Lily Luna Potter used to love Hogwarts. But this year made her hate it, it was really the worst year of her life. She had good grades without too much effort, she loved her house and got along with everybody. Her whole four years at Hogwarts went pretty smoothly, nothing major happened until a few months ago when things took a turn for the worse. It all started after the winter holidays when the popular Head Girl was found laying in a corridor in tears and told that she was raped. This incident brought a student from Slytherin to say that she was also victim of sexual assault and the two stories matched up, which led the authorities to conclude that it was done by the same perpetrator. The Slytherin sixth grader was too proud to come forward and originally wanted to tell no one about her worst night of her life but she couldn't stay silent any longer. One month later, another student was found raped, she was from Hufflepuff and she was a fourth-year student. Lily didn't know her personally but she often shared classes with her and she could tell that she was very likable. The Hufflepuff eventually dropped out of school after a few days spent in the infirmary. Despite having the authorities from the Ministry of Magic immediately intervene in the castle after the Head Girl was found, the attacks didn't stop there. Then, the last victim was none other than Lily's cousin, Rose Weasley. At this point, parents demanded the school to be shut down and it came very close to being done but a few days ago, an arrest was made. The Head Boy of Slytherin suddenly confessed even though he had a strong alibi for the third attack. Lily Potter was a Slytherin and knew the young man well, in her eyes he couldn't be the rapist. In fact, she knew from the start who it was. She wasn't sure, of course, but she immediately felt in her guts that it was the professor of Transfiguration. She knew something was off about him since her first year at Hogwarts. She couldn't pinpoint exactly what made her think that but as years went on, she was convinced that he was a creep.
No one took her seriously, not even her dad despite his best efforts to be understanding. Indeed Professor Wilcox was an appreciated teacher and he could always prove that he was somewhere else at the times of the attacks. After Rose's attack, Lily was determined to take matters into her own hands and she started her little private investigation. She made a plan to avenge her cousin.
This evening after dinner, she approached Wilcox asking him for a private meeting in his office, pretending that she was in desperate need of advice from her favorite professor (flattery always worked out well for her and she knew how to use it to get what she wanted). When they were both in his office and Lily started crying, he would get her a handkerchief in an attempt to comfort her, she then slipped the vial of Veritaserum into his cup of tea. Without surprise, he told her that he was indeed the rapist that everybody wanted sent to Azkaban and told her that he managed to make the Head Boy confess by using the Imperius Curse on him. She heard enough to make him arrested but rage grew within her. He didn't seem sorry for what he did, he was looking forward to doing it again and that made Lily even more furious. He even dared to laugh at how some of his victims reacted, considering them as mere objects and not human beings. Lily thought at that moment that prison would be too good for him and therefore used four consecutives Cruciatus curses on him, one for each victim. Surprisingly, it gave her great pleasure to see him in pain after all the pain he caused, terrorizing so many people. She didn't think she would enjoy this, she thought she was acting on a righteous rage but since her curses were working well, it appears that what she wanted the most was for him to suffer. She was acting although she was in a trance, she enjoyed seeing his body flinching and arching in pain, she liked that he was begging for mercy between each curse.
"P-please, stop it. I'll do… I'll do an-any-anything!" cried out the Professor, trying to get off the floor.
"No one and I mean no one hurts my family and lives." Lily replied, taking a breath to calm her beating heart. "Avada Kedavra!". The green light that came from her wand made her realize what she had just done.
She was only fourteen and she used two of the Unforgivable Curses? Her of all people, the kind and gentle Lily Potter? The daughter of Harry Potter? She didn't know she could do something like that. She didn't know she had that in her. She stared at the lifeless body in front of her and tried to justify her actions by saying out loud "He got what he deserved. He wasn't sorry.. Men like that shouldn't be able to live." No one could hear of course but she wasn't trying to convince anyone, she was trying to convince herself that she did the right thing. She didn't know what to do now. All of this wasn't part of her plan, she didn't even think about the possibility that he might end up dead. She didn't want him dead, she wanted to be the one to catch him and she wanted him to apologize to Rose in a trial.
"No, no, no… What have I done?!" Lily whispered while fixing her ponytail in a frantic way.
Lily slowly got out of his office and walked the corridor trying to slow down her beating heart when suddenly a loud voice coming out of nowhere came crashing through her ears as if the walls and the floor were screaming at her. "A second chance at redemption shall be given to the pure of heart" the voice said.
"A second chance at redemption shall be given to the pure of heart" It was so loud that she kneeled on the hard floor and brought her hands on her ears.
"A second chance at redemption shall be given to the pure of heart" repeated the voice in an urging tone. Suddenly, the floor beneath her fell down and disappeared, as if she was being swallowed by the castle itself.
When she opened her eyes again, she found herself laying on a very comfortable carpet. Everything around her was silent but she could still hear the loud voice in her head. When she looked up and saw the paintings on the wall, she recognised the Headmistress's office. She went there only once but she remembered exactly what this room looked like.
Lily got up and straightened her robes and came face to face with someone that didn't look like Professor McGonagall. Indeed, the person sitting at the office had a long and silver beard. "Whoa, he's the spitting image of Albus Dumbledore!" Lily thought to herself, now searching for Dumbledore's painting on the wall in order to compare the two, only to find that the painting was missing. "Strange… Why would they move it?" she wondered.
The man looked at her with concern and asked "What are you doing in my office, Miss…?" He looked at her robes and saw the Slytherin colors. "I'm afraid I don't know your name" he added, still looking above his half-moon spectacles.
Lily had a perplexed look on her face, she tried to answer the wizard but she couldn't find the right thing to say. She wondered if her mind decided to play tricks on her, maybe because of her fall. The man in front of her looked alive and healthy. "How is it possible? He died long before I was born!" thought Lily as loud as possible, hoping that an answer would come quicker that way. "It can only mean one thing…"
"Hm.. What year is it, Professor?" asked Lily in a raspy voice.
"Today is the 4th of March 1975." Dumbledore answered as he stood up and approached the girl.
Lily gasped loudly and put her both hands on her face. "What!" she exclaimed in a high pitched voice. She suddenly felt weak and she let herself sit down without even making sure a seat would be underneath her. Dumbledore quickly moved the chair with his wand so that she wouldn't end up on the floor again. Lily couldn't believe that she traveled so far into the past…
