, obviously choosing to ignore Hermione. She follows them out of the portrait hole, however, chastising them the whole while.

"Don't you care about Gryffindor, do you only care about yourselves, you'll lose all the points I got from Professor McGonagall for knowing about Switching Spells, and I don't want Slytherin to win the house cup."

"I'm offended, I want Slytherin to win the House Cup and I'm still here," Lily says, coming out of the shadows.

Earlier, she'd been listening to the walls of Hogwarts, asking the castle to move her to the entrance of the Gryffindor common room when Lloyd and Ron appeared. The wall in front of her then proceeded to show her a livestream of Hermione following the two boys, as if asking whether she still wanted to go, even with Hermione there.

Lily's quite sure that Hogwarts is a sentient castle.

"Where did you come from, Lily? I thought you were more mature than this!" Hermione begins chastising Lily as well, but Lily doesn't let her start.

"I'm here to make sure things go smoothly. On Malfoy's request, I'm overseeing the duel to make sure injuries are healed. On their request, I'm ensuring safe travel through the castle with minimum loss of points. Either way, they would have carried through, so arguably this is the better option."

"I… I suppose," Hermione concedes. She turns to the two boys. "I warned you, you just remember what I said if you're on the train home tomorrow, you're so—" Hermione turns around as she says that, then sees that the Fat Lady isn't there.

She's locked out of the Gryffindor tower and she is not a happy camper.

" Now what am I going to do?" she asks, voice shrilly.

"That's your problem. We've got to go, we're going to be late," Ron says. They don't reach the end of the corridor before Hermione catches up.

"I'm coming with."

"You are not ."

"Do you think I'm going to stand out here and wait for Filch to catch me? If he finds all three of us I'll tell him the truth, that I was trying to stop you, and you can back me up."

"You've got some nerve—" Ron protests rather loudly before Lily slaps a hand across his mouth.

"Shut up! Let's go before you get caught not five feet away from the Gryffindor common room."

"Fine. If you get us caught, I'll never rest until I've learned that Curse of the Bogies Quirrell told us about and used it on you," Ron says, glaring at Hermione. Lily snorts.

"Let's go before I, or Hermione, gives you a lecture on that particular bogus curse." Lily beckons the four of them forward. The path they take is odd in that it seems to unfold before them, a path Hermione doesn't think she's ever seen before, but when she opens her mouth to ask, Lily just says, "I promised safe passage, didn't I?" They continue on.

They reach the trophy room right on time. A couple of minutes later, Ron speaks.

"He's late, maybe he's chickened out." Lily's hand is on the wall, following Filch and Mrs Norris' progress as she scans the trophy room. One award in particular stands out—a Special Award for Services to the School for one Tom Marvolo Riddle. There's no description, but Lily makes note of it to ask Mr Malfoy later.

"Sniff around, my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner." Filch's voice inspires immediate terror for the three Gryffindors. Lily just gestures them out of the trophy room.

"Come on, let's go before he finds us!" Lily protests loudly, throwing her voice to the corridor. Filch begins to head in the opposite direction. She winks at Hermione, who looks shocked, and mouths to them "This way!"

They creep through a line of suits of armour. Immediately, Lily can see the catastrophe before it happens—Ron lets out a squeak of fear and breaks into a run, tripping and toppling through a suit of armour. Lily winces at the sudden clanging.

"Come on. Hurry, this time ventriloquist abilities will fool no one," she orders. Lloyd looks like he's about to protest but at one of her death glares, Lloyd follows her. She sprints through the corridors in the lead, begging the castle to lead her to a viable path.

A small silver light appears—Lily mentally thanks the castle—and she follows it. It leads to an imitation of the Bayeux Tapestry and Lily lifts up the edge of it, revealing a secret passageway.

"In, all of you." She shoves the other three first-years into the passageway. They hurtle along it and find themselves in a silent Charms classroom. "Perfect, that's far from the trophy room. It's pretty far from your tower, too, but I think we can approach it from an opposite side. Let's go."

Lily knows it won't be simple, even with Hogwarts' help. They take maybe a dozen steps before a doorknob rattles and something comes shooting towards them.

It's Peeves. Lily melts into the shadows. She and Draco still did want to give them a bit of grief. Peeves catches sight of the other three first-years and gives a squeal of delight.

"Shut up, Peeves—please—you'll get us thrown out."

Peeves cackles. "Wandering around at midnight, Ickle Firsties? Tut, tut, tut. Naughty, naughty, you'll get caughty."

"Not if you don't give us away, Peeves, please," Hermione pleads.

"Should tell Filch, I should," Peeves says with a wicked gleam in his eyes but imitating a saint. "It's for your own good, you know."

"Get out of the way," Ron snaps, finally breaking and taking a swipe at Peeves. Lily wonders whether Ron has brains, or if he just cannot de-escalate a situation in general.

"STUDENTS OUT OF BED! STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE CHARMS CORRI—!" Peeves bellows, abruptly pausing when Lily emerges from the shadows.

"Now, now, Peeves, we can't have that," she says, smirking at the pale poltergeist.

"I'm sorry! Don't evict me, I won't bother them again—"

"Oh, no, I don't want you to not bother them. But I do want you to not bother me. When Filch comes running here, you'll direct him the opposite direction of where we ran." Lily smiles, fakely angelic. "Is that clear?"

"Yes, yes, of course!"

"I want you to stall him as well, in the most annoying way you know how." This time, Lily give a genuine smile—Peeves returns with a gleeful smile.

She turns back to the other three and leads them to the end of the corridor… to a locked door.

"This is it! We're done for! This is the end!" Ron bewails. Lily does not roll her eyes. But it comes close.

She can hear Filch's heavy footsteps drawing nearer. Behind the only door in this corridor, she can feel the presence of a large creature—sleeping, but Lily has a feeling that the creature will wake soon.

"Hermione, would you like to do the honours?" Lily asks, nodding towards the door.

"Move over, Ronald!" Hermione instructs before grabbing Lloyd's wand. She taps the lock and whispers " Alohomora !"

"Beautifully done, let's go in. Please don't freak out, by the way," Lily says. Once she walks through the door, she knows it's a Cerberus—the sheer size, the three heads, and the Grey core gives it away. She ignores the sounds of Filch's cursing from outside, knowing that Peeves has complied with her demands.

"He thinks this door is locked," Lloyd whispers. "I think we'll be okay—get off , Ron! What is it?"

"A Cerberus," Lily says. "Don't worry about it."

" What ?"

Lily ignores them and sits down in front of the creature, slowly waking up, and focuses on the creature's mind.

What's your name?

Fluffy.

That's adorable. How are you getting food and water?

There's confusion from Fluffy. Lily grimaces and conjures a stone basin and fills it with water. It'll refill when it's empty .

Thank you. Will you visit again?

Lily smiles. Cerberus breeds are social creatures, but prefer Grey cores; this one has probably been isolated since the start of the school year. Of course. But we have to leave now, we're at a school and we can't be up past a certain time and we're currently pushing it.

But other people have been in here past this time. Is that bad?

Oh. I don't think they should be.

They play music. It helps me fall asleep but only the older people know that.

Lily glances down. There's a trapdoor. The Cerberus is guarding something, and suddenly Lily remembers that this is the third-floor corridor. She winces. "When I come back, let me know who comes to try and bother you."

Okay! Lily notes that this Cerberus, at least, understands her when she speaks out loud. The Cerberus pushes the silhouette of a turbaned man to the front of his mind. Lily tries not to pale—everything's coinciding so oddly, and frankly she hates it, but she's curious.

"Thank you, Fluffy," Lily says instead, standing and stroking each head a couple of times. Then she ushers the other three outside.

"What happened ?"

"Talking to the Cerberus," Lily says. There goes her carefully cultivated avoidance of the third-floor corridor, vault 713, and someone (probably Lord Voldemort, honestly) trying to steal that package. "And now you really need to get back to Gryffindor tower. You three are going to have a terrible morning."

They run. The Fat Lady appraises their flushed faces.

"Where on earth have you all been?" she asks.

"Never mind that—pig snout, pig snout," Lloyd pants and tumbles into the Common Room. The portrait closes and the Fat Lady notices a girl wearing a white oxford shirt half-tucked into black jeans.

"They've been on an adventure to the third-floor corridor," the girl says before fading away. The Fat Lady notices the imprint of the castle's magic on the spot where the girl disappears; she smiles slightly. Merlin knows how much Hogwarts needs at least one Lady back at the school.

Meanwhile, in the Gryffindor common room, the three first-years are far from ready for bed.

"What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" Ron says, the first to break the silence. "If any dog needs exercise, that one does." Hermione rolls her eyes before speaking.

"You don't use your eyes, any of you, do you? Didn't you see what it was standing on?"

"The floor? I wasn't looking at its feet, I was too busy with its heads. And then Lily sat down and did whatever the heck and we were alive," Lloyd replies.

"No, not the floor. It was standing on a trapdoor, which Lily obviously noticed if the way she told the dog to alert her to anyone who tried to get in was any indication." Hermione snorts.

"It's obviously guarding something important." She stands up, giving the two boys scathing glares.

"I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed—or worse, expelled. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed."

"No, we don't mind… you'd think we dragged her along!" Ron protests upon her exit.

The next morning dawns and Draco waits for Lily in the common room. Instead of Lily appearing from the general direction of the girl's rooms, she comes in through the portrait hole.

"What happened?" he asks.

"I had an enlightening talk with a Cerberus," Lily says, but doesn't elaborate. Draco doesn't ask her to, only briefly hugs her and hands her a mug of coffee.

"Thanks."

When they enter the Great Hall, Lily is aware of Dumbledore looking at her, probably trying to catch her eyes so he can read her mind. She doesn't look up; instead, she focuses her attention on the various conversations around her. No doubt Potter and Weasley are having their own discussion on the Cerberus—she hones in on that.

"It's either really valuable or really dangerous."

"Or both."

They're discussing what the dog is guarding. Of course Hermione shared the knowledge with them—Lily doubts Hermione could help it.

"So how did last night go?" Pansy asks.

"We ended up in the third-floor corridor," Lily says. "And I met a Cerberus named Fluffy. He's guarding something."

Draco's eyes narrow. "You are not going to investigate it."

"But Professor Quirrell ended up there! And we know his stuttering is a disguise, isn't that kind of suspicious?" Lily says. "I know whatever's down there fits in a small package. It's from vault 713, and someone extremely powerful is after it, so why wouldn't that powerful person be at Hogwarts?"

"The stutter may be a disguise, but I doubt Professor Quirrell is so powerful," Draco says.

Pansy hums. "And he can barely teach Defence Against the Dark Arts. Besides, you don't know what's down there. The Cerberus can't be the only thing guarding it, and you don't know what it's guarding, either. It might just be two Galleons."

Lily frowns. "Professor Quirrell still doesn't sit right with me. It's—Draco, you know the scar on my collarbone? It aches everytime I look at Professor Quirrell, but it has to be the back of his turban, which is incredibly specific and very suspicious. The scar's never bothered me before."

"The one you got from that incident?" Draco asks, referencing her being hit with an Avada Kedavra.

Lily hums. "I don't know what his turban's hiding, but he's more powerful than he lets on. I can't think of why the scar would ache near him unless he has the caster of the curse with him, but that's—" Her eyes widen. It's not impossible, but that means—that means her attempted murderer is here , and has not yet attempted to murder her (why? Too weak, perhaps?) and is after something guarded by a three-headed dog and other unknown traps.

She's glad her books on Horcruxes are coming today.

"Do not risk your life, idiot," Pansy says.

The owls swoop in. The black owl lands in front of her, carrying a stack of books.

"Oh. Thank you, Ebony," Lily says, already sweeping the stack of books up and marching back to the Slytherin common room.

"Do you think she's ever going to rest?" Pansy asks, sighing as she looks at the small girl's back.

The more Lily reads about Horcruxes, the more she hates the world, in general. Horcruxes are extremely Dark objects and extremely evil on top of that, which she already guessed, but the more concerning bit is that, theoretically—because no one has ever made a human Horcrux, ever , but the Slytherins liked mental exercises—a human Horcrux would react around the maker, feel emotions through the Horcrux, and offer an opportunity for possession.

Which, technically, explains a lot. The last bit is spectacularly terrifying, but the first bit explains her scar's reaction to the turban. It's not anything nefarious about the turban ; it's what it's covering. After all, you can't exactly walk around with two faces, one on the back of your head. That thought does not make anything less disturbing to Lily.

And Lily's also fairly certain that the Dark Lord would not purposefully create a human Horcrux, for all the risks a human Horcrux runs, but it's also terribly difficult to accidentally create a Horcrux unless the soul is already unstable from other fractures and Horcruxes. Which implies a lot of other things—Lily is not his only Horcrux, and all of them are keeping the Dark Lord, however weak, alive .

At least, Lily reflects, it's not her entire body that's a Horcrux, it's just that scar attached to her body.

She thinks some more. No, it's still bad. Lily can't find a way to twist anything into a good light, because the only solutions for the Horcrux are first, to bind a dementor to herself and get it to suck only Voldemort's soul out, or two, stabbing her collarbone with a basilisk fang and then drinking antivenom after Voldemort's soul dies.

God, Lily hates bloody Dark Lords who don't understand pureblood ideology and therefore become insane mass murderers and mess up her life by accidentally making Horcruxes in people. It's a very specific Dark Lord that she hates.

Lily, once again, does not roll her eyes, but it comes close. She has a feeling that Flint and Draco will not let her bail on watching replays of old Quidditch matches, so she doesn't have nearly enough time to figure everything out.

Lily meets Lord Malfoy on the weekend. One of her first questions is about the Special Services to the School Award with Tom Marvolo Riddle's name. Lord Malfoy, luckily, does know about it; he tells her about the Chamber of Secrets and the attacks made fifty years ago, culminating in the death of a girl named Myrtle. This immediately rings a bell for Lily.

She is, safe to say, intrigued. She talks to Moaning Myrtle, a ghost haunting the girl's toilets, for a little while, and then discovers the oddity in the bathroom—the snake faucets. A quick, hissed open has the sink unfolding, revealing a chute, and down she goes. She spends the rest of the day in the Chamber, avoiding the very-much-alive basilisk while reading all the books she can. They talk about everything from magical theory to Parselmagic, some of them Salazar's own notes. And when she leaves, she also knows about how, as Lady of the Slytherin House, she can extract the Horcrux without killing herself—all she has to do is recall the magic done by Tom Marvolo Riddle.

Unfortunately, as all the other Horcruxes were created before her conquest, she has to kill those the normal way—a basilisk fang, Fiendfyre, or drawing the soul out of the vessel.

The only reason Lily doesn't get rid of the Horcrux in her scar is that it provides her a connection through which she can read her enemy.

Samhain Favours

Chapter Summary

Draco learns how to box, trolls are defeated, and a Quidditch game which results in a very annoyed Lily.

Chapter Notes

Hi again! Another update has come, and again, all feedback is appreciated! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy :)

Pansy knocks on Lily's door. It's opened; Lily has two streaks of blood painting her high cheekbones, and Pansy's immediately reminded of the portraits of Dorea Black hanging in Parkinson Manor. The doorknob, Pansy notices, is bloody, and she comes to the concussion that Lily's preparing for Samhain rituals. She still has no idea how Lily managed to opt out of the Hogwarts Halloween Feast, which is mandatory for nearly everyone unless you're sick or have express permission.

"I… sorry, I would invite you to come in, but…" Lily gestures helplessly. "I just finished purifying the room."

"Ah… I'll stay outside." Pansy winces slightly, recalling how purifying the room occurs—it involves a whole lot of blood, if her memory serves her right. "I thought you should know that Hermione Granger was apparently taken down a few notches by Weasley. Since the Charms class, she's been hiding out in the girl's bathroom, crying. Since you seem to find a continual need to associate with her, I thought you'd appreciate the tidbit."

"Ah, I've explained! She's brilliant with homework help and political power does include extensive knowledge. She's practically my library."

"You're practically your own library. None of us buy the homework help thing, not with you showing her up in class," Pansy replies and rolls her eyes. Lily lets out a chuckle.

"I'll check on her, I suppose, though I need to get the blood off my face before I see her. She's… like your typical muggleborn." Lily winces as she says it. "I'm working on it." Pansy's face is trying to relax from a contortion expressing disgust.

"Alright, well, good luck with whatever spirits you try to contact tonight," Pansy says, offering genuine well wishes.

Any half-blood with the patience and pain endurance to participate, much less initiate, Samhain rituals is well enough integrated to magical culture for her.

Lily rests her hand on the side of Hogwarts' walls and immediately notices something very wrong. A Dark and dangerous creature is in Hogwarts, relatively close to the girl's bathroom where Hermione's been camping out. All Lily can do at this point is sigh. Nothing is safe here, apparently.

She does not have the time to wipe blood off her face if she wants Hermione Granger to live. Lily wonders for a split-second why it matters, until she remembers that Granger is the only Gryffindor intellectual in her grade and, if for anything else, saving Hermione will give a boost to Lily's already blooming reputation—created mostly by helping various first-years from various Houses on homework, cleaning up accidents, and saving the occasional Gryffindor. Only Dumbledore is still suspicious of her at this point, which admittedly is vaguely annoying, but the victory of having Professor McGonagall taking her in as an honorary Gryffindor outweighs that.

So Lily wills Hogwarts to spit her out wherever Hermione Granger is. The wall sucks her in and then places her at the entrance of the girl's bathroom.

She turns to see Potter and Weasley herding the troll towards the girl's bathroom.

Lily cannot help but think that the two of them are idiots who are about to trap Granger in with a troll—and Granger is brilliant, but she is not street-smart. Lily realizes she can't fight the troll here, in such an open area, so she backs up into the bathroom and lets the troll enter. She hears the bathroom door slam shut and sighs of relief on the opposite side.

She gives it about a minute to make this happen before the two idiots barge in.

"Granger?"

"Leave me alone, whoever you are," Hermione says, sniffling. Lily asks Lady Magic for patience and opens the stall door.

"Hermione, come out. What happened?"

" Lily? Wait, what happened to you ?" She's staring at the streaks of blood on her face.

"Samhain, and then Parkinson alerted me to your predicament," Lily says, looking at the bushy-haired girl, unimpressed. "So tell me, because somehow I doubt many things can upset someone like you."

Hermione immediately stiffens her lip. "It was pretty stupid, actually. Ron said it made sense why I didn't have friends after I helped him with the Wingardium Leviosa charm. He got upset when I corrected him and he told me to do it then, if I was so clever, and I did."

"Jealous much?" Lily murmurs. Hermione cracks a grin.

"I've moped long enough, I guess. Let's get out."

"About that, there's a troll out there… and I think it's just scented us," Lily replies, staying relatively calm. Hermione, on the other hand, begins to freak out.

"WHAT?" she screams, rather loudly. Lily does not roll her eyes. It comes close.

"Calm down. We'll make it out of here alive."

" How ?" Her voice is shrilly.

"Magic, you know, the thing we study?" Lily exits the stall, Hermione cautiously following. She knows the boys will barge in and try to help soon, so she needs to move fast. " Stupefy ," she casts the moment she catches sight of the troll. It falls over, a loud thud echoing through the bathroom, and Lily stares at the creature. "It'll only be out for a couple of minutes, tops, so I think we need to bind it. Do you know the spell?"

"What spell?"

" Incarcerous ." Lily jabs her wand at the mountain troll and ropes appear. "You try."

"Incarcerous," Hermione repeats, a little hesitantly. The ropes fail to appear.

"Try again, and this time jab with your wand."

"Incarcerous!" Hermione says with more confidence, jabbing her wand as instructed, and another set of ropes bind the troll.

Lily subtly flicks a Strengthening Charm at the ropes and tries to remember spells which knock trolls out for longer than just five minutes. Maybe she should just drop a block of stone on the troll's head. The more she thinks about it, the more appealing it seems.

When the troll wakes up, she does just that. At the same time, Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape, and Professor Flitwick appear in the door along with a sheepish Ron Weasley and Lloyd Potter.

"What happened here?" Professor McGonagall asks, trying very hard to not express shock at the block of stone sitting on the troll's head. Professor Snape turns to look at his goddaughter, who wears an innocently fierce expression. He sighs. At this point he just wants to retire, goddamn his promise to Albus Dumbledore and his promise to protect Lily Potter's children.

"I came here to find Hermione upon Pansy Parkinson's recommendation. As I was in the middle of a Samhain ritual at that time, I figured that it must be important, so I came. At that time, Potter and Weasley herded this mountain troll into the bathroom and I… we, actually, fought the troll. Hermione learned very quickly, actually, and thought well on her feet. She was able to help me bind the troll and learned the Incarcerous Spell in less than a minute with almost no theory behind the conjuring." Flitwick doesn't fail to notice the way Hermione brightens at Lily's praise of her learning.

"And this block of stone… who conjured it?" Professor McGonagall asks. Lily offers a shy smile.

"Sorry, Professor, I did. I needed something stronger than a regular Stupefy for the troll."

"Minerva, they need to go back to their common rooms. I'm sure Miss Smythin needs to recuperate after conjuring that block of stone," Professor Flitwick announces.

"Yes, alright. You two are extremely fortunate to survive such an encounter, girls, and I hope you remember that! And you two boys are extremely fortunate that those two survived, or you could be facing charges. Please never trap a troll in a bathroom ever again!" Professor McGonagall gives her warnings before her face softens. "Fifteen points to Gryffindor for Hermione, twenty points to Slytherin for Lily's accidental magic, and five points off from Gryffindor for the both of you!

"Professor, if it was accidental magic, should I really be awarded for it?" Lily protests. Professor McGonagall gives her a soft smile.

"I think an instinct to save others ought to be praised anyway, for if you didn't have that character, I doubt that the accidental magic would've knocked out the troll instead of just transporting you alone out of the bathroom."

Professor Snape watches this exchange with a slightly horrified expression. He honestly doesn't get paid enough for this—that is, everything, and especially witnessing McGonagall's obvious soft spot for his… very Slytherin… goddaughter.

"Thank you, Lily," Hermione whispers as she hugs her. Lily smiles.

"Thank you for not questioning the Samhain ritual. I doubt we would've made it out alive if I had to take the time to explain the ritual," Lily says as she pulls away. Hermione laughs in response.

"It's been known to happen."

"Genesis! Is it just you this year?"

Lily nods. "I changed my name to Lily Genesis Smythin. I didn't want Albus Dumbledore to recognize me, but Lloyd doesn't know I'm his twin. He thinks he's the Saviour of the Wizarding World."

Her mother looks so similar to her, Lily notes again. Lily's face is sharper in the way only someone close to the Fair Folk can be, but other than that and the hair, they're nearly carbon copies.

Her mother speaks, almost sheepish. "You should know that you're most likely the Saviour. During that time—well, to be honest, I was in a rush as I set the ritual, and I only pleaded for your life. If the curse hit Lloyd, the ritual wouldn't have considered him as part of the pool to be protected."

"What's happened with Albus Dumbledore?" her father asks. Lily can see the sharpness in his features even in death, the inherent danger in it.

"He placed me in an orphanage and also attempted to place blocks on my brain, magic, and other magical abilities. I removed him as my magical guardian by taking Ladyships."

The two of them exchange a look. "We must watch what happens in the physical world more often," her mother murmurs. "Are you entering Wizengamot's winter session for the first time? I hope you've reached out to Severus for help."

Lily nods. "He connected me to Lucius Malfoy, who's been helping me."

"Lucius Malfoy?" her father asks, distrust evident.

"I'm the Lady of Slytherin, Gryffindor, Gaunt, and Potter, and the heiress of Black, Selwyn, Carrow, and one other. He can't harm me, and even if he could, Uncle Severus is his son's godfather, too."

"Then there's nothing to worry about ," her mother says, firmly, putting a hand on her father. "Be sure to check your Family Grimoires and Activo Relati, yes? And tell me, how is Sirius? Or, I suppose, Uncle Padfoot. He's your twin's godfather."

"Sirius is in Azkaban for betraying you. Was it not—"

"PETER PETTIGREW! THAT BLOODY TRAITOR!" Her father's outburst brings the Fair Folk in him to the forefront.

"What happened? I can get this settled over winter break."

"You are too young to be playing in politics already," her mother says, fretting.

"Mother, if I don't, Sirius Black will suffer. And Dumbledore will not do anything, and Lloyd cannot—he has no idea of pureblood culture or politics, and he'll be eaten alive in the arena. A lot of things have fallen to me at this point, so what's one more? "

There's unconcealed grief on both their faces. "Genesis, what have you gone through? "

Lily musters a bright smile. "I'm here now, aren't I? And it's all helping my survival right now. Besides, I would feel bad leaving Sirius Black in Azkaban."

"Sirius Black was my best friend. He, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew joined me in what we called the Marauders. His animagus is a large black dog. When we went into hiding, he was our original Secret Keeper."

"You used the Fidelius charm?" Lily asks her father.

"Yes. Lily, our daughter picked up my ability in Charms!" her father says, grinning.

"And flying. Both Lloyd and I are training to be Seekers on our House's team. Youngest seekers in a century, according to Professor McGonagall."

Her mother grins. "And are any of you good at Potions? "

"Professor Snape says I am, but I don't know how much of that is to spite Lloyd."

"He wouldn't lie just to spite someone," her mother says, waving it off. "Anyway, are you and your brother in different Houses?"

"Lloyd is in Gryffindor. I was, ah, sorted into Slytherin." She pauses to gauge their reaction.

"A Slytherin? You're probably taking after my Mum, then. Your grandmother, Dorea Black, which is how you're related to the Blacks. In fact, Activo Relati mention her and Sirius."

"What happened after he was the original Secret Keeper?"

Her father picks right back up. "He persuaded us to change our Secret Keeper. He was the obvious one, so he would be a decoy, and we switched to Peter Pettigrew. He might be hiding as a rat, that's his Animagus form. A fortnight after we switched, Lord Voldemort found us. Look in the newspapers for the aftermath and see if Sirius had any confrontation with Pettigrew that led to his capture. The funny thing is, Dumbledore knew about our switch of Secret Keeper."

"I hate this place. Dumbledore has Lloyd under his thumb, I'm fairly sure my defence professor is carrying Lord Voldemort on the back of his head, concealed by a turban, and I think Lord Voldemort's also trying to get the mysterious package guarded by a Cerberus. "

"What? " her father asks. Her mother's slipped away to somewhere, but Lily doesn't question it and instead launches into a detail-by-detail story of her year thus far.

At the end, he looks contemplative. "There is a map. The Marauder's Map, we created it while we were at Hogwarts. When you first open it, it will show four names: Moony, who is Remus Lupin, Padfoot, who is Sirius, Wormtail, who is Pettigrew, and Prongs. Each of them correspond with our Animagus forms. I was a stag. Moony is a reference to Lupin being a werewolf. Now, what you have to do is tap your wand and say, 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good' and the map will appear. It will show the castle and all its inhabitants, and where they are at all times. Disguises or changes of form, even Polyjuice or an Animagus transformation, cannot fool the map. If Peter Pettigrew is ever on Hogwarts grounds, you will know, so I suggest you get your hands on it. To reconceal the map, you'll just tap it again and say 'Mischief Managed'."

Lily knows exactly how useful this can be. "Who has the map? "

Her mother reemerges right then. " I just did some spying, Prongs and Prongslet. The Weasley twins have your map. They discovered the password on their own, you four in the map must've really liked him."

Lily stares, confused. "How did you spy? "

"It's a perk of being dead, I suppose ."

"I'll retrieve the map. And I'm sure I can bring Sirius Black to justice, especially since he's Lord of the Ancient and Noble House of Black."

Her mother raises her eyebrows in surprise. "Wasn't he disowned?"

"No. Lord Malfoy told me he was never disowned because the Lord Black at the time did not renounce him as heir, though his mother was upset. He's rightfully the new Lord Black. With the Black name practically being pureblood royalty, I think Lord Malfoy and I can manage."

Her father's pouting. "I can't even hate Lucius Malfoy anymore. If he's teaching you pureblood customs, he's practically adopted you into his family."

"When Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy come home, we'll need to give them thanks for taking care of you, " her mother says, her face more gently amused. Lily cannot help but realize her mother references death as home .

She supposes that's true.

"I'll be sure to pass on the sentiment. Also, my first Quidditch game is tomorrow. I'll be racing Lloyd for the Snitch. Did you know there are actually no rules that one has to actually ride a broom? And that I'm an Elemental with very good control over air?"

Her father looks thrilled. "That's brilliant! Why wasn't I an elemental?"

"You weren't Lord Voldemort's Horcrux."

"In that case, I think I'll pass."

"Will we see you next year? Our time is nearly drawing to a close."

Lily nods. "I'll come back every year. "

"Good. Goodbye, Prongslet. We'll do our best to watch over you, and never forget we love you."

Their embrace is cold, ghostly, and then they're gone. Lily stares at the now-empty spots. There is blood on her hands still from the ritual. For some reason, it's still not dried.

Lily learns that Professor Quirrell is the one who alerted the school to a troll. Her doubt in the Professor only grows as a result, and so she makes her way to the third-floor corridor.

"Hey, Fluffy. Was there anyone that came this night?"

Two people. First one was turbaned, second had black hair. Bit the second one on the leg .

"Oh, thank you. You can let the second person through, he's safe and my godfather. The first man is worse, but don't try too hard or he'll probably kill you. He's a little bit insane."

Okay. He just played music for me and then I think he looked down the trapdoor.

"I brought you treat, too," Lily says, and lifts up a handful of bacon. Fluffy immediately devours it. "Can you tell me what's under the trapdoor, or is that off-limits?"

Green strangling vines first. More traps. There's a small brown package at the end. I saw it brought in .

"Oh. Devil's Snare and a series of more challenges. Thank you, you've confirmed a lot of my theories." She strokes Fluffy's heads some more.

Love you.

Lily beams. "Love you, too."

"So your leg is mauled by the Cerberus, or at least that's what it told me," Lily says upon entering. "Do you need any help?"

"Yes, could you grade that entires tack of first-year Potions essays?" he groans. Lily laughs.

"Of course. Lloyd Potter, a Troll. Oh look, it's Lily Smythin… an O, of course."

"You're still supposed to grade in percentages for first-year. There are a couple of things they had to hit in their Potions essay."

"Let me guess. They had to explain the purpose of Ashwinder eggs and state explicitly that they are extremely reactive but don't react with anything in the potion, which is rare. They also had to list the properties of Ashwinder eggs and elaborate on how it reacts inside the body instead of in the potion."

He's pinching the bridge of his nose. "Correct. Give yourself a hundred. Read Miss Granger's and try not to…"

"Cringe at the excess amount of information given? Yeah, I can do that," Lily says, beginning to read Hermione's. "I mean, she hit all the points. Perfect score."

The next few days, the entire talk is that Lily Smythin, a snake, saved Hermione Granger, a lion, from the mountain troll. The stories are only encouraged by Hermione's affirmation and Lily's attempts to redirect attention back to Hermione for her quick learning.

That aspect of Hermione becomes rather praised in the school as well as Lily's "accidental magic".

While she thinks of a way to approach the Weasley twins, she looks up papers of Sirius Black. The story unravels. Cold fury blossoms, tendrils reaching through her. She marches up to the Gryffindor dormitories.

"May I go in?" she asks the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"Password first," the Fat Lady says. The portrait cowers slightly from the girl's cold but blazing green eyes.

She disappears.

Lily makes sure she's completely under a Disillusionment Charm before she strides up the stairs to the third-year boys' dorms. She enters the room without knocking, and when seeing no Weasleys anywhere, promptly takes out her wand.

"Accio Marauder's Map!" A small bit of parchment comes flying toward her and Lily smiles. She undoes the charm before she taps it. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good."

As predicted, the map opens up. Lily grins, wider this time and more genuine, though there's still something distinctly cold about the smile. She scours the map for two particular names: Tom Marvolo Riddle, which ought to overlap with Quirinus Quirrell, and Peter Pettigrew.

"What're you doing? Why… how did you even get in? The doors here are warded, for Merlin's sake! Wait… is that… why do you have it?!" Lily looks up to see one of the twins standing there.

"I needed the map," Lily says simply. She doesn't look up—she's still scanning for three names. "I'm Prongs's daughter."

"You know them?" he exclaims. "By the way, I'm Fred Weasley."

"Lily Smythin. I don't know them. One is dead, one is a Death Eater traitor presumed dead, one is wrongfully imprisoned in Azkaban after being backstabbed by said Death Eater traitor, and one is probably just struggling," she says. "Does your younger brother have a pet rat, by any chance."

"Yes. But—"

"Thanks, Weasley. Do you mind if I keep this?"

"Wait, if you don't know them, how—"

"Prongs died. I talked with him during Samhain," Lily says. "Just ask me if you need it for pranks or whatever."

She disappears, landing outside the Fat Lady's portrait. She pins the Fat Lady with a piercing gaze. "I trust you won't reveal information of my ownership to anyone," she says before disappearing, again.

It's Double Potions in about fifteen minutes. Lily pastes a fake smile to her face. "Hey, Weasley!" she calls.

"Lily?" he asks, cautious.

Lily tilts her head, keeps the smile. "You have a pet rat, right?"

"Yes… what about it?"

"Could I see him for a moment?"

When Ron brings it over, the rat is sleeping. "His name is Scabbers, he's been in our family for nearly eleven years. Maybe ten as of now."

Lily's eyes narrow at the information. "Hm. I feel like if he were human, he'd be balding," she says, poking it once on the side to wake it up.

"What do you mean?" Ron asks, slightly alarmed. Lily just beams.

"Oh, nothing. It's just that this rat gives off an aura of… I don't know, cowardice. Traitorous, almost murderous? I would be cautious around it," she says, frowning down at the rat, which looks rather panicked. "Would you be averse to replacing this thing with an owl? Maybe a kneazle, I've heard those have human-like intelligence, too, but they're a lot more loyal." She says it slowly, her smile turned vaguely threatening, eyes fixed on the rat. She glances up. "Will you be staying for Christmas?"

The rat is trembling on her hand.

"Oh… yeah. I'll be here for Christmas."

"I'll get you an owl then. Keep a close eye on the rat. And tell Potter to ward his bed at night. You'll find that the rat… what was his name, Peter or something? He can't leave Hogwarts."

"Scabbers. Did you put a spell on him?"

Lily smiles and shakes her head, dangerously congenial. "No, Hogwarts simply shifted its wards." She returns her gaze to the rat—anyone else would think it playful teasing, but up close her eyes are glowing, dangerous , her Fair Folk instincts pulled to the forefront. "Don't think about trying to escape… Scabbers, Peter, Traitor, whatever the name is."

She hands the rat back to Ron with a bright smile. "It'll be like a pet exchange! An owl for a rat."

"Alright then." Ron eyes the rat suspiciously.

The days pass without incident and she's nearly to the Quidditch game with no major incident. Then, Professor Snape comes storming in with a limp. Lily sighs, sure that something's happened.

"What happened?"

"Potter, who else? He saw me with my injured leg," Snape sighs.

Lily raises an eyebrow. "Why? Weren't you getting it tended in the faculty rooms?"

"How did you—nevermind, of course Draco told you. I, ah, took his book from him," he admits, a little tersely.

"You made something up about library books not being allowed outside the library, didn't you?"

There's a silence. Then, "Yes."

"Gods, if that were an actual rule I'd be serving detention for the rest of my life. Now they probably think you're after that small brown package that was in vault 713. Do you know what it is, by the way, or could you give me any hints? Because I know who's after it, but I don't know how important the package is."

He levels something between a glare and a gaze at her. "Have you been up to the third-floor corridor?"

"I tried not to, but then I ran into it by accident and I made friends with the Cerberus," Lily says in defence. "So can you tell me anything about the package?"

He mutters something which sounds like 'you'd figure it out anyway'. "Nicholas Flamel. There's your hint."

"He's famous for the Philosopher's Stone, isn't he? And he's six-hundred… wait, why would he move it to Hogwarts ? Curious children do the most damage, he should know that after six hundred years." She frowns.

"He's about as wise as a six-hundred-year-old should be," he says.

Silence falls as Lily's mind whirs, trying to piece together the narrative. It seems like Nicholas Flamel in fact has nothing to do with it, other than being the owner of the real stone, which—which is not hidden in Hogwarts, meaning it's a fake.

Why all the trouble for a fake?

Lily lets it sit before she remembers that Potter is in her year, Lord Voldemort believes it's real, and the Headmaster is Dumbledore, who is a suspicious figure who engages in plots.

"It's fake? So Dumbledore's just trying to draw Lord Voldemort out so he can delay Voldemort for a little while. And he probably wants poor Potter to be the one who learns everything and stops him, hopefully all without getting killed," Lily says. "So why did you go after him?"

"I needed to stop him until Lloyd figures out what the heck is going on underneath the trapdoor," he explains. He looks about as exasperated as she is.

"I bet I could get rid of him by fourth year. He may be powerful, but his soul is unstable so he's insane."

"His soul is unstable?"

"I mean, why else would he be insane? And he made accidental Horcruxes, of course his soul is unstable."

" Accidental Horcruxes? Lily, why do you even know what Horcruxes are?" He's visibly agitated. Lily rushes to explain herself.

"Well, at first it was because the scar on my collarbone ached everytime I looked at the back of Professor Quirrell's head, so then I did some research on scars, and then a book mentioned Merlin's scar and compared it to a human Horcrux, and then I did some more research. Anyway, there's no way Lord Voldemort purposefully made me a Horcrux, which implies his soul was unstable already from Horcruxes," she says. "I mean, it could be worse. He could be able to possess me, but he can't because I'm a natural Occlumens and also, the scar is on my collarbone, not right above my brain or something."

"You," he says, "have done a lot of research. Is that why you still haven't turned in the essay due a week ago?"

Lily grins, sheepish. "Talk to Flint! The Quidditch match is tomorrow and he won't let us rest."

"I happen to know he's been keeping perfectly reasonable hours," he says. "If you don't know what the essay is supposed to be on, you can always ask."

Lily widens her eyes in faux innocence. "I know what it's about! I was paying attention," she says. "Definitely not trying to brew anything semi-legal."

Her godfather pinches the bridge of his nose. "I am so glad that not all of the Slytherins are as fearless and ambitious as you, or I would have many more problems."

"Food," Draco says, shoving a plate at Lily. Lily frowns down at the heap of sausages and egg.

"Thanks, but I'll pass," Lily replies, her voice evidently saying she's silently judging his choice of food. At that, everyone immediately begins offering her different bowls and plates. She holds up a hand, and the clamour dies down. "Farley, could you pass me the fruit? And Captain Flint, the coffee please."

"You're not eating only that," Draco scolds. Lily grins.

"Of course I'm not. I mean, you gave me a plate of sausages and eggs too. So remind me what I'm supposed to do as Seeker?"

"Lily Smythin!" Draco exclaims as Lily begins to laugh. "As Seeker, you will do your best to avoid injury until you catch sight of the Snitch, in which case anything goes as long as you catch it."

"Okay then," Lily says in between sips of coffee. Five minutes later, the Slytherin Quidditch team begins to make its way out to the lockers.

Flint gives a customary pep talk, one entirely unneeded since all the Slytherins look ready to murder anyway. Then they march onto the Quidditch field, where Madam Hooch is refereeing, standing in the middle of the grass and waiting for the two teams, her broom in hand.

"Now, I want a nice fair game, all of you," she says the moment all of them are there. Lily notices a particularly severe glance towards Flint, and then decides to ignore whatever else she's saying in favour of observing the crowd—there are equal amounts of people cheering for her and Lloyd.

"Mount your brooms, please."

Lily swings a leg over her Nimbus. She has no intention of actually manoeuvring the broomstick; rather, she plans to sit on it, grip it with her legs, and use her affinity with air to move her. Madam Hooch gives a loud blast from her silver whistle, and they're off.

She just floats higher than the rest of the game and watches. She's aware that Lloyd's done the same thing, though arguably, Lily has a better perspective as she's a bit higher and in the corner of the field, meaning she can see everything.

Meaning she can also see Slytherin failing to do anything remotely useful with the Quaffle, and feel the mounting pressure to actually find, and catch, the Snitch before Potter does. When she sees a small streak of gold hurtling towards Adrian Pucey, who's in possession, she knows two things.

One: she must stop the Snitch from distracting Pucey, and maybe the Slytherins will score for once, and two: she must get the Snitch before Potter.

She dives, this time relying on her broom speed while making the air around her more fluid. Marcus Flint is not getting out of her way and suddenly she realizes why; Potter's also seen it and is diving straight at Flint and she really needs to move faster.

She does, except then the blow of a whistle distracts her from the Snitch, and she loses sight of it. There are screams of "FOUL" before a penalty is awarded and the game continues.

Lily is vaguely aware of someone weaving magic around her broom. She fixes the broom in place with a couple slabs of now-hardened air, meaning the jinx needs to combat her own magic to gain control over the broom.

It still bucks a bit, which she knows a couple of people notice and take action on—she spares a glance to the stands and immediately sees Hermione Granger knock over Professor Quirrell (thank goodness) and then seem to set fire to Uncle Severus or something. She ignores all of this and just goes for the Snitch, which she's caught sight of yet again.

Potter is still looking in the wrong direction; the only thing that alerts him is Lily passing right by him in a dive. He immediately follows, but even on the same broomstick he can't match her speed.

She catches the Snitch and holds it up to signal the end of the game—there's a large whoop from the Slytherin stands. Wood's still complaining about broom malfunctions, because "Did you see the speed of her compared to Lloyd, Madam Hooch, there must've been a broom malfunction that put us at a disadvantage!" but it doesn't matter as he can't prove it, and the game's won at 210 to 120.

Lily's aware of Potter and Weasley conversing in hurried tones with Granger on the edge of the field. As everyone else files away, they stay there, so as soon as she can, she excuses herself and makes her way to them.

"I'm guessing you wanted to talk with me?"

"Lily, we thought we should warn you. Professor Snape was jinxing your broom and you ought to be careful around him—" Hermione's cut off by Lily's laughter.

"Was that what you thought? Well, thank you for the sentiment of the warning," Lily replies with a warm smile.

"Wait, what do you mean? It wasn't Snape?" Ron asks.

"He's my godfather, guys. Thanks for knocking over Quirrell though, his continued eye contact was starting to get annoying," Lily grins before leaving them with that piece of information. She knows they're going to go to Hagrid with it.

It might not be a smart idea, but Lily decides to accompany them. She casts a strong Disillusionment Charm and follows them.

"I found out something about him. He tried to get past that three-headed dog on Halloween. It bit him. We think he was trying to steal whatever it was guarding. And then there's Professor Quirrell. Lily says that it's him that was jinxing her broom, not Professor Snape."

There's the shattering sound of a teapot crashing.

"How do you know about Fluffy?"

"The Cerberus?"

"Yes, remember, Lily told us his name?"

"Yeah—he's mine—bought him off a Greek chappie I met in the pub las' year—I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the—"

Greek chappies, Lily supposes, makes sense since Cerberuses were first seen in Greek mythology and are native to Greece.

"Yes?"

"Now, don't ask me anymore. That's top secret, that is."

"But Snape's trying to steal it."

"Rubbish. Snape's a Hogwarts teacher, he'd do nothin' of the sort."

"Then why was he trying to kill Lily along with Quirrell? I know a jinx when I see one, Hagrid, I've read all about them! You've got to keep eye contact and Snape wasn't blinking at all, I saw him!"

"I'm tellin' yeh, yer wrong! I don' know why Lily's broom acted like that, but Snape wouldn' try an' kill a student!"

Lily releases the charm. "My godfather would not try and kill me. No one does that. He was trying to apply a counterjinx, those require eye contact, too." She disappears again. None of them blink—the three Gryffindors are more than used to her sudden appearance and disappearance by now, and Hagrid's too caught up in a defence of Professor Snape.

"She's right. Now listen to me, all three of yeh—yer meddlin' in things that don' concern yeh. It's dangerous. You forget that dog, an' you forget what it's guardin', that's between Professor Dumbledore an' Nicholas Flamel—"

"Aha! So there's someone called Nicholas Flamel involved, is there?"

The holidays are nearly upon Hogwarts and the school is showing it. Professor Snape informs Lily rather gleefully that he took five points off of Gryffindor due to Ron threatening Draco and the only conclusion Lily reaches is that Draco needs to learn how to fight.

She takes it upon herself to teach Draco martial arts and boxing, telling him that yes he must take classes, otherwise he'd be an utter fool because what if one day his wand gets taken from him?

Lily asks Hogwarts to find a suitable room for teaching martial arts right after Uncle Severus's story and Hogwarts comes up blank. She can't think of anything either, which frustrated her to no end.

"Have you considered that, as the Lady in possession of Hogwarts, you have access to Hogwarts' vast amount of house elves?" Draco asks, lounging on the couch. "If anyone could tell you about rooms in Hogwarts, the house elves can."

"Hm. Smart. I'll make a visit to the kitchens, see you later!"

"If you run into Potty and the Weasel, make sure to punch them for me!" Draco calls back.

"Nope. You can do that once you learn how to physically fight," Lily says as she exits the common room. Before she reaches the library, however, she comes across Hermione Granger.

She's speaking. "Just one. And that reminds me—Lloyd, Ron, we have half an hour before lunch. We should be in the library."

"Oh yeah, you're right." Ron actively tears his eyes away from Professor Flitwick, who's creating golden bubbles and trailing them over the tree.

"The library? Just before the holidays? Bit keen, aren't yeh?"

"Oh, we're not working. Ever since you mentioned Nicholas Flamel we've been trying to find out who he is," Lloyd replies.

"Hey, Hermione!" Lily says as she walks in. "Potter, Weasley. Hagrid." She nods towards them. "Ron, what kind of owl do you want?"

Ron stutters. "Uh, anything's good."

"Okay! Nicholas Flamel is six-hundred years old, by the way, so he won't be in any books talking about modern magical discoveries," she says.

"How did yeh know, Lily?" Hagrid exclaims.

"He's famous. He's on Albus Dumbledore's Chocolate Frog card and his creation is literally legendary. One first-year was going to know him."

"Lily, could you give us a title of a book if you can't share the information with us?" Hermione pleads. Lily raises a brow. "We'll owe you one." She evaluates the group of three before replying.

"The book's title is A Development of Ancient Magics and Alchemy . Page seven hundred and eighty-four will have the passage you're looking for. I believe it's already checked out of the library, and you, Hermione, probably have it in your possession." Lily loves her memory sometimes.

As she walks away, she overhears their hushed conversation—

"Why'd you say we'd owe her one?"

"She's a Slytherin. She needs to know that we know we owe her a favour."

"And what if the favour is something like go kill yourself?"

"Lily saved me from a troll and Neville from cracking his spine, d'you really think she's going to ask you to kill yourself?"

"Well, Lloyd, our buddy here, called her a mudblood the first time we met."

"Did you ever apologize, Lloyd?"

"Let's just get the book. Hermione?"

No, he hadn't apologized. Lily tickles a pear to enter the kitchens; when she appears, all the house-elves immediately bow. A couple of them come over.

"What can we be getting the Lady?"

"Hello, what are your names?"

"I am Dinky, miss. She is Eeta."

"It's nice to meet you, Dinky and Eeta. Would you two happen to know a place where I can teach one of my friends martial arts?"

"Yes, yes Lady! We know just the room, we house-elves call it the Come-and-Go Room! Come, we will take you."

They go all the way up to the sixth floor. They have her walk three times past a blank wall, telling her to envision what she needs, and on the third time there's suddenly a door.

No wonder it's called the Come-and-Go Room.

Almost immediately, Lily starts her first lesson with Draco. It's really just an assessment, which she lets Draco know, and she learns that he's certainly strong enough to fight though he doesn't have the reaction speed or skillset yet. She lets him know this and then has him practise kicks for the rest of the time.

The rest of the time she spends at the library in the Restricted Section. The books she wants to read open before she even touches them, so she figures she has some sort of legal permission to read them without a permission slip.

Pureblood Royalty

Chapter Summary

Lily frees Sirius, Wizengamot convenes, Dumbledore is not pleased and also scheming, and we learn about magical houses!! There's a Yule celebration at Grimmauld Place, too. Oh, Lily also tortures Pettigrew a little. Not really-- there's no graphic description, at least, but she casts eight Sectumsempras on him.

Basically, this covers Lily's very eventful Yule holiday.

Chapter Notes

Hey! I'm posting this early since I know tomorrow is... busy... but anyway, here's the update! Same disclaimers, etc. Again, all feedback is appreciated and thank you all for your encouragement 3 Hope you enjoy!

Christmas break begins with Lily making her way to the Ministry of Magic, wearing a cloak which conceals her face.

She supposes there are worse ways to spend Yule than surprising old wizards and witches. Lily's well aware of which bills will be introduced this winter session; in fact, while in Hogwarts, regularly meeting with Lord Malfoy, she'd been able to offer input and write a few. Lily Apparates into the Ministry, ignoring the fact she's not legally cleared to Apparate yet, and walks over to meet Lucius Malfoy.

"Lord Malfoy," she greets.

"Lady Slytherin," he replies, half-smirking—an expression she now knows is his resting face—and with a voice just loud enough to carry through the Atrium. For that, he gets a raised eyebrow.

They walk to the elevator, ascending to the tenth level.

"You remember the bills that will be introduced?"

"Yes."

"And you know how you will approach Chief Warlock?"

"Lady Slytherin greets you, Chief Warlock Dumbledore, and claims the seven seats of the Ancient and Noble House of Slytherin, the Ancient and Noble House of Gryffindor, the Ancient and Noble House of Potter, and the Ancient House of Gaunt. I set the seven seats as undetermined and they will serve no party."

"If he asks you for your age or other personal information?"

"I wish for that information to remain confidential as the Lady of Ancient and Noble Houses."

"If he asks you for proof that you are who you claim to be?"

"I completely evict him as Headmaster and he is no longer allowed back to Hogwarts castle," Lily says. Mr Malfoy laughs. Then Lily gives her serious answer, "Chief Warlock, with all due respect, the Ladyship rings testify that my words ring true."

Lily holds back the urge to scream 'see what I did there?' because it's childish, but nonetheless.

"Good. Lord Dumbledore does not appear at Wizengamot often, only to open the sessions in summer and winter. He will likely make his only appearance at Wizengamot today. And remember, don't terrorize the Minister too much."

"I wouldn't dream of it… unless he starts it." Lily's smile is wild in a carefully controlled way, dangerous and curling.

"As Chief Warlock, I welcome all new members. If you would please rise," Dumbledore intones. Lily rises; she's the only one.

"Lady Slytherin greets you, Chief Warlock Dumbledore, and claims the seven seats of the Ancient and Noble House of Slytherin, the Ancient and Noble House of Gryffindor, the Ancient and Noble House of Potter, and the Ancient House of Gaunt. I set the seven seats as undetermined. They will serve no party."

Dumbledore's face turns to an expression of shock before it's quickly concealed. He's furious; as Lloyd's magical guardian, the seats for Gryffindor and Potter had been his to use for his advantage. Now, they're gone.

It's concerning for his plans regarding Lloyd. Dumbledore considers that maybe he should pay more attention to his duties as Chief Warlock.

"As Chief Warlock, to protect the integrity of those seats, I ask for your age."

"I wish for that information to remain confidential as the Lady of Ancient and Noble Houses… and as the Lady who owns the very grounds of Hogwarts," Lily says the last part with flashing eyes.

He gulps. "Very well. Let us commence with the first bill introduced by the undetermined Lady Pyria."

Lily knows this bill; it's the one on funds for magical orphanages which will have tutors to teach muggleborn orphans magic and Wizarding culture along with a continued education in sciences, reading, writing, and mathematics.

She puts her seven votes forward in favour of the orphanage and it passes with a surprising majority. Lily's aware of Lucius Malfoy's wondrously Slytherin plan; the clauses in each bill he pushes forward will work together to create an end result of muggleborns being recorded by the Ministry, being made aware at age eight, and either being taken to the orphanages or staying at home but going to the orphanage for lessons. And magical orphans will be placed in those muggleborn orphanages as well, but they'll know their family trees and have special lessons for whatever roles they'll be expected to take on when they grow older.

Lloyd James Potter, for example, would have been placed there and instructed on the workings of Wizengamot and its House of Nobles.

After court closes, Lucius tells her that the day has been very productive. Nearly a quarter of the bills they wish to pass are already in motion and magical orphanages will start building next week.

Lily's tired after staying inside so long, debating proposed bills, but she does still have business. Instead of going back immediately to Potter Manor, she makes a visit to 12 Grimmauld Place. It's rather… unsavoury, and upon her entrance, some screaming occurs. Lily winces at the sound but heads towards it anyway. It leads her to a portrait of Walburga Black.

"Lady Black," she says. "I have a couple questions."

"We answer to no one, especially not filth like you!"

"Hm. My name is Lily Genesis Smythin, Lady of the Ancient and Noble House of Slytherin, the Ancient and Noble House of Gryffindor, the Ancient and Noble House of Potter, the Ancient House of Gaunt, and Heiress Black."

Well-treasured silence, at last .

Then, Walburga Black speaks, looking shocked. "How many years have passed, my dear?"

"Ten since the defeat of Lord Voldemort and your son's imprisonment. He is Lord Black now, and wrongfully imprisoned in Azkaban. I suspect foul play, most likely imprisonment without trial."

"Lord of the most Ancient and Noble House of Black, imprisoned without a trial?" Walburga Black's voice has gone dangerously cold.

"And wrongfully. I plan on bringing this up to the DMLE which has a new administration. Amelia Bones is the head of Department of Magical Law Enforcement and I believe I can coerce the Minister and thus his Senior Undersecretary to at least hear a trial. I plan on going in as Heiress Black with the backing of Lady Slytherin. They, after all, do not know that we are the same person."

"Bring him back. The House needs a Lord or Lady in it; I'm sure you can already see the house's deterioration."

"I will. Is there anything I should know?"

"Sirius Orion Black would never betray James Potter. They were inseparable. Regulus, Sirius' brother, did become a Death Eater, but he died. Kreacher might be able to tell you more about Regulus. He certainly will not tell me; it's almost as if Regulus commanded Kreacher to not talk about his death to family members. Have Sirius testify with Veritaserum and have him talk with our lawyer Riley Turke from Turke and Yosley. He should not have to stand trial, and if you can, get into the news that Sirius was released after wrongfully being imprisoned."

"Thank you, and I will talk with Kreacher if the subject of Regulus comes up."

"I suppose you must have other duties. Good luck and thank you, Lady Slytherin," Walburga Black says. Lily smiles.

"Thank you for your information and your aid, Lady Black," she replies before exiting 12 Grimmauld Place. Lily Apparates into Potter Manor. The house elves Pinky and Trinket greet her and lead Lily to the dining room.

After dinner, she loses herself in the library, makes a late-night visit to the portraits of Dorea Black and Charlus Potter, and finally claims a room and sleeps.

"I was hoping I could avoid this. Tell Amelia Bones that Heiress Black is here to see her and it is a matter of utmost importance. Now," Lily hisses and the girl suddenly nods, scared, and flees to Amelia Bones. Lily's quickly ushered in after that.

"What is this matter of utmost importance, Heiress Black?"

"It has come to my attention that Lord Black is currently in Azkaban, not having had a trial. I believe that if even thieves and other claimed Death Eaters were given a trial and if Bellatrix Lestrange, who confessed to the crime at the scene, was given a trial, then a member of perhaps one of the most prominent Wizarding families which have contributed discovery upon discovery to Wizarding society ought to have had a trial as well."

"It was wartime, Miss Black. He did not need a trial if there was sufficient evidence."

"May I point out the case of Bellatrix Lestrange? And Lord Black does not have sufficient evidence like Bellatrix Lestrange had. There is nothing in his file which states that Lord Black confessed. And pardon me for pointing out the obvious, but there are no spells which blast people into such tiny smithereens that only a finger is found. I prefer to go by Miss Smythin, if you'd be so kind," Lily replies.

"Miss Smythin, I apologize. There is nothing in his file?"

"I have his file here, Madam Bones. There is nothing, if you'd like to review it. The Minister and his Senior Undersecretary are already moving Sirius Orion Black to a holding cell. I just thought it to be relevant that you know this as well."

"The… Minister?"

"Lady Slytherin had a few words with both of them. As this mistake was obviously a fault of the previous administration, they had no issues with being the harbingers of justice."

"I see. And what brought this on?"

"Contacting James Potter and Lily Evans during Samhain," Lily replies. Madam Bones' eyebrows shoot up higher, if that's possible.

"James Potter and Lily Evans condemned another?"

"You may have heard of him, his name is Peter Pettigrew and he is very much alive. If you'd like, I'll bring him in." At the end, Lily's face takes on a vindictive smile.

"Once Sirius Black is cleared, it would be excellent if you could bring in Peter Pettigrew to stand trial." If possible, Lily's smile grows brighter and Madam Bones can't help but smile back. Families like the Bones may seem just as kind as muggleborns, but there remains vindictive streaks of justice and vengeance which run through their blood, too.

Lily makes a visit to Ministry holding cell #15 after the second day of Wizengamot.

"Lord Black," Lily says with a small nod.

"Are you the one that claimed I'd been wrongfully imprisoned?"

"Prongs told me on Samhain night but I couldn't do anything until I was out of school. I apologize," Lily says quietly. "If you see me in a cloak obscuring my face, I am Lady Slytherin, by the way. When I'm like this, I am Lily Smythin, Heiress Black. Your mother alerted me to your situation regarding lawyers and I have made appropriate calls. I do not think I need to tell you this, but just in case— do not talk to anyone unless it is Turke and do not talk to anyone without Turke's presence. Are you willing to testify under Veritaserum?"

"Yes."

"Good. And it looks as if Mr Turke has arrived," Lily says. "Hello, Mr Turke. If you would make a note that Sirius Orion Black is willing to testify under Veritaserum… thank you. And I've heard the rule that Blacks do not stand for trial. I think we should be aiming for that."

"Duly noted, Heiress Black. Lord Black, is there anything else you wish to make known?"

"I would like to see Heiress Black handle this matter," Sirius says. Lily can tell he's trying desperately to save face.

"I own a majority of stocks in the Daily Prophet. I believe there is room there to… shall we say, appropriately portray Lord Black. And as you are Lloyd Potter's guardian and Lloyd Potter is known as the Boy Who Lived, no matter how false that title may be, I think we have serious grounds for a new portrait of you. Tell me, are you Potter's magically sworn godfather?"

"Yes. Which was why I couldn't understand why I was in Azkaban for a while," Black says.

"You're aware Dumbledore knew about the switch in Secret Keepers and chose to not get you a trial? As Chief Warlock and Headmaster of Hogwarts as well as Leader of the Light, he could've easily accomplished it," Lily points out. Black frowns.

"I'm sure he's been busy—"

"For ten years, yes, but he found time to get Professor Snape a trial and testify for him? Lord Black, you know as well as I do that Albus Dumbledore is a manipulative turd," Lily frowns down at him. "Also, you really need a bath once you get out of here. Mr Turke, remember to ask the question regarding the nature of Lord Black's godfathership."

"Alright. I will correspond with Lord Henry at the Daily Prophet telling him of Sirius Black and telling him to send you the final draft for approval."

"That's perfect, thank you. I trust that this matter will be quickly resolved and that Sirius Black returns to 12 Grimmauld Place upon his emancipation and the settlement awarded to him. His imprisonment violates Laws 42 and 45 of the Treaty of 387, the Treaty of the Magna Carta, which has applied to the Wizarding World since 1782, Law 54 of the Wizarding Charter of Rights, and Law 354 of the Treaty of 1886, along with Law 13 of the Treaty of Wizengamot. The resulting damage of his name violates Law 65 of the Treaty of Wizengamot, Law 42 of the Wizarding Charter of Rights, and Laws 54 and 75 of the Treaty of Ancient and Noble Houses. His obvious horrible treatment while in prison which led to a decrease of health violates Laws 36, 54, and 72 of the Treaty of 1867 and Law 78 of the Wizarding Charter of Rights. Though a physical may be needed to prove the last bit, but it's quite obvious that he's been starved and wrongfully exposed to dementors which violates the laws stated above. Lord Black should be awarded quite a large settlement for that. Have you noted all of this?" Lily looks down at Mr Turke's notes. "Good. Lord Black, I believe I'll meet you at the end of today at Grimmauld Place?"

"Grimmauld Place?"

"Of course. 12 Grimmauld Place, is, let's say… about to shut down," Lily says and grimaces. "It needs the Lord to be there. Ten years without your presence, Padfoot. Ten years."

"How did you know—"

"I contacted Prongs and my mother during Samhain. And believe me when I say that Wormtail is going to get it. Did you know that even Hogwarts' restricted section has some rather nasty Dark curses?" Lily's smirk promises destruction. Sirius looks a combination of vindictive, horrified, and confused. "I'll explain everything once you get out. I think some Aurors are on the way right now— can I properly terrify them before the interrogation is held?"

"Go right ahead," Lord Black scoffs. True to her word, a group of Aurors appear.

"Hello, you're here to interrogate Lord Black, correct?"

"Yes. I want you to remember that no matter what blue blood one has, Veritaserum doesn't care," one of the Aurors says, smirking. Lily advances.

"And I don't care if I have to bind a couple of dementors to my will to get you into an Azkaban cell if you even think of harming him," Lily says. "Bear that in mind."

The Aurors look appropriately cowed, so Lily turns back to Sirius. "I'll see you at 12 Grimmauld Place."

"Fine, fine. Go on, don't you have a Wizengamot meeting or something?" he says, obviously annoyed. Lily just Apparates back to the Black townhouse.

Sirius Black does not have to stand for trial, though Lily does have Mr Turke sue on his behalf, anyway. Of course, that means he comes back to Grimmauld Place. By then, Lily has done a few renovations, but she cannot do many—Walburga Black is right; the house needs a Lord or Lady Black inside again.

"So let me get this straight: you're Genesis Lily Potter, Dumbledore is the least trustworthy person on the face of the earth, you've somehow achieved legal status, and Lloyd James Potter has no idea who you are?"

"That's...accurate," she says. "Can you reinforce the wards? I think the house needs it."

Dismissively, Sirius does so—the townhouse brightens slightly, seems to expand.

"And as I was trying to clean it I realized that there are magical pests here. But you have to be the one to tell the house to kick it out."

Silently, Sirius does so; there's a sharp crack. Lily stands to examine the curtains—they're free from Doxies, now.

"Oh. I was also wondering. Your brother, Regulus, was a Death Eater, right?"

"Unfortunately," Sirius says and grimaces. Lily realizes he's been so sullen because 12 Grimmauld Place is not one of happy memories. At the same time, she makes a note to call Kreacher later, to ask about Regulus. "By the way, I think we should start with the removal of Dark artefacts. Throw them out or something."

Lily gives Sirius a surprised look.

"Why? Won't they be more dangerous in the streets? We could just move them to Gringotts, if it unsettles your Light core," she says. "Are you going to join the Wizengamot winter session?"

Sirius shrugs. "I have no idea of the political situation right now. Frankly, I don't care. I'll just vote on whatever you vote for."

" What ?" Lily says, frowning. "Why—why would you vote for something based on the people? Currently, I'm behind movements for magical orphanages where magical orphans can be placed to learn and assimilate to Wizarding culture, and those with heritage can learn their political roles. It'll include serving abused muggleborn wizards and witches, where once abuse is discovered, they're moved to the orphanages. It also requires the Ministry to start recording the births of muggleborns. At eight, they'll learn about the Wizarding World. Either their parents comply and they take classes with tutors at the orphanages, or they'll be taken from the parents to the orphanages to learn anyway. I'm behind it because I've gone through pages of boring research on the topic."

"It sounds reasonable," he says, shrugging. "And you're a good person, I think."

"Right. But good people can make bad decisions. Lloyd Potter is completely under Dumbledore's thumb—he's being spoiled by the Dursleys, though he does have issues with Dudley. But, you know, he's still having a much more wondrous life than I did at the orphanage," Lily says. "Anyway, he called me a Mudblood. And Lucius Malfoy was actually the person behind all this."

"Malfoy doesn't want anything to do with Muggles," Black says. His eyes sweep the dusty house. "It might be better for me to just get a Muggle flat and visit this place once in a while. It's a haunt, really."

A teapot shatters.

Lily sighs. "This house is literally going to crumble. You don't care?"

"It doesn't feel like home," Sirius replies, point-blank. "I don't care. It's not home."

Lily shudders, expecting something else to fall. The curtains abruptly draw closed. She stands up and goes over, placing a hand there.

I'll make memories here, don't you dare give up. I'll redecorate, probably. Pale green curtains and a light beech floor, like the colour scheme my parents used. New furniture and new upholstery for the chairs , she thinks, and it's a promise to the sentient magic swirling in the house. And I know you can present better than this. I want you to present better than this, at least while I'm here .

When Lily draws back, the curtains have opened and the dining room's grown in size. Sirius is staring at her with wide eyes.

"I just cared for a second," Lily says. "What happy memories do you have here? Tell them as we walk around the house, especially upstairs." Lily shudders when she thinks of the upstairs.

Sirius draws in a deep breath. "Okay."

As they walk through the rooms, it's as if the smog clears. Little bugs start to hide themselves away, the curtains shake and open themselves firmly against the walls, the shutters finally fully open, and the house expands. The fireplace grows perhaps five times in size while Sirius talks about the first time he saw the house-elves roasting a deer while in the kitchen. The kitchen grows in size when Sirius recounts the first time he drank wine and then hexed Lucius Malfoy, resulting in the entire dining table fighting.

As he speaks, the wine glass he holds fills up with the same wine; as he samples it, elegant, Lily notices that his features are sharper now, odd angles and dangerously beautiful in the way only the Fair Folk have pulled off.

They go upstairs. It's already cleared, clean and elegant, though Lily insists on Sirius beginning redecoration of the Master's bedroom.

"You've got bad memories here, so redecorate."

"I don't—"

Lily cuts him off before he can say he doesn't care. "You're one of the Fair Folk, you know the importance of having this townhouse as your comfort. Oh, you might need to hold a celebration for your coming home—the house needs it, surely. And it's appropriate, considering the decade-long absence."

"Who would I even invite? I'm hardly in touch with anyone," Sirius points out. Lily beams—it's not a no.

"I'll invite the Malfoys over. Lady Malfoy is lovely, even if you dislike Lord Malfoy, but he'll be able to help with a guest list. And as Lord Black, everyone invited will come. This one can be small, since it's the first one—you probably only want the ones you're extending alliances to. The Minister, of course, to offer your thanks, and Madam Bones. I think you'd get along with Lady Longbottom. But the Malfoys are a must at this point, they're too politically powerful to not extend an invitation to."

"They might not come. And if we're doing this, I want Remus Lupin here."

"Sure. I want to meet Moony. Also, you're Lord Black. Beyond just the title, there's wealth, a strong bloodline tying you to the Fair Folk, and six seats in Wizengamot," Lily says, taking a chocolate from a plate which just appeared next to her. "It's, like, pureblood royalty."

"I suppose we ought to get Kreacher, then," Sirius says, sighing. With a crack, the house-elf appears, as if he's just been waiting for his name. He gives Sirius a once-over, shocked.

"Lord Sirius Black has returned to 12 Grimmauld Place! He is different, yes, very different! And Lord Black has restored Grimmauld Place to its former glory! What can Kreacher be getting Lord Black?"

"Kreacher, we were thinking of putting on a celebration of sorts for my release and return to society. It will be a smaller-scale event compared to other Pureblood functions, but it will serve its purpose quite well. If you could begin stocking up on food— you have access to the large trunk in the Master's bedroom which contains the money you'll need— it would be very much appreciated. Keep the house clean as well," Sirius instructs. "Lily, is there anything else?"

"Kreacher, I'd like to talk to you in private. It's about Regulus Arcturus Black." Sirius stands up, nods to Lily, and leaves.

"Heiress Black, I don't have infor—"

"All of Regulus Arcturus Black's former commands are declared null and void. Tell me his last order to you before he died, and give me a brief overview of how he died." Kreacher suddenly looks very resigned.

"Yes, Heiress Black. He told me to not tell any Black of the circumstances of his death and he gave me a locket and told me to destroy it. He died in a lake of Inferi after fetching the locket. The lake of Inferi was created by the Dark Lord."

"You talked about the locket. Bring me this locket," Lily commands. Kreacher nods and disappears with a crack, and then reappears with a golden necklace in hand. There's a large gold oval hanging from the chain with a serpentine 'S' engraved with green stones. Lily examines the locket and the magic around it, feeling the same dark aura she feels around her scar.

Lily takes it to her room and settles in for a long night—she needs to draw the soul out of the vessel, and from how desperately the soul seems to cling to the locket, it will not be an easy feat.

It is four hours later that there's a hiss and black wisp of something—it immediately dissipates—and a beam of pure silver light hits Lily in the chest. She staggers under the weight of the undone magic as it seeps into her core.

It is another two hours later that she emerges from the room, wearing the locker and floating on a high.

"I just destroyed a Horcrux and harnessed its magical power!" Lily announces as she laughs. Sirius gives her a raised eyebrow.

"I think you need to stay here for the night. Kreacher, could you help her settle in?"

"As Master wishes," Kreacher says.

Instead of resting like Lily knows Sirius wants her to, she reads the article on Sirius' emancipation which Lord Henry sent her.

BREAKING NEWS! Sirius Black, Pureblood Royalty, Tragically and Wrongfully Imprisoned!

It was quite a normal day for the three wizards and witches who recently acquired power to begin the process of Lord Sirius Black's emancipation. That is, until Heiress Black, who also goes by Miss Smythin, a student at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, made an alliance with Lady Slytherin in order to free Lord Black from his wrongful imprisonment.

Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic, was approached by Lady Slytherin and her plea for help in the emancipation process of Lord Black. Lady Slytherin and Heiress Black had discovered several things in searching Lord Black's files. First of all, Heiress Black had contacted the late James Potter and Lily Potter during Samhain night and found several disturbing things which all pointed to Lord Black having no role in the turning in of the Potter family. Upon that, she began searching the files of Lord Black and found that he had never had a trial— and nothing in his file incriminated him to be sentenced to Azkaban.

Cornelius Fudge wrote us, saying, "I was horrified upon this realization. What severe mistakes the previous administration had made! They had subverted justice for Lord Black even as they gave a trial to the absolutely mad Bellatrix Lestrange. As Minister of Magic, I had to acquiesce to Lady Slytherin's request. My values of justice and morality deemed it impossible to refuse."

The story came out when Lord Black agreed to testify under Veritaserum during interrogation. The story was this: James Potter and Lily Potter went into hiding through the Fidelius Charm and had switched their Secret Keeper last minute after Lord Black volunteered himself as a decoy. He said, "I was the obvious choice for Secret Keeper. I would be targeted for sure, so I told them to switch their Secret Keeper to a person which remained under the radar. That was Peter Pettigrew. Besides, I'm the oath-sworn godfather of one of their children. If I had turned them in, I would likely be without magic or dead. I thought that would come out at my trial, but I never got one." Lord Black also explained that Peter Pettigrew was a rat Animagus and Pettigrew had been the one to explode the sidewalk before cutting off his own finger and disappearing.

So now the truth is out: Lord Sirius Black, the best friend of James and Lily Potter, all three betrayed by their friend Peter Pettigrew, and Lord Sirius Black abandoned by both sides until now, when justice has finally been sought. The Lord Black was wrongfully imprisoned for a decade, forced to suffer the unjust punishment of dementors— he was forced to relive his worst experiences for a decade and lost ten years of his life, most likely more from the malnourishment he suffered at Azkaban. We were unable to reach out to Lord Black as he is currently recovering from the countless traumas he experienced while in Azkaban, but we are told to expect a full recovery and a return to both the political and social scene. As Lord Black, he has six seats in Wizengamot to his name, promising that he will be a prominent political player. A settlement is also to be awarded to him for his treatment and wrongful imprisonment without a trial in Azkaban.

See page 3 for Lord Sirius Black's transformation from Azkaban— a joyful, handsome face to a gaunt (though still handsome) man.

See page 4 for more details on the Fidelius Charm.

See page 8 for more information on the legal backing of Lord Sirius Black and the mistakes of the previous administration.

Lily nods in approval at the article before quickly penning a response and sending it back to Lord Henry.

An owl flies in the open window, dropping the Daily Prophet unceremoniously on Dumbledore's lap. He frowns at the owl before he turns his attention to the newspaper, which screams Sirius Black's emancipation at the top of the page. The sound a teacup shattering resounds through the office.

"Sirius Black? Emancipated?!" Dumbledore exclaims. He stands up, ignoring the spilt tea and the rest of the newspaper, and begins pacing his office.

This—this is not good. Sirius Black is now indebted to the girl, Heiress Black—why is she the Heiress again? Maybe he needs to pay more attention to Lily Smythin—and Black probably blames him for his stint in Azkaban. Well-placed blame, but nonetheless bloody inconvenient for him and the Greater Good.

The only way Dumbledore can think to win Sirius back for his plans in preparing Lloyd is by winning over Lily Smythin. And if she's too difficult, a few well-placed Compulsions will do the trick. Miss Smythin never wears her rings, anyway. A stupid decision, really, but it makes so many things easier.

By the end of the week, Lucius Malfoy's plan has already completed its first stage with the help of Lady Slytherin and Lord Black's votes. Lily has retrieved her Family Grimoires and Activo Relati and placed them in a mokeskin pouch with an Extendable Charm, among other protective charms, and consistently carries it on her person.

She's also finally met Remus Lupin, an unassuming professor-like werewolf who shows up after the article is released, demanding to talk to Sirius. After about two hours, the two of them come out, Sirius' eyes suspiciously red-rimmed, and there's a proper introduction between the two of them. Remus Lupin, however, doesn't even give two seconds before he calls her 'Genesis', so then naturally Sirius tells Lupin Lily's entire life story as delivered to him. Apparently, she looks too much like Lily Evans. The important thing, however, is that they all get along and Sirius looks considerably happier, having reunited with a long-lost friend.

Now there's only one other thing to freak out over—Sirius Black's upcoming Early New Year's Celebration, placed strategically between Christmas galas and New Year's Parties and other functions.

Lily's also worrying about the lack of retrieval of the Invisibility Cloak. She's rather upset about it— and she made her displeasure clear to Griphook, who'd immediately said that he'd send out more goblins and focus more attention on that task.

The Malfoys have been a tremendous help to Sirius and he reluctantly admits it; Lady Malfoy had helped Lily with re-decorating and decorating for the celebration and they'd gotten all the Dark artifacts to be subtly concealed and part of the decor or moved to the private rooms, the library, the office, or, as a last resort, Gringotts; Lord Malfoy had helped Lily and Sirius with the list of invitees and given them the addresses to send invitations to; and Draco Malfoy had sat in with them, discussed rather heatedly political subjects, brought Sirius to care again, been a source of support for Lily, and went with Lily to fetch the Grimoires and Activo Relati. At the end of the debate, invitations had been sent to the Malfoys, the Longbottoms, the Minister, the Bones, the Parkinsons, the Abbotts, the Greengrass family, Remus Lupin, and the Shacklebolts. (Lupin declines. It's nearing the full moon, and he needs to prepare for it. Sirius says he'll join Lupin during the full moon and Lily supposes he means that his Animagus will roam around with the werewolf.) Lily's just surprised that no one's been hexed while residing in the Black townhouse.

She's made visits to her three Manors, telling herself she'll look at the Gaunt house later—but really, she's just putting it off. Lily also has to get Pettigrew, but she decides to put that off for after the party but before the New Year's Parties. After all, box aside all nasty business before entering a new year.

"Lord Black, thank you for your kind invitation," Lady Longbottom says. "This is my nephew, Heir Neville Longbottom."

"Oh, Heiress Black has told me about Heir Longbottom— all good things, I promise," Sirius says, falling into pureblood customs rather nicely.

"It's an honour to meet you, Lady Longbottom. Heir Neville Longbottom," she greets the two. Then the Malfoys arrive and it's introductions again as they enter the ballroom, and then the Parkinsons, followed by the Abbotts, and then Kingsley Shacklebolt arrives, shortly followed by the Greengrasses. Spaced evenly are platters of small sandwiches and delicate glasses of champagne, which the guests help themselves to as they mingle in the ballroom. Lily and Sirius make a few obligatory rounds before Lily splits off to her friends and trusts that Sirius will hold his own at this celebration.

"I think the dances will begin shortly," Lily says. "I think Lord Black's planning on asking Lady Malfoy to dance, just to annoy your father, Draco."

"Of course," Draco laughs. He doesn't fail to notice the way the House creates a small spotlight on Lily and on Lord Black; where Lord Black moves, the flowers seem to grow taller and brighter, the lights shine brighter, and the carpets nudge people to make way. The same thing happens with Lily.

The music begins and the adults begin making their way onto the floor.

"Could I have this dance?" Neville says, addressing Astoria Greengrass with a polite smile. Astoria smiles back and nods, going out onto the floor with him. Draco turns to look at Lily.

"Heiress Black, may I have this dance?"

"Heir Malfoy, I would be honoured."

The two make their way onto the floor as well— two children, but two powerful children connected far more with the Fair Folk than they should be at their age.

They stay on the dance floor, twirling and stepping and surviving each dance as they follow the music and let their instincts take over. The dances become quicker and quicker, complications building upon complications, until Lily's aware that she's twirling five turns in milliseconds but she's not dizzy, and they're moving so quickly and so closely that one wrong foot placement could severely injure the other. The music doesn't stop, and neither do they.

"Heiress Black must be a pureblood. Look at the way she dances; no one but a pureblood has ever successfully completed that dance," Lady Longbottom says to Sirius.

"She's a half-blood."

"She acts like a pure-blood—like the instincts are engraved in her. Her face, her mannerisms. It's rare for a half-blood to find that space."

"Perhaps. She was recently introduced to the Wizarding World, so I must say I couldn't be more proud of her. And my thanks must also extend to Lord Malfoy," Sirius admits.

"Lord Malfoy?"

"He's been teaching her in my absence."

"Not so much teaching her as placing her in positions where she learns to rely on her instincts," Lord Malfoy replies, coming up to them. "You have a talented Heiress, Lord Black."

"Thank you, Lord Malfoy. So tell me about your plans for muggleborns again?" Sirius says. "I know about the magical orphanages but Heiress Black told me that you wanted an early introduction for muggleborns into the Wizarding World."

"That is correct. Muggleborns will be tracked at the Ministry so that at age eight, we can give them a proper introduction. If signs of abuse show, they will promptly be relocated to magical orphanages and be given classes in the normal subjects as well as another language, magical basics, and Wizarding culture. At age eight, muggleborns will begin taking the same classes as well instead of going to a Muggle school."

"And if the parents don't comply?" Lady Longbottom asks.

"They will be relocated, of course.

Muggleborns are part of our future generations, they belong to Wizarding Britain, not to the Muggle world, and the sooner the parents learn this, the easier the transition will be. And we must take care of our own future. We're also thinking of having a subclause that provides an opportunity for families— who are approved and are ingrained in Wizarding culture— to adopt from the magical orphanages," Lord Malfoy explains.

"Isn't this a little overkill?" Lord Parkinson says as he comes up.

"I think not. If we look at our current generations, we see muggleborns coming into the Wizarding World with no knowledge of Wizarding Britain's culture and sometimes not even having a foundation in magic. Because of this, they begin slowing the learning of other students down and they also begin to demand that our culture conform to them instead of the other way around. It's like the idea of immigration that Muggle governments have—immigrants must prove that they know the culture and will adapt to it before they are allowed through to become citizens. We cannot have muggleborns begin upturning culture they don't even begin to understand, and we certainly cannot have them trying to rip up the roots of our culture in an attempt to make culture become Muggle-ized."

"It's a compelling argument, Lord Malfoy. I will have to research further on my own, however, before I can promise my votes," Lady Longbottom says. Lord Malfoy smiles in response.

"I would not expect anything less, Lady Longbottom."

"So how has Heiress Black conformed in such a short time?"

"She's made the effort and she has the instincts for it. Muggleborns do not have an instinct to guide them through our manners and customs, which is why they actually need to learn the culture."

"Ah, this all ties back to the Fair Folk and genetics, does it not?"

"Of course it does. Nearly everything does, nowadays."

The music stops and the guests begin trickling into the dining hall. Lily quickly makes her way up next to Lord Black to create a sort of reception.

Kreacher's outdone himself a thousand times over for this celebration; everything is polished, dust has nearly been eradicated, and Kreacher has cooked to surpass his ability. The effort doesn't go unnoticed by the guests; there are appropriate oohs and aahs and compliments upon entering the dining hall, and once the food begins to be served, there's a state of near shock.

"You only have Kreacher?" Lady Parkinson exclaims, surprised.

"Only one house elf is incredible for this end result," Lord Shacklebolt comments.

"Yes, we only had Kreacher. The townhouse seemed to want to help us as well though, so he didn't have to do nearly as much cleaning as we expected," Lily explains.

"Oh, yes. Old townhouses are brilliant in that respect."

"Apparently Lily Smythin is Heiress Black!" Ronald Weasley proclaims. "I knew there was something wrong with her!"

"Why, what's wrong with her?" Potter asks, confusion written across his face.

"She's related to the Blacks! They're the Darkest family Wizarding Britain's got! They're full of pureblood nonsense and they're evil pricks, the lot of them."

"Well, Sirius Black can't be that bad. He's innocent of serving You-Know-Who and he was friends with my dad. And he was in Gryffindor."

"Sirius Black is some sort of exception. But you know Lily's 'I'm better than the lot of you' attitude; she's just like the rest of the Blacks!"

The day after Sirius' celebration, Lily Apparates herself to Hogwarts. She promptly begins to walk towards the Gryffindor tower, letting a cold fury begin to seep through her. A pale gold owl rests on her arm; it was an owl she'd found at Diagon Alley and decided to buy along with her own owl—a pure black owl with silvery eyes.

"Weasley!" she calls. Ron stands up from his game of Wizarding chess.

"How did you get in here?"

"The Fat Lady let me in, what else? Do you have the rat with you?"

"Scabbers? Yeah, he's right here."

"Hm. Well, I have your owl, so if you could give me the rat—"

"...Alright, but take care of him," Ron says, reluctantly handing Lily the rat. The owl flutters onto his shoulder as Lily sets down the cage and beginning owl care supplies.

"Yes, I know. The dementors at Azkaban will surely be happy to have him," Lily smiles, the smile suddenly all wrong but not wrong at all. Ron looks at the girl—her pale skin, her sharp angles, the glaring whiteness of her teeth, drawing in too much light and going sharp. Bright green eyes too, and her raven black hair, too, drawing in so much light but staying black. All of it is strange—but not that strange—put together, though it feels nearly wrong, too sharp, too cold, but. But not really. The sharp angles scream danger, just like Draco Malfoy's face sometimes does with the light absorbing itself into platinum blond hair, coming back out cold, angles seemingly sharper. Still, Ron has to admit that those angles, faces of elegant danger, stir up something in him like he's trying to remember something, something important to who he is, far unlike Hermione Granger's very normal (too normal) face—for a brief second, angles sharpen on his face, his red hair turns fiery, and then it's gone—perhaps just an illusion.

"Okay," Ron says, deciding not to question the girl too much. "Is it true you're Heiress Black?"

"Yes."

"So you're related to the Malfoys?!"

"Sorry, what? I'm related to the Blacks through Dorea Black. If you'll excuse me, I have an Animagus to force a transformation out of," Lily says, her voice cold and cutting. She turns and leaves.

"No, I'm sorry! I was scared, you don't understand, he was going to kill me if I didn't—"

"Oh, shut up. Incarcerous. Crucio." The spells are followed by eight "Sectumsempra" spells and another "Crucio". As Pettigrew suffers under the Crucio, Lily casts another. "Sine Beato."

"That spell imitates a Dementor's presence. Imagine that for the rest of your life— shame, isn't it? Oh, sorry… it's not, the pathetic excuse you are for a man, much less a wizard, is practically worthless. Struggling with a weak magical core, a lack of intelligence, and heaps too much cowardice." Lily's aware that her Crucios have stopped, so she casts again. "Crucio." Pettigrew screams as Lily smirks. Then she stops the spell.

"Obliviate. Aequabilis." she casts as she lets the cold fury out. She Apparates back to the Ministry with the bound and slightly injured man.

The next headline of the Daily Prophet proclaims Peter Pettigrew's capture.

The Rat Traitor Peter Pettigrew Apprehended and Awaiting Trial!

Peter Pettigrew, who is now infamous for his illegal Rat Animagus and now well-known betrayal of both the Potters and Lord Black was apprehended by Heiress Black, who had had her suspicions of Ronald Weasley's pet rat, Scabbers, since learning of the true story behind that fateful night at Godric's Hollow.

"I've been sleeping with a grown man in a Rat Animagus form ever since Hogwarts?!" was Ronald Weasley's reaction when we reached out to him. "I mean, I had my suspicions ever since Lily—" here he was paused by Heiress Black elbowing him in the side with a frown, "Sorry, Heiress Black started giving my rat the evil eye but I didn't think it was this bad!"

When we reached out to Heiress Black for comment, she said this: "I'm glad he was apprehended before anything truly bad could happen. He was residing with Ronald Weasley, Lloyd Potter's friend and roommate, so Lloyd Potter was in danger ever since setting foot in Hogwarts."

This revelation of Pettigrew's residence in such close quarters with Lloyd Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, who Pettigrew must have abounding hatred toward, is a disturbing revelation concerning the safety of Hogwarts.

See page 11 for Rita Skeeter's interview with Heiress Black.

Lily remembers that interview; she also remembers explicitly threatening Skeeter to only print what she said or risk facing the consequences. Ms Skeeter had immediately put away her Quick Quotes Quill. Instead of focusing on her capture of Pettigrew, Ms Skeeter had talked about her response to Ron. To that, Lily replied, "Mr Weasley is not my close friend, nor has he ever called me Lily before. In fact, I'm sure that he's judging me already on my relation to the Blacks, whom the Weasleys have had a longstanding feud with."

"So you don't approve of Mr Weasley?"

"I think Mr Weasley has his own strengths, but I am not close with him. I would say that we are civil acquaintances."

"What of Mr Malfoy?"

"Lord Malfoy has been a great help in introducing me to Wizarding culture."

"And your opinion of his son?"

"Draco is, at the very least, not a political enemy."

"So you would say you have an alliance?"

"Ms Skeeter, you were in Slytherin house. You know that Slytherin House has its own world of politics."

"Oh, but our readers in other Houses don't. Now, tell me about this capture of Pettigrew. How did he get those rather severe cuts? Surely a first-year wasn't capable of doing that."

When Lily comes back to Hogwarts, people begin to crowd her, asking her about Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, and the Malfoys. She smiles and plays her student role as much as she can but it's almost like she's become an authority figure to be looked up to overnight. As Lily shares her stories, the students crowd around her but keep their distance, almost as if they know that Lily is a witch too close to the Fair Folk to ever be normal.

Magical Creatures

Chapter Summary

Lily finds a Horcrux, talks to Dumbledore, kills a lemon drop, tries to help Hagrid with his dragon but no one listens to her, and figures out who's been drinking unicorn blood. Also, she takes her exams. (I wish I had near-eidetic memory tbh)

Chapter Notes

Hello, I'm back again! Again, all feedback is loved and appreciated :) and thanks to everyone for reading! Hope you enjoy!

Lily receives her invisibility cloak a few days later in the mail, with an apologetic note from Griphook explaining that the reason why it took so long was because the cloak was actually in the possession of Potter. She sighs when she learns that, knowing that Potter probably got into all sorts of trouble out of curfew with the cloak. She pockets it in her mokeskin pouch after she wards the cloak with a plethora of spells—including protective curses and a strong Notice-Me-Not. If that's not enough, she might have to ask the goblins to retrieve the cloak again.

One day, in the Great Hall, Pansy leans over to whisper to Lily.

"Dumbledore's looking at you, do you know what he wants?" she asks. Lily shrugs before noticing a Gryffindor fourth-year girl walking in her direction with a small note and a smug grin.

"I think we'll find out," Lily replies as her eyes meet the Gryffindor's. Pansy follows Lily's gaze, catalogues the smirk on the Gryffindor's face, and her eyes narrow.

"She's gleeful about this. What, do you think she thinks you'll be in trouble?" Pansy mutters.

"He probably just wants to talk to me because of my Dogfather," Lily replies, rolling her eyes. "I just hope he doesn't send any Compulsion charms at me."

"We'd tell you if you were acting strangely." Pansy snorts. "He wouldn't know subtlety if it hit him in the face."

"Miss Smythin, Headmaster Dumbledore wanted me to give you this note. You're supposed to meet him in his office at seven tonight… what did you do to get expelled?" the girl asks snidely. Lily raises an arched eyebrow at her as the Slytherins around her bristle and turn to face the girl.

"Expelled? Hopefully not, considering I wasn't at Hogwarts this Yule break, unless Dumbledore suddenly got authority to expel students for things outside of school?"

"Headmaster Dumbledore!" the girl insists, voice a little shrill, but she leaves.

"Well, I wonder what he wants from you," Draco says, jumping into the conversation.

"Do you think it has anything to do with Lord Black? I mean, it's pretty obvious that he would want Lord Black back on his side," Blaise theorizes. "And the best way to do that is through you."

"Lord Black is completely his own person, I don't know why he would turn to me," Lily scoffs.

"Hello, Headmaster, you wanted me?" Lily asks as she enters the office. Dumbledore stands up and smiles, blue eyes twinkling.

"Yes, Lily, my dear girl. I heard about that awful travesty with your godfather and I wanted to say that I would be willing to help you with anything at all, even if it's just for a talk," Dumbledore says. Lily smiles slightly, which Dumbledore counts as a win.

"Thank you, Headmaster. I'll keep that in mind… is that all?"

"Yes, would you like a lemon drop before you leave?" Dumbledore asks, offering one of the sweets. Lily accepts it and Dumbledore's eyes twinkle more furiously.

The moment Lily leaves, she throws the lemon drop down seven stories of Hogwarts and it shatters in shards on the pavement. The lemon drop had coated her fingertips in a clammy feeling—no doubt it was laced with some sort of potion.

She learns from Draco Malfoy later that he hexed the Longbottom heir—to which she just sighed. He gives her another piece of information, which is that all of that was done to try and get information on Quidditch. It doesn't make it much better, but Lily will take what she can get. Apparently, Uncle Severus is refereeing the following weekend's Quidditch match—Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff. Lily raises an eyebrow at that.

"Why is he so concerned with Quidditch?"

"Probably wants to stop Gryffindor where they are in the rankings," he hypothesizes. Lily shakes her head.

"I think Dumbledore's worried about Lloyd so he's setting Severus there," she replies. "After that whole thing with Pettigrew. I'd be shaken, too."

"It's plausible."

The match goes for five minutes, until Potter catches the Snitch. At the same time, Lily notices Uncle Severus slipping away from the corner of her eye. She debates internally for a moment before she pulls the invisibility cloak over her head and follows him. At a faint rustling above her, she looks up to see Lloyd Potter on a broom, trailing her godfather as well.

"I d-don't know why you wanted t-t-to meet here of all p-places, Severus…"

"Oh, I thought we'd keep this private. Students aren't supposed to know about the Philosopher's Stone, after all."

"I-I d-don't know what y-you want me t-t-to do, Severus."

"Have you found out how to get past that beast of Hagrid's yet?"

"B-b-but Severus, I—"

"You don't want me as your enemy, Quirrell."

"I-I don't know what you—"

"You know perfectly well what I mean." An owl hoots and Lily can't hear the conversation for a few seconds. "—your little bit of hocus pocus. I'm waiting."

"B-but I d-d-don't—"

"Very well. We'll have another little chat soon, when you've had time to think things over and decided where your loyalties lie."

Lily observes Quirrell for a moment—he's standing quite still, almost as if petrified, but his clenched hands, slowly relaxing, give him away. Quirrell's obviously trying to calm himself down—whether to prevent himself from ripping her godfather apart or to prevent himself from hyperventilating, Lily isn't quite sure.

She knows which conclusion Potter's reached, however, when she looks up to see his aghast face. Lily begins walking back to the castle and finds her way to the Come-and-Go Room. Merlin knows she needs to think things through—but first, she's curious to see the Room's natural state.

She holds that thought in her mind as she paces the corridor. Silently, the wall begins to expand, revealing a heavy-cast iron door.

And they left, walking under the hills of the west for a new world, for they could not find the beauty of heavy-wrought cold iron or castles of stone.

Lily walks through and finds herself in a mess of things . She wades through them, moving things with her will so that they all end up sorted nicely in stacks against the wall. One catches her attention, however—a bust. It's what the bust's wearing that draws her eyes, though. The diadem crowning its head, which perfectly matches every description of Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem that she's ever read, is in front of her.

She takes it and throws it in her mokeskin pouch, running out of the room in search of the Grey Lady. It takes five minutes before she realizes how idiotic her search is when she can just call the ghost to her.

"As Lady Slytherin, owner of this castle and the grounds it rests on, I call thee, Helena Ravenclaw, to my presence." Lily lets a satisfied smile out when the ghost appears, the Grey Lady's face all sharp angles even in a misty form.

"Who are you, and how did you call me?" she asks suspiciously.

"I found your mother's diadem in Hogwarts. But it's been lost for centuries, supposedly," Lily says, pinning the ghost with a searching gaze.

The ghost breaks down easily. Lily thinks it has to do with the way a secret expands in one's chest until, given enough time, it explodes out with minimal or no prodding.

She tells the story of a young girl, powerful but overshadowed, talented and made to feel talentless. Jealousy is an angry thing, one that burns but feels like ice, that tells one to take and take and run and run until one's lungs are bursting. And so she ends up in Albania, holding a diadem she does not particularly care for other than that it is her mother's and it is family, family family . She hides it in a tree when the Bloody Baron comes searching—a former lover, one she ran from. Days and days of pleading— come back, come home. We miss you, we miss you, we miss you —pleading which echoes in her mind, going in circles, until she screams her refusal.

Anger is a jealous thing, one that burns but feels like ice, that tells one to take and take and run and run until one's lungs are bursting. And the Bloody Baron has always contained anger, simmering right under his skin, just like she has always had jealousy, crowning her mind and splashing glitter on her skin. They are spirits in seconds. She flees from him, travels the world, and he is always there, clanking his chains of penance behind him; her mother dies and she flees back to Hogwarts, thinking he will not follow.

He does. He follows, he has always followed. The diadem does not— family, family, family, mother does not follow.

It is shame dug deep and hidden in condensed mist, a story which she refuses to give to the rest of the world, until Tom Marvolo Riddle, a young boy but a young boy who understands , who knows what it means to be talented but made to feel talentless, to have to find worth simmering in one's fingertips, to have a never-ending desire to take and take and run and run . She tells him, when she has watched long enough, tells him about the diadem and asks him to bring it back to her, for family family family and mother .

He does. He does, but the diadem is tarnished, off, because like her jealousy crowns his mind and splashes glitter on his skin, and no one stopped him (killed him) before he took it too far. He did not let anyone close enough for anyone to stop him.

Ambition without morals. It's a terrifying combination.

The Grey Lady's eyes are far away when she tells this story—she is far away, perhaps in Hogwarts when it was merely a child castle, perhaps in the cold forests of Albania, perhaps travelling between all of them.

"I can fix it. I can take the soul out," Lily says.

The Grey Lady nods. "Keep the diadem. Take it wherever. Hogwarts has seen enough of it." She pins her gaze on Lily in turn, searching—piercing. "Lady Slytherin, do not let the jealousy overtake you," she says, and it is a warning. All Lily can do is nod.

Lily returns to the Slytherin common room on another high.

"You look cheerful," Pansy comments.

Lily laughs. "You try pulling the soul out of a Horcrux and then getting hit with the excess energy of the undone magic without being cheerful afterward," she replies. In fact, Lily's fairly sure the excess energy is added to her magical core—it feels larger, shimmering closer to the edges of her skin, escaping out in soft tendrils. She supposes it's good that she's always been good at controlling it.

"You what ?" Pansy says.

Lily realizes her slip-up immediately. "Okay, so I guess I have some explaining to do. A little bit, mind you, it's not that bad."

Pansy takes in Lily's story without feeling too much betrayal. They are Slytherins, after all, and everyone hides their secrets under cloaks and facades, and the nature of a secret is that it's known to a select few.

"So I'm one of three other people who know this about you? I'm ranking above Potter?" Pansy asks. Lily nods. She's still bouncing up and down on her toes.

"You need to calm yourself, actually. We have Transfiguration with the Hufflepuffs in ten minutes."

"I'll finish riding out this high probably in half an hour."

"That's it, do you have Sobering Potion?"

"You, Pansy, are brilliant, speaking of which, no I don't have the potion or else I would've taken it, so could you be a dear and raid Professor Snape's stores for me?"

Pansy looks at Lily's current state and decides it would be better for her to raid Professor Snape's stores, as Lily currently would be very easily distracted by Amortentia or something.

Lily catalogues every change in appearance Quirrell has; he pales and thins and Lily's sure it's because he's either losing his life force or he's staying up too late plotting ways to get the Philosopher's Stone. The fake Philosopher's Stone, actually, so Lily doesn't know why she's worrying so much. Maybe she's worried about family? Lloyd Potter is technically a member of her House and under her care and Dumbledore is obviously risking Potter's life.

Or maybe, she's worried mostly because she can't tell Potter—he wouldn't trust her; he's far too embedded with the Light—but at the same time, she wants him to be safe because he's her only living blood relative that can, on some level, understand her. (And maybe she just wants a family like the type she read about in books, but she can examine that desire later.)

The teachers are also piling on tremendous amounts of homework. Lily wants to scream at it—it's mostly busywork. She ends up reusing essays; some professors have it in their heads that re-assigning essays will prepare them for exams. Lily just wipes the parchment clear of the professors' comments and submits that essay again. She hasn't been caught yet.

"How are you getting through all this and still doing Quidditch?" Pansy groans on another late night doing homework in Lily's room—the Slytherin common room is full of stressed students nowadays. Lily looks up from Pride and Prejudice .

"I've been reusing my essays, what do you think? I kept them in the fifth compartment of my trunk—oh, that's sad. I replaced the fourth compartment with the mokeskin pouch and now I don't know what to put in there."

"Just stick your broom stuff in there, that's what Draco's planning."

"Mm. Did you know, just the other day Hermione Granger tried to drag me into her study group with Potter and Weasley?" Lily asks, standing up to look out the window.

"Really? Exams are ten weeks away, and she's already studying?"

"The professors seem to be thinking along the same lines as her. Easter holidays aren't nearly as fun as Christmas, what with all the busywork they've been assigning."

"She's crazy."

"She has near-eidetic memory, like me, so I don't know why she's studying."

"Do you mean you don't have to study?"

"Not really. I've been looking into the third year curriculum in my free time, actually, and into Durmstrang's second year Dark Arts curriculum."

"You're just as bad as Granger," Pansy says with a longsuffering sigh.

Lily laughs. "Well, I'm certainly looking into more interesting things than she is, and I'm not rereading textbooks for the sole purpose of reciting things word-for-word."

"That's fair," Pansy says. "So when are you going to start studying?"

"Hm? Oh, I was thinking to go into exams without studying to see how I do," Lily says.

"Idiot," Pansy says, half-disbelieving, mostly affectionate. Lily turns and grins.

"Anyway, do you need any help?" she asks. "By the way, dittany is not used in poisons. As a paste, when applied, it heals surface wounds. Extended periods of use will heal nearly anything though it doesn't help with healing broken bones."

"How do you even know this?"

"I pay attention in class, Pansy."

"Touche."

Lily rests her hand on Hogwarts' wall to do another cursory check to make sure no new dangerous creatures have made themselves a home in the castle and promptly realizes that something is wrong—something is very wrong and it's going on near Hagrid's hut.

Opening the Marauder's Map, she notices that Hagrid is in the library, near Potter, Weasley, and Granger. Lily lets out a put-upon sigh, but she's realized since winter break that as Lady Slytherin, she does have to make an effort to keep the castle safe. Not that the job should fall to a first-year, but since the adults all seemed to be useless (especially Dumbledore) it falls to a first-year anyway.

She makes her way over and stops behind a bookshelf, pretending to browse books, as she listens.

"But it's against our laws. Dragon breeding was outlawed by the Warlocks' Convention of 1709, everyone knows that. It's hard to stop Muggles from noticing us if we're keeping dragons in the back garden-- anyway, you can't tame dragons, it's dangerous. You should see the burns Charlie's got off wild ones in Romania."

"But there aren't wild dragons in Britain?"

"Of course there are. Common Welsh Green and Hebridean Blacks. The Ministry of Magic has a job hushing them up, I can tell you. Our kind have to keep putting spells on Muggles who've spotted them, to make them forget."

"So what on earth's Hagrid up to?"

Lily's heard enough. She guesses she'll wait until the dragon hatches before she goes to talk to Hagrid.

A week later, Draco slides, elegant, onto one of the sofas in the common room.

"So, Lily, apparently Hagrid has a dragon."

"I know. Has it hatched yet?"

Draco doesn't look surprised at her knowledge. "I just watched it hatch through the window. Granger, Weasley, and Potter were there."

"I'll go have a talk with Hagrid within the next two weeks. Maybe the Gryffindors can convince him to let the thing go. Do you know what breed dragon it is?"

"Why would I know?" Draco says.

Lily, unimpressed, levels a look at him. "Eight-year-old you was obsessed with dragons."

"I don't know why my father thought it was important enough to tell you," he grumbles. "Norwegian Ridgeback."

"What type of dragons would be best acclimated to Hogwarts?"

Draco raises an eyebrow. " Why ? Hebridean Blacks, but why ?"

"Breeding dragons is outlawed except for Parseltongues, since they have some level of communication. And I want a dragon," Lily says. "Why not just let Hagrid take care of it?"

"First, Hagrid's hut is made of wood , idiot," Draco says, "and second, you don't know a thing about dragons."

Lily sighs. "I'll put it on my bucket list, then. I'll introduce some Hebridean Blacks to the Forbidden Forest later."

Draco knocks over her silver nail polish.

It's another week when Draco brings her more news.

"Lily, as Lady of the House Potter, you're supposed to keep Potter safe, right?" Draco asks. Lily looks up from her book, Dark Arts Basics .

"Yes… what happened?"

"Charlie Weasley is a dragon tamer and he's been in touch with Granger, Potter, and Weasley."

"Where are they meeting? At what time?" Lily asks sharply. "We're going to have to tell Professor McGonagall to be watching for them."

"The tallest tower at midnight on Saturday, according to the letter. I also heard something about an invisibility cloak."

"Potter hasn't noticed it's missing yet? I'm glad the goblins took it away from him, if this is how he treats a heirloom of the Potter and Peverell lines."

" Peverell ?"

"Yeah, Ignotus Peverell. I'm off to talk with Professor McGonagall or Hagrid."

She goes to Hagrid first. When she knocks, his face peers out suspiciously.

"Lily."

"Could I come in, Hagrid?" she asks. Hagrid shakes his head.

"Sorry, the inside is a bit o' a mess."

"Oh, I don't mind." Lily watches as Hagrid flounders a little before sighing and letting her in. "Is that the Norwegian Ridgeback Charlie Weasley's friends are picking up? Can I point out that this is not a very good plan, by the way?"

"How did yeh know that?!"

"Draco, Hogwarts, Granger, Weasley, and Potter being horrible at keeping things secret. A plethora of things, really." Lily looks up to Hagrid. "Hagrid, this thing is big enough to fly! Why is he still inside?"

"I… I can' let it out."

"The Forbidden Forest is right there! What's its name?"

"Norbert."

"Okay. Norbert, can you fly yet?"

"A speaker?"

"Not quite, a snake speaker but we should be able to understand each other decently. Can you fly?"

"I should be able to, Speaker."

"Since you're growing a little bit big for this hut, we need to move you to Norway, where you'll find other dragons like you. At midnight on Saturday, could you be at the tallest tower of Hogwarts? A group of dragon tamers will be there to move you."

"Yes, Speaker. Will I be able to roam freely?"

"I believe that to be the case. Are you male or female? You look like a female but your name is a male's."

"Female, Speaker."

"Hm. I think your name is better suited as Noberta. Very well, don't forget. I will let Hagrid know to let you out so you can be there on time." Lily switches back to English. "Hagrid, let her leave your hut at midnight on Saturday. She can fly there."

"What?" He looks more shocked at her display of Parseltongue than anything else.

Lily decides to ignore it. "Tell Potter, Granger, and Weasley to not come and take Norberta. She can fly there on her own," Lily repeats. "It's all been settled."

Lily has the sneaking suspicion that Hagrid won't listen to her. She wants to scream.

"Draco, they're not listening to me!" she bewails, throwing herself across her bed. Draco snorts but Lily can see a plan already forming in his brain. "No, Draco, don't go out."

Draco frowns at her.

"You know just as well as I do that if you're caught, Professor McGonagall won't listen to anything you have to say incriminating your precious lions," Lily scolds, sitting up. "I'm going, though, since McGonagall has a soft spot for me. And I have an invisibility cloak."

Draco studies her appraisingly, then shrugs. "Point. Every day I'm more thankful that I'm not a Lord yet."

"I want to die."

Draco hums unsympathetically and pats her head.

Potter and Granger exit Hagrid's hut, struggling to hold a box, and Lily barely withholds a sigh. They learned Wingardium Leviosa ages ago. She doesn't do anything other than watch as they hike up the tower; as she passes them on the stairs, hidden under her invisibility cloak, she rolls her eyes.

When they finally make it, Lily's already sitting on the ledge of the tower, her cloak cast off.

"Why are you here?" Potter asks.

"I could ask you the same thing," Lily says. "Especially since Noberta is big enough to fly."

"I suppose Hagrid just can't trust snakes, like a reasonable person!" Potter says. Lily narrows her eyes.

"Good luck getting back to your tower," she replies. "The dragon tamers are coming, by the way."

She throws the invisibility cloak over herself and watches them as they rig Noberta's box up to their brooms. Lily decides to go down and alert Professor McGonagall.

Lucky for her, Professor McGonagall is pacing near the bottom of the tower. Lily smiles and settles back in the shadows. Now, it's just waiting until Potter and Granger come down—and they come hurtling down, really.

Professor McGonagall startles, and then swells with fury. "I didn't believe it when I caught Mr Longbottom out here as well! He said that he heard you two were bringing a dragon out and came to warn you to not! And here you are! It's one o'clock in the morning. I'm disgusted, three Gryffindor students out of bed in one night! You, Miss Granger, I thought you had more sense to bring a dragon up this tower! And you, Mr Potter, I thought Gryffindor meant more to you than this. Both of you will receive detentions along with Mr Longbottom and fifty points will be taken from Gryffindor. For each of you."

"But, Professor, Smythin was out too!" Potter exclaims. "She was up in the tower with us!"

" Ridiculous . Why is she not with you, then?"

"She left! Earlier!" Potter says. His eyes rove the corridor length, obviously trying to find her.

"Potter, just because Miss Smythin is in Slytherin does not mean you can use her as an excuse and drag a perfectly innocent actor into this! Another twenty-five points!"

"Professor—you can't —"

"Don't tell me what I can and can't do, Potter. Now get back to bed."

Lily settles with a smile. Gryffindor is now very much last place, and not many things will change that.

Lily is willing to admit that she may not have as strong self-discipline as she thinks she does. Her curiosity often gets the better of her, like now.

She's trailed Quirrell around for the week before exams are due to start. He's made a few ventures into the Forest, though, at which point Lily stopped following. At the same time, she hears from Hagrid that unicorns are being killed and that there's a detention soon which will investigate it with him.

Lily volunteers. What else can her brain do? And Hagrid, bless his innocent soul, agrees, saying that he could use the extra set of hands. (She tells Draco and Pansy this later, in whispers, and they both agree that Lily is an idiot, and tell her so multiple times, and also look genuinely concerned for her. It's sweet and foreboding at the same time.)

Still, she trails Professor Quirrell at a distance. She's become very good at ignoring the ache in her scar, but then, one day as she's watching him in an empty classroom, the scar flares.

She barely notices Lloyd Potter coming across her hiding spot, also listening to Quirrell argue— with Voldemort , she realizes, that's why the scar hurts so much more right now . She just gestures at him to be quiet.

"No—not tonight—not again, please—All right—all right—" Then Quirrell comes out, straightening his turban. Potter is obviously doing his best to restrain himself from going through the classroom. Lily just up and leaves. Not tonight ? Lily feels like she'll be getting a lot of new insight and confirmation tonight.

When the time for the detention arrives, Lily's steeled herself for whatever possibilities she can think of. Draco and Pansy both gave her another worried gaze and advice to not go, but Lily had shaken her head, too enticed by this prospect.

At eleven, Filch picks them up. Lily tunes out his threats and instead, reviews spells.

"You got caught, then?" Potter mutters.

Lily shakes her head. "I was talking with Hagrid and volunteered since we're looking into unicorn deaths." Then she goes back to reviewing spells.

"Abou' time. I bin waitin' fer half an hour already. All right, Lloyd, Hermione?"

Lily tunes out again, only coming back when she hears Neville whimper slightly.

"Hagrid? Why are we serving our detention in the Forbidden Forest? If it's forbidden to students due to how dangerous it is, what makes it safer when it's students serving detention?" Hermione says.

"Ah, the Forbidden Fores' is safe enough. Don' worry about it. Now, listen carefully, 'cause it can be dangerous what we're gonna do tonight, an' I don' want no one takin' risks. Follow me over here a moment. Look there. See that stuff shinin' on the ground? Silvery stuff? That's unicorn blood. There's a unicorn in there bin badly hurt by summat. This is the second time in a week. I found one dead last Wednesday. We're gonna try an' find the poor thing. We might have ter put it out of its misery."

"And what if whatever hurt the unicorn finds us first?" Neville asks, fear creeping into his voice.

"There's nothin' that lives in the forest that'll hurt yeh if yer with me or Fang. An' keep ter the path. Right, now, we're gonna split inter two parties an' follow the trail in diff'rent directions. There's blood all over the place, it must've bin staggerin' around since last night at least."

Lily knows that Hagrid's belief that nothing will harm them is false, but she won't protest it.

"I'll go with Fang," Lily says. The lamplight flickers on her face, her eyes glowing too bright and her face too sharp.

"All right, but I warn yeh, he's a coward," Hagrid says. "So me, Neville, an Hermione'll go one way an' Lily, Lloyd, an' Fang'll go the other. Now, if any of us finds the unicorn, we'll send up green sparks, right? Get yer wands out an' practice now—that's it—an' if anyone gets in trouble, send up red sparks, an' we'll all come an' find yeh—so be careful—let's go."

Lily lets her senses spread across the forest and she feels an unnatural spot of darkness near where Hagrid is—but it doesn't stop here; rather, it begins making a path towards an area in front of Lily. On her path. She grimaces.

"So you're interested in unicorn deaths because?"

"Sh."

"But—"

"Lloyd James Potter, I am getting to the bottom of this even if it kills me or you or anyone , so be quiet," Lily says, not pulling any attention away from her observations. "Right. It's moving ahead, we better follow it."

"What's moving ahead?!"

"The thing that's killing the unicorns. Drinking its blood, too. I think it's a half-hour walk."

"Let's go," Potter says, tone resigned as the rest of his face, but his eyes betraying excitement.

They continue walking in the forest, deeper and deeper, until the path is practically nonexistent. The blood, Lily notes, seems to be getting thicker, and there's a clearing up ahead. Lily's head jerks up to see the ancient oak tree a couple yards away.

"There it is. Dead," she whispers, hoping it doesn't carry. "Don't shoot up green sparks yet." Potter doesn't, thankfully, and Lily waits to watch the bushes. A figure shoots up from them and begins to stalk towards the unicorn. It lowers its head to the unicorn's side wound and begins to drink.

It's Quirrell and Voldemort. Her scar is flaring. It makes sense—who else is powerful enough to catch a unicorn and desperate enough to drink unicorn blood? Then Potter lets out a terrible scream and bolts along with Fang. The hooded figure raises his head to look at Lily. Silvery blood dribbles down its front as it gets to its feet and begins advancing. Lily watches it curiously.

"Professor Quirrell?" Lily says, ignoring the pain in her scar. The figure draws back in surprise. Lily gives it a smile. "There are easier ways to live than unicorns."

And then a centaur gallops out the forest, over Lily's head (barely managing to not kick her) and charges at the figure.

"Are you all right?" the centaur asks Lily. Lily nods.

"Yes. Thank you."

"You had better get back to Hagrid. The forest is not safe at this time."

Lily smiles, nods, and then disappears.

"Lily, are you alright?!" Hermione exclaims. Lily nods.

"I'm fine. The unicorn is dead, Hagrid, it's at the clearing back there, but also someone's been drinking unicorn blood so I don't think we're actually that safe."

Exams come and pass uneventfully. Lily, true to her challenge, goes into each one without studying, and does relatively well, all things considered. She knows she got the highest score in Charms, with one hundred thirteen per cent which confused her at first—how does one get higher than one hundred per cent?—but she accepts it and moves on.

But not everything is settled—Lily, Draco, and Pansy know that well.

"I think he's going for the Philosopher's Stone tonight. Dumbledore is out of the school and this is the only time he can do it and I know Potter, Granger, and Weasley will be going through the trapdoor tonight," Lily says. "What do I do ?"

Pansy shakes her head. "Don't do it. Dumbledore obviously has this plotted out, so I doubt Potter will be in any real danger."

"He'll be going against Lord Voldemort, how isn't that real danger?" Draco says. "You might have to, Lily, since you're Lady Potter. They'll need help."

Lily closes her eyes.

"He doesn't know that you're a Potter, does he?" Pansy says. "You'd be safer if he doesn't know."

"He met Genesis Lily Potter, but you had a Glamour on then. I don't think he knows. He probably wouldn't pay enough attention to notice the similarity," Draco says. "Was there a big difference once the goblins broke the Glamour?"

Lily shakes her head. "It wasn't huge, but he hasn't given any indication that he knows me as a Potter."

"Then why did he try and jinx your broom?" Pansy asks. "Wouldn't he have gone for your twin?"

"But he knows Lloyd Potter isn't the real Saviour," Lily says. "Arguably, I've been a bigger threat."

"Go," Draco says. "Family, after all."

Pansy nods, worry written on the edges of her face nonetheless. "Maybe you can kill Quirrell while you're at it for making your first year of Hogwarts horrible," she jokes, instead.

Testing the Teachers

Chapter Summary

Lily fights Voldemort!

Quick clarifier-- Lily's appearance has changed (I might have deleted that detail somewhere by accident or it might have been overlooked, but her appearance changes as a result of visiting the goblins and removing Dumbledore's Glamours) so Voldemort doesn't know who Lily was.

Lily also feels sad because she wants a family :( but it's touched on very briefly because Lily doesn't want to think about it...

Chapter Notes

So this is the last chapter of the book! Thank you to everyone who read it! I'm expecting that book 2 will come up in a couple of weeks with the same update schedule as this one :) Anyway, hope you enjoy!

Lily waits for them to land in the Devil's Snare; Fluffy's allowed her through already, telling her that Professor Quirrell already passed. She told Fluffy to let Potter, Weasley, and Granger through before she dropped herself down through the chute, scared away the Devil's Snare, and currently waits next to the door.

It's not a long wait. Potter arrives first, followed by Weasley, then Granger. Lily hears Weasley say, "Lucky this plant thing's here, really."

" Lucky ! Look at you both!" Granger jumps up and safely makes it to where Lily's standing, though she hasn't noticed Lily yet.

Lily remedies that by emerging from the shadows.

"It's Devil's Snare," she says. "Potter, Weasley, stop moving. It'll only get you choked faster." She thrusts out her hand. A small flame leaps about and the plants immediately clear. "Alright, let's go through the door."

"You're not coming with us!"

Lily pins Weasley with a glare. "You wouldn't have made it past the first trap as fast as you did without me. Come on," she says. "Professor Flitwick's is next."

"Are those—are those birds ?" Hermione frowns up at them.

"Do you think they'll attack if I run through?" Weasley asks.

Lily shakes her head. Potter directly runs across to the door handle on the opposite side—nothing happens.

"The door is locked! We've got to get a key or something."

"Right, well, have we tried unlocking spells yet?" Hermione asks and steps up to the door. " Alohomora ." Still, nothing happens.

"Well, we have a plethora of flying keys overhead, so I'm just going to try to summon the right key. Accio silver key with blue wings." The key flies towards her; Lily catches it, though surprise flashes on her face. "Oh. I didn't expect that to work. Shall we go?" Lily asks, handing Hermione the key.

When they step through the door, the room immediately lights up to a chessboard.

"We've got to play our way across the board!" Weasley exclaims as the thought hits him.

"How?" Hermione asks, scanning the board doubtfully.

"Just take their places, I suppose. Can I take queen? And Weasley, you're good at chess, right?" Lily says, already moving for the queen's spot. "I think… Hermione, could you take left castle, and Potter, right bishop. Weasley, you should take the knight—it'll give you a better perspective of the board." One by one, the mentioned pieces bow and leave the board.

Weasley hops onto the vacated horse with ease. "Now, don't be offended or anything, but neither of you are that good at chess—" he says, directed towards Lloyd and Hermione.

"Look, between the two of us I think we can get off with minor casualties," Lily says, cutting him off. She's getting agitated—each second spent talking is a second wasted. "Just tell me each move before it goes. White moves first in chess—yes, there they go with the pawn."

"Alright. We'll mirror the movement...Smythin?"

Lily nods.

The two of them work in a sort of tandem for a little. The first shock comes when a black knight is taken, the queen smashing it to the ground.

"Okay, Hermione, go take the bishop," Weasley orders right after, looking ashen in the face of raised stakes. Lily seems to be the only one unaffected.

The game goes on.

"Weasley, you better move Potter before he gets taken out," Lily points out.

"Smythin, you don't want to move there, trust me," Weasley says when Lily begins to take steps towards the white queen.

Lily and Ron themselves dart in and out between pieces, taking as many white pieces as black are taken. Finally, Lily looks up to Ron's knight.

"Weasley, this is a chance. We're nearly there, but do you really want to take this opportunity?" Lily asks. The white queen turns its blank face towards him.

"Yes...it's the only way… I've got to be taken," he says, slowly, getting louder with each word. Lily sighs as the other two begin protesting.

"That's chess! You've got to make some sacrifices! I take one step forward and she'll take me—that leaves you free to checkmate the king, Lloyd!"

"But—"

"Weasley's made up his mind," Lily says. "Before you go, give me a moment to do some wards so you don't suffer permanent brain damage." There are a few seconds of silence. Then she nods curtly. "Go."

"Ready? Here I go—now, don't hang around once you've won." His face is pale as he steps out. The white queen pounces immediately, striking him across the head with a heavy stone arm and he crashes—Hermione screams, but she doesn't move.

"Potter, three spaces to the left." Once he's done as instructed, Lily lets a cold smile break. "Checkmate." The white king takes off his crown. Surprisingly, he throws it at her feet, but no one really cares—they just won. The chess figures bow and part.

"Hermione, stay if you're worried. I can get Potter through the next two—Quirrell's is definitely a troll, which is knocked out, and Professor Snape mentioned that his is a logic puzzle." More like Lily had eavesdropped and heard it, but those are just technicalities.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Do you trust me?"

Hermione's gaze flickers to Ron. "Alright," she says and rushes over to him. Lily watches them for a couple of seconds, then turns to Potter.

"Let's go," he announces. He opens the door, hesitantly, and a stench immediately overwhelms them. Lily frowns.

"That's horrible," she says, pushing him through. She pulls open the next door. There's nothing frightening—just a table with seven differently shaped bottles standing in a line.

"I'm guessing this is Snape's? What do we have to do?" Lloyd asks. Lily frowns, feeling the magic around it.

"Okay, we're stepping through the threshold at the same time. I don't fancy getting burnt to toast," Lily says. They step through and immediately purple fire blazes up behind them while black flames shoot up at the entrance of the other door.

"Then what?" Lloyd asks, panic evident in the face of being trapped.

"Look," Lily says as she picks up a scroll. "A riddle, of sorts. Or a logic puzzle, depending on how you think of it."

Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,

Two of us will help you, whichever you would find,

One among us seven will let you move ahead,

Another will transport the drinker back instead,

Two among our number hold only nettle wine,

Three of us are killers, waiting hidden in line.

Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore,

To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:

First, however slyly the poison tries to hide,

You will always find some on nettle wine's left side;

Second, different are those who stand on either end,

But if you would move onward, neither is your friend;

Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,

Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides;

Fourth, the second left and the second on the right

Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight.

"Not his best work," Lily mutters, looking displeased.

"How do we even know—"

"This isn't magic. It's logic and several wizards and witches would be stuck in here forever."

"So will we, then."

Lily shakes her head. "No, I can solve this. I used to play these puzzles all the time. Now, be quiet as I figure this out."

She mutters under her breath as she works—"So we can't drink the furthermost left one, the middle, or the one right of it. Second left and second right are wine, the one at the end is useless… it's the third bottle."

Lily eyes the smallest bottle and picks it up. "This one is it."

"Give it here," Lloyd says.

"There's enough for two swallows, I'll go through with you," Lily says. Lloyd frowns at her. "You can't exactly stop me. I'm holding it, after all, and I solved it." Lloyd's frown deepens but he can't deny Lily's words, so he gives grudging permission. Lily takes a small sip and hands the bottle to Lloyd.

"See you on the other side," Lloyd says right after drinking it. He walks through the fire and Lily follows.

Professor Quirrell is already there, standing in front of a mirror. He continues to face it, even though he's already seen them. He doesn't move until Lloyd breaks the silence.

"You!" he gasps. Quirrell's face twists into an odd smile.

"Me. I wondered whether I'd be meeting you here, Potter. And I see you've brought a… friend." Lily notes the lack of a stutter. She doubts that they'll be having Quirrell as their defence teacher next year.

At a loss for words, Lloyd stutters, "But I thought—Snape—"

"Severus?" Quirrell laughs, could and sharp. Lily's eyes widen at that —she hadn't realized that Quirrell himself wanted to do this, wanted to be cold. She'd always assumed all of that coldness was a result of Voldemort possessing him. She's wrong.

"Yeah, Snape—" He's cut off.

"Yes, Severus does seem the type, doesn't he? So useful to have him swooping around like an overgrown bat. Next to him, who would suspect p-p-poor, st-stuttering P-Professor Quirrell?"

"But Snape tried to kill Lily!"

"How many times, Lloyd? How many times do I need to tell you that Professor Snape was muttering the counterjinx and it was Granger knocking over Professor Quirrell that ended the jinx?"

"Exactly right… I tried to kill Miss Smythin. She knew too much, was too suspicious. Of course, that all proved true at the Forbidden Forest, didn't it?"

"Snape was trying to save her?"

"Of course. He was trying to save you , too… that was why he refereed your next match. He was trying to make sure I didn't do the same thing to you. He needn't have bothered; I couldn't do anything with Professor Dumbledore watching. Everyone else thought he was trying to stop Gryffindor from winning… he was rather unpopular. What a waste of time, when after all that, I'm going to kill you tonight."

While Professor Quirrell's wasting his breath, Lily starts creating a strong ward around herself; when Quirrell finishes and snaps his fingers, ropes wrapping tightly around Lloyd, the ropes can't make it past Lily's ward. Instead, they wrap around a bubble of air. Lily guesses it's good he doesn't look at her.

"You two are too nosy to live… Scurrying around the school on Halloween like that, for all I knew you'd seen me coming to look at what was guarding the Stone."

" You let the troll in?"

Lily has to give it to Lloyd—he's good at keeping Quirrell talking.

"Certainly. I have a special gift with trolls—you must have seen what I did to the one in the chamber back there? Unfortunately, while everyone else was running around looking for it, Snape, who already suspected me, went straight to the third floor to head me off. Not only did my troll fail to beat you to death, but that three-headed dog also didn't even manage to bite off Snape's leg properly."

Lily lets out a snort. "I was the one who took care of your troll. Should've killed it before the professors came," Lily comments.

"You couldn't have killed a troll, silly girl, you're a first-year. Now, wait quietly, both of you. I need to examine this interesting mirror."

Lily glances at the mirror. Its name is engraved on—the Mirror of Erised. She has a faint notion of what the mirror shows, especially after reading the name.

"This mirror is the key to finding the Stone," Quirrell murmurs. His thin fingers tap along the frame.

"Trust Dumbledore to come up with something like this… but he's in London… I'll be far away by the time he gets back…"

Lily notes the panic in Lloyd's eyes and she knows he's going to try and stall.

"I saw you and Snape in the forest—" he blurts. It's a feeble effort; Lily appreciates it nonetheless.

"Yes," Quirrell says as he walks around the mirror to examine the back of it. "He was on to me by that time, trying to find out how far I'd gotten. He suspected me all along. Tried to frighten me—as though he could, when I had Lord Voldemort on my side…" He comes back to the front of the mirror, staring at it hungrily. Lily realizes, at this point, that the mirror is a dangerously powerful weapon if it can grab Quirrell's focus so easily.

"I see the Stone… I'm presenting it to my master… but where is it?" Lily observes Lloyd's struggle with his ropes and his sudden giving-up. He opens his mouth again.

"But Snape always seemed to hate me so much."

"Oh, he does. Heavens yes. He was at Hogwarts with your father, didn't you know? They loathed each other, but he never wanted you dead ."

"But I heard you a few days ago, sobbing—I thought Snape was threatening you…" Lloyd trails off. Lily wonders how blind one can be. Quirrell's face holds a tremor of fear which disappears just as quickly as it came.

"Sometimes I find it hard to follow my master's instructions—he is a great wizard and I am weak—" Lily immediately cuts him off.

"At least you're not insane ," she scoffs. At the same time, Lloyd speaks.

"He was in the classroom with you?" he gasps.

"He is with me wherever I go. I met him when I travelled around the world. A foolish young man I was then, full of ridiculous ideas about good and evil. Lord Voldemort showed me how wrong I was. There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it… Since then, I have served him faithfully, although I have let him down many times. He has had to be very hard on me. He does not forgive mistakes easily."

Quirrell shivers, an obvious tremor which has Lily narrowing her eyes. Lord Voldemort, she thinks, must have traumatized the man.

"When I failed to steal the stone from Gringotts, he was most displeased. He punished me… decided he would have to keep a closer watch on me…" his voice trails off. Lily finds herself curious about the man's story, but it's obvious it won't be given. A shame.

Quirrell curses under his breath. "I don't understand… is the Stone inside the mirror? Should I break it?" Lily notices from the corner of her eye that Lloyd is brightening with a desperate idea. She watches as he tries to edge to the left, to the front of the mirror, but trips and falls from the ropes. Quirrell ignores Lloyd in favour of talking to himself, so Lily quickly makes a slashing motion with her hand and the ropes fall.

"What does this mirror do? How does it work? Help me, Master!" A voice answers, seeming to come from Quirrell himself. Lloyd stumbles back, aghast.

"Use the boy… Use the boy…" Quirrell rounds on Lloyd. He's surprised by the lack of ropes but the surprise flits away.

"Potter, come here," Quirrell says. "Come here. Look in the mirror and tell me what you see."

Lily watches the proceedings, amused. She's always known how to work with being underestimated, with being considered 'second-rate', and now is no different. She observes Quirrell as he moves close behind Lloyd, Lloyd's pale and scared face suddenly becoming shocked. There's a new lump in his pocket and a wild look in his eyes which only becomes more obvious when Quirrell asks him what he sees.

"I see myself shaking hands with Dumbledore. I—I've won the house cup for Gryffindor." Lily wonders how Potter's lived so far; his lying is abysmal but apparently, Quirrell's ability to detect lies is worse. Quirrell curses again and Lily has to fight the urge to laugh. All he has to do is pay a little more attention, bind Potter up again and reach into his pocket, but Quirrell doesn't realize .

"Get out of the way," Quirrell finally says. Lloyd begins walking away and Lily raises an eyebrow at him, willing him to hurry up so they can just get back to safety.

"He lies… he lies…" the oddly high voice says again. Lloyd's eyes betray his alarm and Lily pins him with a glare which says that he bloody well be able to lie through this .

"Potter, come back here! Tell me the truth! What did you just see?" Quirrell shouts though Potter isn't more than eight paces away from the professor. The high voice—Lily's concluded that it must be Lord Voldemort—speaks again.

"Let me speak to him… face-to-face…"

"Master, you are not strong enough!"

"I have strength enough… for this…" Lily reflects that if Lord Voldemort's speaking this slowly, he's either a really dramatic turd or he really doesn't have much strength—all the better for them, then. Potter glances at her and seems to make a split-second decision. Suddenly, she feels the weight of the fake Philosopher's Stone in her pocket. Then, they both watch Quirrell unwrap his turban and turn on the spot.

In that span of five seconds, Lily and Lloyd meet the man who killed their parents, a man living on the back of Quirrell's head with a terrible face—chalk-white skin with glaringly red eyes, but what's perhaps more disturbing is the way his face shoves together Fair Folk and Muggle, and Lily flinches on that realization. He is hovering between the two worlds of magic and muggle, unnatural , and enabled by a lack of morals.

"Lloyd Potter…" he whispers. Lloyd's eyes fill with panic, again, and Lily nearly sighs. "See what I have become? Mere shadow and vapour… I have form only when I can share another's body… but there have always been those willing to let me into their hearts and minds… Unicorn blood has strengthened me, these past weeks… you saw faithful Quirrell drinking it for me in the forest… and once I have the Elixir of Life, I will be able to create a body of my own… Now…. why don't you give me that Stone in your pocket?"

Lily hates unnecessary monologuing. On the other hand, feeling surges back into Lloyd's legs and he stumbles backwards.

"Don't be a fool," Voldemort snarls. "Better save your own life and join me… or you'll meet the same end as your parents…. They died begging me for mercy…" Lloyd is suddenly furious.

"LIAR!" he shouts as Quirrell walks backwards toward him so Voldemort can continue watching him. Voldemort's smiling now, chilling only from insanity, unnaturally sharp.

"How touching… I always value bravery… Yes, boy, your parents were brave… I killed your father first, and he put up a courageous fight… but your mother needn't have died… she was protecting your sister… Now give me the Stone, unless you want her to have died in vain."

"NEVER!" Lloyd yells again. By then, Lily's already next to him. She takes the stone out of her pocket and places it in her pouch as Lloyd sprints to the flame door. Voldemort's attention is redirected to Lily.

"Ah, Miss Smythin… You are a Slytherin, you know… seek power, and I have a world of power… all you have to do is give me the Stone…."

"Lily, don't!" Lloyd exclaims.

"What, do you take me for an idiot?" Lily replies. Her eyes don't leave Voldemort. "I want your magical oath that you won't attempt to harm Potter or me while on school grounds in exchange for the Stone."

There's an intrusion on the corners of her mind, floundering in a black ocean—promptly, she kicks him out. "And you will not attempt Legilimency on me," she hisses, eyes glowing bright green, her features all of a sudden sharpened and cruel.

"I, Lord Voldemort…, solemnly swear that I will not harm… Lloyd Potter or Lily Smythin at Hogwarts… upon the act of their giving me the Stone in Lily Smythin's pouch… at the expense of my magic. Nor will I attempt to invade Lily Smythin's mind… while she resides at Hogwarts…, the consequence of such a breach … being the loss of my magic…. So mote it be," Lord Voldemort intones.

"I, Lily Smythin, solemnly swear that I will hand over the stone in my mokeskin pouch in exchange for safety for Lloyd Potter and me from Lord Voldemort while at Hogwarts. If he breaches this either by harming us while we are at Hogwarts or attempting to invade my mind while I am at Hogwarts, he will lose his magic. So mote it be," Lily finishes. She extracts the fake Stone from her pouch and hands it over. "Nicholas Flamel would have never placed his Philosopher's Stone in a school full of magical curious children."

"Lily, go !" Lloyd exclaims.

Lily ignores him. The Dark Lord is snarling, hissing , and Lily beams at him. Then she reaches up and touches him—Lord Voldemort begins screaming in pain as her touch burns him and Quirrell.

Well, now Lily knows what ritual her mother used to protect her. There are a surprising amount of protective rituals which require a human life in exchange for protection against the killer, but there's only one which has long-lasting results like this.

Soon, there's nothing more than ashen dust and a black spirit, which swoops around angrily before dissipating. Lily's not idiotic enough to think he's gone —he has his Horcruxes, still—but he's certainly gone for now. Good enough.

"Come, let's go," Lily says and steers Potter back to where Hermione and Ron are. Quietly, the four of them walk back to the first test of Devil's Snare.

"How do we get out?"

"Hold on tight," Lily says, and suddenly the other three experience an unpleasant lurch and they find themselves in front of the Cerberus. Ron, Hermione, and Lloyd all feel the urge to heave, and in that general chaos, Lily modifies Lloyd's memory.

They're forced into the Hospital Wing for check-ups. Lord Sirius Black shows up, worrying over Lily—and Lloyd—and their state of wellbeing. Other than that, no visitors are allowed.

Then Headmaster Dumbledore visits. Lily eavesdrops on it—it's their fault that they're so easy to hear. Albus Dumbledore claims that the Stone is destroyed and that Lord Voldemort no longer has it. Lily supposes that Dumbledore would lie; she's not surprised by it, but it sits uneasily in her stomach all the same.

When he leaves, Hagrid comes in with a scrapbook of photos of Lily's parents for Lloyd.

And then Hermione and Ron come in, Draco and Pansy next to them but an obvious gap separating them.

"Tell us what happened!" Ron says almost immediately. They're a good audience and Lloyd a good storyteller.

Draco and Pansy look to her for an explanation; Lily shakes her head. "I'll tell you later," she says. "It was hectic."

She does. She's also fairly certain she's ruined whatever longstanding respect they have of the Dark Lord, passed down through family. Draco lets her know that she has to recover before the match with Ravenclaw for the Quidditch cup, because Flint might drown himself if she isn't recovered before then to practise with the team, and Pansy swats his arm and dumps Honeydukes sweets on her bedside table.

"From the rest of the Slytherins," she explains.

When they're released, Lily is thrown right back into Quidditch practice. That little bit of normalcy is more than welcome.

Or, well. Lily at least feels almost normal, pretending to fly around on her Nimbus and diving for the Snitch and coming back up with a win under her belt for Slytherin and the Quidditch Cup. It's clear that they're winning the House Cup again—for the eighth year in a row.

The last feast finds the Great Hall completely decorated in Slytherin colours—green and silver, the serpent banner hanging around the hall. Dumbledore finally arrives to make his end of year speech, which Lily's fairly sure only half the student body listens to.

"Another year gone! And I must trouble you with an old man's wheezing waffle before we sink our teeth into our delicious feast. What a year it has been! Hopefully, your heads are all a little fuller than they were… you have the whole summer ahead to get them nice and empty before next year starts… Now as I understand it, the house cup here needs awarding and the points stand thus: In fourth place, Gryffindor, with three hundred and twelve points; in third, Hufflepuff, with three hundred and fifty-two; Ravenclaw has four hundred and twenty-six, and Slytherin, four hundred and seventy-two."

There's a great cheer from her table, and Lily sits in the middle of the noise. She lets her smile creep out, magnetic, and the Great Hall can't help but smile as well.

"Yes, yes, well done, Slytherin. However, recent events must be taken into account." Slytherin smiles fade a little and brief expressions of fury flit over faces.

"Ahem. I have a few last-minute points to dish out. Let me see. Yes… First—to Mr Ronald Weasley for the best-played game of chess Hogwarts has seen in many years, I award Gryffindor house fifty points."

Cheers resound. Percy Weasley's proud voice can be heard above everyone else; Lily doesn't always like Ronald Weasley but his brother's praise, hard-earned, is deserved. She smiles, only half-bitter, and just for a moment entertains the idea of blood family.

"Second—to Miss Hermione Granger… for keeping a cool head under strenuous circumstances and exhibiting care for the fallen, I award Gryffindor house fifty points."

Another loud shout makes the school's approval known. Hermione buries her head in her hands and Lily suspects that the girl might just be crying.

"Third—to Mr Lloyd Potter, for pure nerve and outstanding courage, I award Gryffindor house sixty points." Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff erupt in shouts at the declaration, realizing that Gryffindor's tied with Slytherin.

"There are all kinds of courage. It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. I therefore award ten points to Mr Neville Longbottom."

The Great Hall explodes. Lily worries for the architecture—surely it's sound, but the noise and stomping can't be good for its integrity.

Then Professor Sprout stands up, the Hufflepuff Head of House seeming to realize the imbalance in points given—her eyes meet Lily's directly.

"I also wish to award some last-minute points, since we glossed over the participation of Miss Lily Smythin. So to Miss Lily Smythin, for keeping a calculating mindset even in the face of Devil's Snare, fire, and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, I award Slytherin house fifty points."

Another eruption takes place as the members of Slytherin begin cheering, casting grateful glances at Lily. She beams. She knew that being in Professor Sprout's good books would be handy.

Suddenly, exam results are out, which Lily had completely forgotten about in the previous excitement. To Lily's surprise and Hermione's chagrin, Lily passes with flying marks—marks which place Lily at the very top of her classes in all subjects. Lily knows this time it's more than just her memory; although she doesn't technically study Lily's made a point to pay spectacular attention in classes, and many of the things they practise require Lily to recall the knowledge tested in classes.

No one in first year is thrown out, though she suspects that Dumbledore pulled a few strings for some Gryffindors—because, honestly, Edna Rue could not have passed if she only answered five questions on each test.

And then suddenly wardrobes are empty, trunks packed, and Lily is more than ready to go back to Potter Manor to take a nap. First, though, she needs to suffer through a train ride, being nice and sweet.

When they finally descend from the train, Lloyd's immediately welcomed by Petunia and Vernon Dursley. Dudley, on the other hand, remains vaguely sneering.

"Why are we at this station full of freaks?" he complains. No one pays him any attention but Lily bristles at his statements.

Meanwhile, Lloyd's aunt and uncle fawn over him before beginning to take him home, and Lily feels a stab of… sadness, maybe jealousy. She pushes it aside. (She's making her own family, isn't she, with Sirius and Uncle Severus and Pansy and Draco and the rest of the Malfoys. And perhaps family is who you choose, not what's handed to you on a platter by the world.)

Afterword

End Notes

Hopefully, it wasn't /terrible/ and you somewhat enjoyed it... anyway, if there are any errors, whether grammatical or in spelling, feel free to tell me and I'll get onto fixing it. I think I'll be updating one chapter per week. If it doesn't update-- I either forgot or I died. Again, thanks for reading!

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