Making friends
After Lily started training Dora's friends, she felt into a routine with teaching at the fellowship's school, raising her children and researching new potions, with looking for a way to deal with curse scars the main goal. For the next two years nothing really changed apart from Zinnia starting muggle school. The muggleborn witch felt stuck in her research and felt she needed an assistant, she paid for ads in the Daily prophet and the Quibbler looking for an arithmancer; to ensure that the assistant candidate wasn't a bigot, she set a meeting point at her apothecary knowing that pureblood supremacists would never go there.
The days after Lily published her ads, she worked on the counter of her apothecary looking to meet potential assistants. As always, she had dyed hair and purple contacts on her public appearances. On the second day a blond bug-eyed petite woman entered the shop, she approached Lily and in a very serene voice she greeted "Hello Mrs. Potter"
A shocked Lily asked, "How do you know I am Mrs. Potter?"
The woman smiled and continued calmly "I am very observant Mrs. Potter, I don't understand how people don't realize you are here."
Lily sighed "The reason is because most of the people that come here are first-generation wizards and witches, and they know I don't want to be bothered with the fame of my son." Lily started using the term first generation wizard/witch or first-gen for short a short time after she started training Tonks' friends.
The woman asked curiously "Does the term first generation wizard or witch refer to the ones that come from non-magical families? Mrs. Potter"
Lily nodded, paused, and then replied "I wanted to use a term that put more emphasis in the fact we are magical, instead of who were our families. You are probably the first non-first-gen I have seen in a long time not including my children or Andi."
The blond woman put a serious face and said "Let's cut the chase Mrs. Potter. My name is Pandora Lovegood and I am interested on becoming your assistant. I normally do spell research, but I am also interested in potions, I can also see magic, my daughter has a similar ability but can only see emotions and associates them to weird creatures my husband believes in"
Lily's eyes widened when Pandora mentioned she could see magic "That might come in handy, I want to check Harry's scar. Andi, a close friend that works as a healer, couldn't find anything with the basic and advanced diagnostic charms. Mrs. Lovegood, please call me Lily."
Pandora replied "Ok, then please call me Pandora. Where is your son?"
"He is with his sister at muggle school right now, I need to pick them up in one hour."
"Take your son to my house anytime, just floo call to ensure I am there. My house name is 'The Rookery' and is located in the outskirts of the village of Ottery St. Catchpole."
The next Saturday came, Lily took her kids to the Rookery using the floo network, there they were welcomed by Pandora.
"Lily, Harry, Zinnia, take a seat." Said an enthusiastic Pandora.
The Potters take a seat in the living room, Pandora sat last. Then she took a look at every Potter, when she looked at Harry she lifted her eyebrows in shock.
A serious Pandora commented "Now, I understand why you want to know about the true nature of that scar." Pandora stood up and called "Luna!"
A few moments later a small girl that looked a lot like Pandora came down the stairs.
"Luna, we have some guests. Can you take them to your room?"
The small girl nodded and ran up the stairs, Harry and Zinnia followed her.
Pandora sat again, "This is a very sensitive topic, the children shouldn't hear this."
A worried Lily asked "Is it bad?"
Pandora nodded, "Is bad but not horrible, glad you came to me with this because other people would take another resolution about that scar."
Lily frantically asked "What is it?"
"You probably suspected that Harry's scar had dark magic." Lily nodded at Pandora's statement. "You said that certified healers couldn't detect it, and know I know why. This was the effect of soul magic, there is a foreign soul in Harry's scar, probably you-know-who's. Normally the only way to expel a soul fragment would be destroying the container." A tear started running from Lily's eye and she was about to say something before Pandora interrupted her. "Most people would think that the container in this case would be Harry himself, but that is not the case. If the container was Harry himself, the foreign magic would be all over his body. But it is contained to Harry's forehead with some roots ramifying trying to penetrate Harry's soul."
"So, it's like a tumor." Lily commented.
"Yes. I think we and your healer friend can crack this case together. This isn't a normal curse scar, but I think this will be a progress to discover a cure for that. Glad you brought this to my attention."
Lily relaxed on her seat "You overestimate my observations, I wanted to get rid of that scar for petty reasons, so no one stares at Harry by the time he starts Hogwarts. So, you want to work with me? I have already a contract drafted for you." Lily takes a folder with a contract from her bag.
"I want to work for you, this is why I went to your apothecary. I knew that you were trying to get rid of your son's scar for petty reasons. I can read the intentions of people well; my daughter is the same."
Meanwhile the two mothers were starting their talk, Harry and Zinnia were following the Lovegood girl, when they entered the room, they found a small red-head girl with brown eyes and freckles on her face and arms.
"Who are them?" asked the freckled girl warily.
"Mum's guests." Answered Luna, then she looked at the Potters "The ginger is a neighbor, Ginevra"
A flustered Ginevra approached the siblings and extended her hand "Hello, I'm Ginny Weasley. Never call me Ginevra." She greeted Zinnia first, then she approached Harry and when she got closer, she noticed his scar. She started blushing profusely and was speechless.
Zinnia asked Luna "What is your friend's problem?"
"Ginevra is a fan of the boy-who-lived adventure books and has a crush on him. So, when she recognized your brother was Harry Potter she became shy. I hope this explanation is enough, Zinnia Potter."
"There are books about my brother? I want to see them, and I think my brother would want to see them too."
Luna went to calm Ginny before she tried to flee the room. "Zinnia Potter, there are some of those books at the shelf next to the closet. Harry Potter, you also want to see those."
Harry and Zinnia approached the shelf meanwhile Luna was trying to restrain Ginny. Zinnia picked up a stack of books.
"You know, mum warned us about this fame being the reason we don't go to traditional wizarding places, but to see it, is something else." commented Harry.
"We need to show mum this."
"HELP, Ginevra is escaping." Yelled Luna. Zinnia ran to their direction and jumped and grabbed Ginny, with the difference that Zinnia didn't struggle in restraining Ginny and was taller than her while being almost one year younger.
"Ginny, my brother is not the character you see in those books. He is like us, a boy that studies, plays football…"
"What's a football?" asked a confused Ginny.
"You don't play football?" asked an annoyed Zinnia
"Gin, football is a muggle sport where you have to kick a ball in the other team's goal." Explained Harry.
Ginny blushed at the new nickname and then asked Zinnia "Is that the reason I can't escape?"
"Yes. I play a lot of football, my brother does too. I am a midfielder, my brother is a striker."
Harry asked Luna "Can I borrow those books? I want to see what they say about me."
"Of course! Harry Potter."
"Harry, do you like Quidditch?"
"Yes. My favorite team is the Appleby arrows. Mum finds that sport's rules nonsensical"
Ginny grinned. "You have better taste than my brother, that likes the Chudley cannons. They are his favorite team even if they lose every match, and have that horrible orange uniform. My favorite team is the Holyhead Harpies, the only all-female team in the league."
Zinnia chimed in "If the Chudley cannons were a football team, they would have been relegated many times."
"Relegated?"
Harry explained "Because the muggle world is bigger than the wizarding world, there are many divisions for the sports teams. When a team ends last place, they get relegated and will play on the lower division the next season, on the flipside when a team of the lower division wins the division, they get promoted to the upper division. A team we supported because it is the team of the city our muggle school is, was relegated to the second division last year."
The children were interrupted when Lily and Pandora knocked the door.
"Come in" yelled Luna.
The mothers opened the door and found the children talking in a circle. The one thing that caught Lily's attention was that Zinnia had her legs and arms wrapped around another red-haired girl.
"Who is she?" asked Lily pointing to the freckled redhead.
"That is Ginny Weasley, a neighbor of us" answered Pandora.
"Weasley? I heard that the sister of some order members that died before the attack on my house, the Prewetts married a Weasley, I know they usually told the stories of the many nephews they had" commented Lily.
"Ginny's mother's maiden name is Prewett. I heard her husband Arthur has a fascination with muggles, his biggest ambition is to know how airplanes fly."
So Arthur Weasley sees the muggles as zoo animals. But I think I should still send Harry and Zinnia to play here, so they can influence the Weasley girl into having a more rounded view of muggles. Thought Lily, she then approached her daughter and inquired "Why are you restraining the Weasley girl?"
"She was influenced by some books about Harry, and she has a crush on him." Ginny blushed at the statement. "She was going to run away, so we decided to restrain her so she can know us better."
"Mum, I borrowed those books from Luna, so we can have a look of them." Harry added, passing the books to Lily.
They are using my son's name for profit. I don't like this at all. I need to talk to Andi about this.
"Harry, Zinnia, its time to go."
"When are you coming next?" asked Luna.
"Harry and Zinnia will come here almost every weekend, the exceptions would be the weekends they have junior football tournaments" replied Lily.
The Potters left the house and looked at it, it looked like a giant chess rook.
"Now we know why it is called the Rookery" observed Lily. "Did you like your new friends?"
"Yes!" answered both siblings.
During the following months, Lily and Pandora continued their research for a way to get rid of Harry's scar. Lily took the books about Harry to Andi to see if they could do something about them, but they didn't have enough power to get a good lawyer to handle the book issue. Harry and Zinnia had become good friends with Luna and Ginny. Harry put all his efforts in football during the year. It was May 1989, Harry was going to play in a mini-football tournament in London representing his school. Lily and Zinnia were there watching him play, Harry's team played well.
For the last match of the day Harry scored the final goal to win the game. During the celebrations one of the kids of the opposite team in a fit of frustration kicked the ball against a tree, the ball was white but it turned red and the tree burst in flames. Lily witnessed the incident and approached the boy.
The dark skinned boy was scared because he thought they were going to blame him for the tree. He was surprised when Lily in a soothing voiced told the boy, "Don't worry about that, I know this wasn't your intention. Where are your parents?"
"Mum is there." Replied the boy pointing to a black woman talking to a white man.
Lily approached the woman and asked her.
"Good afternoon, my name is Lily Potter. Have strange things happened around your son a lot?"
The woman replied. "Yes, but I thought I was just hallucinating. Do you have an explanation for this?"
"Yes, but we need a more private place for that explanation."
"Why don't we go to my house to talk about this."
"We need to do this quickly, before certain people arrive."
"Ok, let me call my son." The woman looked at her son and yelled, "Dean! Come here!"
Lily did the same for her children, "Harry! Zinnia! Come here!"
"Oh, I almost forgot. My name is Karolyn Spencer."
The group gathered up and then walked half and hour to Karolyn's house. As they arrived one man that was leaving the house talked to Karolyn. "Karo, I have a work emergency, I will return during the afternoon." Then he entered the car and drove away.
"That was Michael Thomas, my fiancé." Karolyn opened the door and took them to a living room. "Take a seat."
The group sat down.
"So, you say that you have answers about what happened at the park."
"Yes, and you need an open mind for this because the thing I want to tell you is going to be unbelievable."
Karolyn snorted "Are you going to say magic is real, seriously I thought you were a serious person."
Lily took her wand and cast a levicorpus on Karo. Karo's eyes widened in shock. Then Lily lowered Karolyn to the floor.
"Magic is real?!"
"Yes, I'm a witch, my son is a wizard, my daughter is a witch. Your son is a wizard, during his last year of primary school you are going to be visited by a professor from Hogwarts, a wizarding school that receives students from the UK and Ireland."
"Is magic genetic?"
"Sort of, there are wizards and witches that are born in non magical families, one example of that being myself. My husband on the other hand was from an old 'pureblood family'. There are people that discriminate by the families you come from, there was a war waged by blood purists against everyone else. My husband died during that war."
"When did that war happen"
"It started around the time I started Hogwarts in 1971, it ended when their leader died trying to kill my son in 1981."
A realization hit Karolyn, and some tears started running through her face. "My old boyfriend, Dean's biological father probably died. What's that thing about their leader trying to kill your son?"
Lily then explained all the story of when they went into hiding, the betrayal, and the aftermath.
"That world sounds dystopian as fuck. I don't want to send Dean to that school if things are like that. I would send him to that new school you are teaching in."
"That wouldn't be possible, wizarding British laws have Hogwarts as mandatory for the first-gen children. Don't worry, I can teach your son self-defense and some basics."
"Please do it, I am going to need this."
"I leave you a way to contact me." Lily takes a piece of paper and gives it to Karolyn. "Just mail something to that direction, the letters will arrive to me the next day. I also give you this phone number, but I will only answer after work during weekdays, in weekends I visit another wizarding house and I don't have a phone at work because electronic devices don't work in places with high magic density."
Dean quickly became friends with the Potters, knowing he was special was something that made him happy. Two months after meeting the Potters, his mother and her fiancé had their wedding. Dean's new stepfather offered to adopt him, and he happily accepted. His new stepfather supported him and the fact he was a wizard.
July 31st came, they decided to celebrate Harry's birthday at the Rookery. The reason they chose that place was because they wanted Ginny at the party and Lily hadn't met the Weasleys and didn't know if she could trust them to extend an invitation.
In the party attendees, were the Tonkses; Dora's friends, Owen, Juliana, and Iris; Dean Thomas; Luna Lovegood and Ginny Weasley.
Dora was making a show using her metamorphagus abilities, changing her face to ones of different animals and changing her hair to different colors.
"Cool." Exclaimed Dean when he watched Tonks showing her abilities.
"Nymphadora, do cockatoo next!" exclaimed Harry.
"Ok, but you will not call me Nymphadora for the rest of the afternoon."
Harry was then slapped by Ginny, "Why did you call her by that weird nickname?"
"That's her name, not a nickname." Laughed Harry.
"It's that true? I can still hit him." Ginny asked Tonks.
A resigned Tonks answered "Yes, my mum thinks it's a perfectly good name."
"Why don't you use your middle name?" asked Luna.
"It's Edwarda."
The kids bursted up laughing and the teenagers tried to contain their laughter. Then Owen questioned. "Dora. What were your parents smoking? Was it the same thing the creators of quidditch smoke?"
Dean yelled "Finally someone else that thinks quidditch rules don't make sense."
Harry and Zinnia both protested, "Hey, we also agree that. We just enjoy it all the same."
Owen laughing said. "I am going to recruit the three of you in creating a new wizarding sport, one that makes sense."
Then the group split, the younger ones were playing tag and hide and seek, the older ones were planning mischief for the next Hogwarts year. The younger ones were playing with a ball the Potters brought.
A few hours later everyone was tired, the ones that weren't from wizarding families had already left. It was getting late when someone knocked the main door. Pandora opened it and saw a raging Molly Weasley.
"Pandora. Is Ginny here?"
"Yes, come in."
Molly saw her daughter resting on a couch between Luna and another red-haired girl, she also saw a black-haired boy resting beside that red-haired girl.
"GINEVRA MOLLY WEASLEY. WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME YOU WERE GOING TO A BIRTHDAY PARTY?"
"That is my fault Mrs. Weasley." Lily walked up to Molly and stood up in front of her. "I asked her to not tell you because we didn't know how you would react. Please don't punish her." Pleaded Lily.
"You know what? I'm glad Ginny has new friends. I think this explains why Ginny suddenly knew a lot about muggle objects. I know why you feared my reaction Mrs. Potter, don't worry I won't tell anyone about you." Assured Molly. "I would like to invite you three to Ginny's birthday in less than two weeks."
"I would like to, but I don't know if your family would keep quiet."
"Don't worry about that, the one that wouldn't keep quiet of knowing Harry Potter is Harry's age and doesn't interact that much outside the family. My house is the Burrow, you will be welcome to visit anytime." Molly then took Ginny and left.