Okay, this is my last update for the next few weeks, because this time tomorrow I'll be sitting on a beach in the Caribbean sipping pina coladas and…probably working on Au Pair. Sigh. What can I say? I'm addicted.

So, here's the news you were really waiting for: the title of the sequel to Au Pair is….(drum role, please)…. Serendipity! Yay! There are two reasons for that, the first being that most series have some sort of theme in the title. So I thought to myself, hey self, listen up: why not make the theme 'Chick Flicks'? And Au Pair and Serendipity are two of the chickiest, flickest (?) chick flicks ever made. The other reason is sort of obvious – Harry thought he lost his mother, and then finds her when he wasn't really looking in the first place. So there you have it!

I was very glad to see that most of you are up on your Shakespeare knowledge, although it was a bit disturbing that some people didn't know how to spell 'Romeo and Juliet". Wince. Right, so, thanks to silver fairy dust for having the first partial answer, and many many thanks to tweets and ethyr nior for giving me the other answer I was looking for – Much Ado About Nothing! Incidentally, two of my favorite Shakespeare plays. But I'll save the third for the trivia question ;-)

Disclaimer: My momma always told me that the Harry Potter characters are like a friend's box of chocolates…you really want them, but they belong to someone else.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"The Burrow? Harry's at the Burrow!" Lily panicked. "What if they've got him right now, and –"

"We must stay calm." Dumbledore insisted, although he looked worried himself. "Order have already been alerted, and the Aurors should be on their way soon."

Lily was still anxious. "Dumbledore, please, let me go too –"

"No." He told her simply. "You know we can't allow Harry see you in wizarding company, let alone fighting off Death Eaters. It'll draw too much attention to your real identity."

"Why can't we just tell him I'm an Order member in disguise, like Arabella Figg?"

"Lily, we've been over this before," Dumbledore said wearily. "Can you imagine Petunia's reaction to discovering that a witch has been living under her roof for weeks? In her opinion, Harry is bad enough."

"She won't find out, we'll be careful –"

"It is much too risky. I cannot allow it." He continued in a softer tone. "I'm sorry, Lily. I know how much to you want to open up to Harry. But we're getting so close; this potion could be the answer to all of our problems." Dumbledore put a strange emphasis on the word 'all'.

"Fine." Lily pulled herself out of her frustration. "But the Burrow, how will we know what's going on?"

Dumbledore looked determined. "I'm going over there now, to make sure the reinforcements have arrived safely. Stay here, I'll send back news as soon as I can." And before Lily could open her mouth to reply, Dumbledore had grabbed hold of Fawkes' tail and disappeared.

Lily slumped back down in her seat dejectedly. How was she supposed to sit here in this office, drumming her fingers on the desk, when Harry could be lying somewhere in the Weasleys' house, dead?

She shuddered. Don't think like that. He'll be fine; Harry can take care of himself. Most of the newly recruited Death Eaters aren't the most experienced fighters, anyway. Voldemort was probably in a rush to get support.

But would he really send amateurs to go after the only person who can defeat him?

o-o

Lily's anxiety was unbearable after half an hour of waiting. What on earth is taking Dumbledore so long? She wasn't sure how much more waiting she could take. She decided to wait five more minutes, and if Dumbledore still hadn't contacted her, Lily would go to the Burrow herself.

But that turned out to be unnecessary.

Pop! A flash of fire above Dumbledore's desk brought a scroll, which Lily hungrily unrolled.

Harry has been Stunned by Bellatrix Lestrange and was taken to St. Mungo's. More information later.

A.D.

Lily rubbed her temples irritably. She felt a headache coming on.

Part of her was relieved – a Stunner wasn't so bad. It could have been much, much worse, Lily wasn't foolish enough not to know this. But another part of her was even uneasier than before. Why would Harry have been taken to the hospital if he were only Stunned? Was there something Dumbledore wasn't telling her?

o-o

Long minutes followed – some of the worst Lily had ever faced. And she had faced many.

Finally, about ten minutes after she received the message, Dumbledore popped back into his office with Fawkes in his arms. He looked weary and tired, yet relieved.

"Everyone will live," he told Lily before she had a chance to ask.

Well that's a rather foreboding way to greet me.

As if sensing her thoughts again, Dumbledore smiled slightly. "What I mean is, no one has been critically injured during the fight at the Burrow."

"Harry?"

"Has been taken to St. Mungo's, as I wrote you." He frowned slightly. "He was at the receiving end of one of Bellatrix Lestrange's Stunners. It was a very powerful one – I admit, one of the most powerful ones I have ever seen. But it was still only a Stunner, and I arrived just in time to stop her from doing more damage."

"How powerful, exactly?" Lily asked cautiously.

Dumbledore sighed. "Harry was sent into a deep state of unconsciousness. He probably won't be able to be Enervated until a few hours."

Lily nodded. "How are the others? The Weasleys, and the Order?"

"As I said, all will live." He continued at Lily's raised eyebrow. "Ginevra Weasley was hit with a foreign Dark spell. She had been taken to St. Mungo's as well. But as soon as the Healers figure out what she was hit with, they say they should be able to revive her. Molly Weasley was hit with the Cruciatus Curse over a dozen times, and is in critical condition, but her Healers also say they'll be able to help. As we speak, she is making a slow yet steady recovery. The rest of the family and the Order and Aurors escaped the battle with only some minor injuries, but Mediwizards were able to help them on site."

"And the Death Eaters?"

"We managed to round up a few of them, but my guess is that there were over twenty Death Eaters there today. The rest Apparated from the scene, taking their wounded with them," Dumbledore finished.

Lily was silent for a minute. "All right. Then I'm off to St. Mungo's. Good day, Dumbledore. Thank you for the tea." She stood.

"What?" It was not every day that Albus Dumbledore was startled. "Lily, you can't –"

"Why can't I?" She challenged. "Harry's my son, and I deserve the right to see him when he's sick. Besides, you told me he was unconscious. So he'll never even know that I was there. And I'll use a fake name if you wish."

Dumbledore looked like he was going to argue for a moment, but decided against it. He nodded. "Very well. Go to St. Mungo's. Use a fake name. And don't let him see you."

o-o

Lily stared through the glass window at the black haired boy lying very still on his hospital bed. His glasses sat neatly on the small table beside the bed, next to a glass of water and a goblet of potion. A small window was the only thing that decorated the wall across from the bed. Nothing in the room had moved for hours, including the teenage wizard who occupied it.

Lily sighed. It hadn't been simple getting here, and now she was being prevented from going into the room when she was so very close.

She had made the trip easily enough – walking to the Hogwarts kitchens from Dumbledore's office and Flooing to the visitor's entrance of St. Mungo's. No, that had been the simple part. When she had asked the Help Witch at the reception desk where Harry Potter's room was, she had given her a suspicious glare and coldly requested who it was that wanted to know. Lily had said "a friend", and was given the reply that only immediate family could go to Harry Potter's room in his state, for visiting hours were over. Lily had argued with the witch – used a handful of words that James had taught her, which she thought suited the occasion – and was finally taken to Harry's room. But she would have to wait until he woke up to enter.

As if.

Lily looked around her. No Healers or staff members were nearby. She pulled out her wand and tapped the lock. "Alohamora!" The door opened at her push. For one second, Lily was angry – how could hospital security be so loose? But she entered anyway.

Immediately, Lily waved her wand at the window, and it was magically tinted so that no one outside could see her. She was breaking almost every hospital rule, she knew this, but somehow didn't quite care as she looked down at her son's peaceful, sleeping face.

o-o

Lily stayed at Harry's side for an hour. The window across from his bed showed that it was already dark outside. She wanted to stay longer, but she knew she should get back to the Dursleys'. Lily supposed she would have to tell them that Harry had decided to spend the night at his friend's house. She prayed that he would wake up before his aunt and uncle got suspicious.

Bending over to make sure that he was still out cold, Lily tucked in the sheets around him. "Sleep well, Harry." She kissed his cheek lightly, and left the room as carefully as possible.

Lily completely missed the green eye that opened, just a fraction, before she turned around.

o-o

Shapes blurred around him. Colors and sounds mixed, creating one crazy mixed dimension, the kind only possible to understand in dreams. People passed by, talking to him. People he liked stopped to chat with him. People he didn't like hissed insults. Many were people he knew. A few were people he wished he knew.

Things that had happened in the past combined with others. Harry watched as he stabbed a large mirror with a bloody fang. The cold floor he was sleeping on shook as Hermione crashed down the front door to tell him that he was a wizard. A Hungarian Horntail attacked Draco Malfoy during their Care of Magical Creatures class.

And Harry woke suddenly with the image of a dark-haired woman in his head.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

This last bit was sort of rushed because I still have to finish packing. Sorry. But you get the idea. The dark-haired woman was Lily (Tabitha), by the way. I hope that was clear.

Trivia Question: Can you guess my third favorite Shakespeare play? HINT: a movie, starring Julia Stiles, was loosely based on it. Remember, I don't want the movie name – I want the play! (But if you know the movie too, you can guess that. I won't hurt you.)

Review responses are on my user profile! Goodbye everyone! Have a good two weeks!

LaRohaZeta