Planting seeds

During the two years after the meeting with the muggleborn support network, Lily stayed away from the wizarding public eye. She was training her two apprentices for the apothecary they will open in Tynby Vale. Harry had regular play dates with the other children of the support network; Zinnia started to join those play dates when she was old enough.

In the Sirius front, they didn't have any lead to find Wormtail. The Tonkses and Lily decided that even if the new head of the DMLE was reasonable, it would be better to find Pettigrew to use as evidence, because there was one thing Crouch was right about and that thing is that the Wizengamot won't listen to the statement of a muggleborn witch.

Lily offered support to the muggleborn support network in form of one of the Potter holiday houses to use as a meeting point, and financing muggle education for some members using the Potter fortune.

It was May 1985, the muggleborn support network had their most important meeting yet.

"We finished building the first ten properties in Tynby Vale, my wife could make the paperwork to connect them to the floo network." Ted announced.

"Great!" Exclaimed Erika. "Now we can start to open our first businesses. Lily. How are your apprentices?"

"They are doing great, they can brew most of the potions that have high demand in the magical world with efficiency." Replied Lily.

"Do you want to be the first business to open?"

"Of course!" Lily smirked.

"Anyone else that wants to open their business?" Shouted Erika to the crowd.

Many hands raised, the group spent a good part of an hour to decide which of the businesses would also open in the new village. After a decision was taken, they passed to the next point.

Russel stood up and presided the next point "Because of our project, our support network is also going to be open to people that belong to magical families that don't follow the blood purity dogma. We need a new name"

Lily rose her hand and said "We are going to need to futureproof that name, people from 'blood traitor families' are going to join us, but they won't be the only ones. Is possible that in some years part-humans and nonhumans are also going to join us. The blood supremacists also discriminate them"

Carrie chimed in "We are going to be a diverse bunch. I propose 'The fellowship of the Orchid' or the 'Orchid society'. Orchids are one of the most diverse family of plants"

The members entered a discussion and settled in 'The fellowship of the Orchid'. Ted floo called Andromeda so she could be inducted officially in the fellowship. Andromeda arrived with Nymphadora, Harry and Zinnia a while later.

Andromeda raised the next point in the discussion "I heard you intend to start a new school, my birth family was obsessed with astronomy. I can be the astronomy teacher"

Erika replied "Glad to know. Wouldn't be an obstacle with your job at St. Mungo's?"

"Not at all, I don't have the early morning shifts or the night shifts. I won't be sacrificing sleep"

"Thanks, now we have all the teachers we need for the new school. Your daughter is starting Hogwarts this year. Right?"

"Yes. She is very eager to start. I told her to write about everything that seems out of place there. So we can attract more people to our cause."

It was September. The Potters moved to a house in Leicester to live as a muggle family during the weekdays, the reason for that is that Harry started muggle school. Lily considered that Harry should have a rounded view of both the wizarding world and the muggle world. For her public appearances Lily started dying her hair blue and using purple contacts, she also changed her hairstyle to resemble a fairy; no one from the magical world would recognize her.

The second Saturday of September, Lily invited the Tonkses to her house to have a chat. The Tonkses sat in a couch, Lily in an armchair, Harry and Zinnia were playing with toys in a rug nearby.

"How did Dora start her classes?" asked Lily to Andromeda

"She was sorted to Hufflepuff, most of the core classes were alright with the big exception of potions"

Lily frowned at Andromeda's answer. "What happened there?"

Andromeda continued "The teacher doesn't really teach. Remember that Slughorn in his first lessons taught safety? This teacher doesn't."

Lily asked "What else happened?"

"He tends to deduct points for everything and has little patience. Nymphadora also asked her year mates from other houses, and the picture was horrible. A muggleborn boy she met on the train was sorted into Slytherin; the bullying was horrible, he has already gone to the hospital wing two times. He asked his head of house for help, but the teacher encouraged the bullying. A Gryffindor year mate told her that the teacher is nastiest with Gryffindors than with people from other houses."

Lily was turning red in anger. "I don't understand why Dumbledore believed Snape has turned into a new leaf. Everything points that he didn't. We should contact that muggleborn boy, I want to train him during the summer. I will contact the fellowship to prepare a training ground for wizards from non-magical families. We know that the trace only detects magic done around muggle residences, but not who did it."

Andromeda added "I think we should train Harry and Zinnia in occlumency before they go to Hogwarts, it is said that Snape is a legilimens like Dumbledore and they probably want to know what were Harry's whereabouts before he started Hogwarts."

Lily agreed with Andromeda. "Not only occlumency. I will teach them potions, I know now that Snape didn't grow up and he was enemies with James, it is very probable that he will see Harry as an opportunity to take revenge. Especially because Harry looks a lot like James."

Ted chimed in "You told us that Snape was obsessed with you, that he sent you-know-who to kill your family so he could have you for himself. Zinnia looks a lot like you, but with James' eyes. I would be worried about that; in the years I have been as a lawyer I have seen a lot. Zinnia will need some special defensive training."

Lily sighed. Those are going to be very difficult years. "That reminds me that I need to find some adequate wizarding families that have children around Harry's age that will send their children to Hogwarts. Because he is the boy-who-lived, no one will have a healthy perception of him when he gets to Hogwarts. The wizarding kids that meet Harry before Hogwarts are going to have a healthier perception of him as a result."

Ted replied, "you still have time for that". Then he approached Harry. "How has been muggle school."

An excited Harry answered "Great, I joined the junior football club. I like to play as a striker, I'm good at it"

"So, you like football a lot? Do you have any favorite team?"

"Yes, I love football. I don't know enough about the teams to have a favorite. Mum is going to take me to the next Leicester match"

Some hours later, after sending her children to sleep. Lily was sitting at her desk thinking. Maybe waiting for the summer to train that boy, would be too late. He needs to defend himself now. She wrote instructions for some defensive spells and some tips to survive Hogwarts, she asked her house elf to deliver the letter to Hogwarts.

Dumbledore was sitting at his office reflecting on everything that happened since Halloween 1981. It was almost three years since Lily obtained her mastery in potions and disappeared from the public eye. He didn't expect she would react that badly to Severus Snape receiving his opportunity for redemption and becoming a professor at Hogwarts. She was so angry that Severus received an opportunity for redemption that she cut off her contact with all the order of the phoenix.

Snape frantically entered the headmaster's office "Headmaster. We have a problem, many of my Slytherins are in the hospital wing with broken bones. We need to do something"

"Have you asked what happened?"

"I haven't had the opportunity; they were all found unconscious. It was like they were thrown to the walls repeatedly. I don't know how this could happen."

At the same time, in the library a certain muggleborn first year Slytherin was talking to his friend Tonks.

"This was glorious, I'm glad that benefactor decided to send me instructions for that spell." Said the smiling Slytherin boy.

"Owen, I'm glad you could solve your problem without getting caught." Smiled Tonks.

Owen put a smug face. "Slytherin cunning, something that current Slytherin lacks. It was easy to hide and use the spell."

Tonks inquired. "Which spell did you use, I want to learn it."

Owen answered. "It was called levicorpus, the main use was to just hang people from their ankle, but I decided to play with it and use it to hit their bodies against the walls. I thank my benefactor; they signed their letter with 'LP'"

Tonks' eyes widened when she heard the initials. "I think I know your benefactor; she is a good friend of my parents. You'll probably meet her during the summer." Then she smiled mischievously. "I think I had a hand in you having a benefactor. I wrote about you in a letter to my parents, they probably told her about your case."

Lily was at her research lab, brewing some experiments. She realized that most wizards neglected their physical fitness, only some aurors, curse breakers and quidditch players cared about that. In some pureblood circles they take pride on being physically frail, they take it as a status symbol. During the war against Voldemort, the reason both the Potters and the Longbottoms were so effective against him, was because they didn't neglect either their physical fitness or their magical proficiency. Mad-eye before he was maimed, was very fit physically. The red-haired witch suspected that Voldemort cared about his fitness when he was younger. It was only a few wizards like Dumbledore that could be effective with magic alone.

She took one green liquid and decided to test it on herself, everything about the theory of her potion was ok. She took her potion and did circuit training, she went for five hours before physical exhaustion and started to feel that her magic was starting to help her recover. Her potion was a success, she created a magical PED that didn't have the negative effects muggle PEDs have. Now she understood why the statute of secrecy included sports, because the people that enhanced themselves magically, would stick like a sore thumb. Lily brewed many flasks of that potion and put them to sale, she recommended that only people over 16 years old take them. Then she laid down on a couch to rest from her physical and magical exhaustion.

The first research Lily wanted to do, that doesn't involve taking the piss of the pureblood wizards would be something about curse scars. There her thoughts were directed at her son; she had her questions about what really happened during that night. She was already unconscious when Voldemort attacked Harry, so she didn't remember what happened there, Harry was too young to remember. No one of the people that were there remember what happened. Dumbledore suspected Harry reflected a killing curse, but that doesn't make sense, it was said that Voldemort's body was never found, and a killing curse doesn't leave a mark. Also, the protection ritual she thinks James made wasn't strong enough for a killing curse.

Owen Irving when he received his visit from Professor McGonagall, was expecting a fairy tale world when he entered Hogwarts. On the Hogwarts express he met Nymphadora Tonks and made friends, after that he was sorted into Slytherin and everything crashed. The pureblood bigots in his house made him their main target, and most of the wizard raised people from other houses shunned him. Two weeks later he received advice from an anonymous benefactor, he learned some spells to use against his bullies. The rest of the year he got in a stalemate state of 'Ignore me and I ignore you' with his housemates.

Tonks, Owen and two of Tonks' roommates took for themselves a compartment in the Hogwarts express for the ride back to kings cross for the summer holidays.

"I sent a letter to my mum; you will meet your benefactor today. It is important you keep her identity a secret." told Tonks to Owen.

Owen nodded. "I just want to thank her, she helped me survive my first year at Hogwarts. I also want to protect the next year firsties that get sorted into Slytherin next year."

"I think, she would also want that. My parents sent me a letter stating she wants to train you." Tonks then looks at her roommates that were playing exploding snap. "They want to train you, too"

Iris, one of Tonks' roommates asked "What about the trace?"

Tonks laughed. "The trace just detects magic cast around muggle households. If you go to a magic dense area, the trace won't detect you." Then she looked at Owen and asked. "Do you know about the knight bus?"

Owen frowned "My muggleborn guide book doesn't say anything about the knight bus. What is it?"

Tonks answered "Is a service where you can take a bus from anywhere in Britain by calling it by sticking your wand in the air the same style you take a muggle bus."

Owen smiled "This means I can visit you anytime?"

Tonks said "Yes."

The group kept talking and laughing during the ride home. When the train arrived at kings cross, Tonks ran up to her parents and a blue haired woman with two children, the first was a boy that was wearing a cap, square glasses, and a Leicester city jersey, the second was a little red-haired girl smaller than the boy. Tonks the waved to her friend group.

Andromeda then approached the group and said "Nice to meet you, you must be Owen, Iris, and Juliana. Do you see your families? I want to talk to them."

The kids went to look for their families and reunited with Andromeda. Andromeda explained the situation, the families decided to drive to the Tonks residence that was in a posh neighborhood in London. There Ted sat down with the families of Dora's friends meanwhile the children stood before the fireplace.

"Does everyone here know how to use the floo?" asked the blue haired lady Owen saw at the station.

Owen rose his hand "I don't know how it is used."

"Go with Dora. The address we are going to is the Deer's retreat." The lady with her two children stood in the fireplace, tossed some floo powder and shouted "The Deer's retreat."

Owen followed Tonks to the fireplace, Tonks did the same as the blue haired lady. He appeared in a living room from some isolated big house, it wasn't as big as a manor but it belonged to a well off family. There he found that the lady that guided them had red hair instead of blue hair. Juliana and Iris arrived just after them.

The red-haired lady approached them and announced "As you know now, I want to train you in some jinxes, hexes and curses to use against bullies. For the people that don't know me yet, my name is Lily Potter."

Owen remembered the initials 'LP' in the letter with advice. "So you are the one that sent me that advice?"

Lily smiled "That's correct. Do you want to know who invented the levicorpus jinx?"

"You?"

"No, it was Snape."

"Are you telling me that we used a spell invented by that greasy git against his protegees?" asked a shocked Owen.

"Yes"

Iris asked "Why were you wearing blue hair and purple contacts in the king cross station?"

"I needed to hide my identity, and Harry's to hide from the scrutiny of the press. Also this won't be your training place. "

The four twelve-year-old kids nodded.

Lily then explained them about Tynby Vale and how to get there using the knight bus. She told them about not having to worry about the trace. Then she told them about the training place and how to find it, she gave them a password for that place. The children returned to their houses with smiles on their faces, knowing about a new activity to do during the summer.

Lily has planted seeds for a cultural change at Hogwarts.