Disclaimer-Not mine.

Ginny Weasley lay immobile in her bed, unable to move. She didn't know what was going on around her, she couldn't comprehend it anymore. Not after the effect of the spell which had been thrown at her. Her once fiery hair was now a bright white, caused from the strain and fear that had suddenly been sent at her. She didn't even know what her daughter looked like or what she sounded like. She never got a chance to fully meet her.

A year after her daughter was born Ginny was attacked at home, completely trapped without her wand close enough to fend off the wizards who had invaded her home. She never had a chance. The doctors said it was a true miracle they hadn't killed her.

Lily Weasley wished they had. Maybe then she wouldn't be forced to go and see her mother, the mother she never knew, the mother she never met. No one knew how much it hurt to sit next to the woman who you had inherited everything from and not be able to talk to her. Lily went every week to sit by her mother's bed and read to her from the paper. Deep down, she wished she didn't have to. She wished they had killed her because then it would be over. She wouldn't have to look at her mother every single week knowing that it would never change. Knowing that this was it, this was the rest of her life. Sitting by the mother she never knew, living with an aunt and uncle who were keeping something from her and a absent father who stopped in every once in a while when he could.

Her father hadn't even known that she born until after the attack when Lily was handed over to him. Ginny had never said anything to him. And now, thirteen years later, her daughter was still paying for it.

"Lily, are you ready?" a familiar voice asked from the doorway. Lily didn't have to turn to know it was her aunt standing there, her scarf tied tightly around her neck, a shopping bag in her hands, flowers sitting in the crook of her arm.

"Yeah," Lily whispered, "I'm ready." She stood up and looked down at her mother, watching the slow breaths that were coming out of her, wishing her eyes would focus on her. Wishing her mother would just snap out of it already. "Bye, mum." A slow, polite kiss landed on the soft, cold cheek of the woman laying in bed.

Hermione didn't say anything to Lily, she didn't because she knew how it always went. Lily wasn't in the mood to talk, she wasn't in the mood for conversation. She wouldn't be right again until Tuesday. Sometimes Hermione wondered why she went so much, why she went every weekend even though she was at Hogwarts, why she spent all her summer cooped up in the uninviting halls. She asked once and Lily had said simply, "If she wakes up, I want me to be the first thing she sees." Hermione knew it was futile to explain to this girl that her mother was never waking up, never coming back.

"Your dad wrote to you," Hermione offered, pulling the slim letter out of her pocket and handing it to her daughter. Lily weighed it, noticing the lightness of it.

"Not much to say," Lily commented softly and grasped her aunt's hand, just needing something to hold onto. Hermione pulled her niece closer and kissed the top of her head. Hermione herself didn't have a daughter. She had two fabulous sons, Nathan and Wyatt, both of them close to Lily's age.

"He wants to see you, you know," Hermione said as they stepped out into the sleeting rain. She glanced around and opened up her umbrella. "He wrote to me asking if I would ask you. He wants to meet up at Christmas."

"Maybe," Lily answered, holding onto the handle of the umbrella for her aunt. She pretended she didn't care but she really, really did. Her father was the last link in her life. She had taken his eyes and his smile, that was according to her aunt.

Whenever Lily felt the moment was right, she would ask her aunt and uncle about what her father was like and how he had been before the incident. She secretly loved hearing stories about her parent's love affair and how fate seemed to push them together only to pull them apart. It was quite like Romeo & Juliet, only with one small change. Her mother didn't die, her father didn't die. They both went insane.

Her father never talked about her mother, ever. In all of Lily's memories Harry had never once said anything about her. He didn't have any pictures out of her, he never even acted as though he knew her. To Lily's knowledge he never even went to see her. She didn't blame him, if she hadn't felt so damn guilty she would stop going also.

"So, what d'you say, hun? Can he come?" Hermione asked, hailing a cab that was going down the street.

"Only if he promises to actually show up this time," Lily mumbled more to herself than to her aunt. She couldn't help but remember the last time when he promised to show up for her birthday and either forgot or just found something better to do because all that showed up was Hedwig with a hefty package tied around her leg. "Yes, please," she repeated to her aunt just to make sure he actually got invited.

"I'm glad," Hermione replied. "Now, what do you say to lunch, huh? My treat." Hermione patted Lily's leg and gave the cabbie directions to a restaurant down the road.

Lily sighed and sat further back into the cab. She was going back to school in a few hours. It was a tradition she was afraid to break.

Go to school all week, work her arse off because there was nothing else to do, come back and visit her mother, leave and arrive back in school by two in the afternoon and finish her homework, then, if she had the time, she chatted with her mates and let them paint her nails or braid her hair.

"Now, Lily, you haven't told me what you want for Christmas," Hermione commented as she bit into her slice of pizza. Lily just shrugged and went into a deep thought.

"Maybe some books," Lily said, wondering what she actually wanted.

"I'm having too much influence on you," Hermione said with a sigh. "You don't really want a book. Tell me what you really want."

"A new diary," Lily decided. "I really want a new diary. My never ending pages ran out apparently and I've been writing down my entries on filler paper."

"A diary? You really just want a diary?" Hermione asked skeptically. "I'm going to go out and buy you a diary and you're going to be sorry you didn't ask for what you really wanted…Lily, what's up?"

"Nothing, aunt Hermione," Lily said with a forced laugh, "honestly, nothing. I really, really want a new diary."

"That's all you want?"

"Yes," Lily said with a smile. "A diary sounds smashing."

"Well," Hermione said, unconvinced, "alright. A diary it is." Lily smiled again and bent her head down to take a bite of her pizza. She was always bad at this type of thing. What she wanted she couldn't have. She wanted a real father who wasn't absent and bitter. She wanted a mother who wasn't lying in some hospital bed, unable to talk and interact with her. She wanted a real family and actual siblings and a house where she didn't feel out of place. She wanted a family who looked like her. She wanted to find the pieces to the puzzle that was her face and finally put them together. She just wanted what she deserved.

An hour later Hermione finally got up and paid the tab as Lily waited outside under the awning. She watched the people passing by, people who had their own secrets who had their own problems.

Maybe everyone's family wasn't perfect. Maybe every family had skeletons in their closets and maybe everyone hated where they came from. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Lily was sick of maybes. She wanted definite solid answers.

"Ready to go?" Hermione asked, waving her hand again to signal a cab.

"Yeah," Lily answered, tucking her arms under her jacket. "I'm ready."

They went home and she bid farewell to her uncle and grandmother who were sitting in the kitchen, which smelt like chicken soup and bread.

After fending off her grandmother's coaxing to stay for dinner, Lily traveled back traveled back to school circa floo.

"Bye, sweetie," Hermione whispered, kissing her forehead. "I'll see you next week."

"Bye, m-" Lily stopped herself just in time, taking a shuddering gulp and looking at Hermione. "Bye, aunt Hermione."
It wasn't fair, Lily decided as she headed back to school, everyone else got parents. Why not her? Was it because of who her father was? Harry Potter, the boy destined to make his and everyone close to him's life a complete and utter mess. He was hell bent on keeping himself miserable, no matter how much it hurt everyone else around him. He, of course, blamed himself for what happened to Ginny. The funny thing was, so did his daughter.

Hermione watched Lily go back to school with a sinking heart. Lily, perfect Lily who never did anything bad and kept so strong throughout her entire life. Poor Lily, who was without a mother or a father. An unofficial orphan.

Hermione remembered exactly what it was like the day after the attack. She remembered Harry Potter coming back, white faced, red-eyed, his face stony and disbelieving. She remembered how Lupin sat him down and explained to him that Ginny was hurt in an attack. No, she wasn't going to be alright.

The room was silent as everyone unintentionally listened to Lupin explain everything that had happened. Harry didn't move, didn't dare speak for fear of letting out a wail that was threatening to burst through his mouth.

Hermione stood by the mantel piece, grasping onto it with all her might. She herself found it hard to comprehend that Ginny, sweet, gorgeous Ginny was reduced to a vegetable laying in St. Mungo's next to the Longbottom's. It wasn't fair.

"Harry," Lupin said, his voice low and steady, "there was an attack." Hermione clenched her eyes shut and waited for what was to be said.

"What happened-Who's hurt? Is it-"

"Harry, Ginny-"

"What happened?" Harry's voice was rising with panic. "Remus, tell me what happened." Harry looked as though he might just stand up and leave if he didn't get an answer quickly. "Is she dead?" his voice cracked.

"No, Harry…she's alive and breathing," Lupin said.

"Well, then-"

"Harry, don't you understand? That's all she can do. She won't be the same Ginny. They don't think she's ever going to be able to talk or walk or really live again."

"But-"

"Harry, Ginny was put in a vegetated state last night, she won't be alright," Lupin's voice was breaking down and becoming more and more thick with restrained tears.

Harry sat still, unable to make sense of what Lupin was saying. It wasn't true, he concluded silently to himself. This is some sort of sick, demented joke that someone had thought of playing. However, Mrs. Weasley's racking sobs from the other room, the uneasy silence in the house told him he was wrong.

"Harry, there's something else…" Lupin said cautiously. Harry looked up, tears clouding his vision. "I don't know if she told you-"

"Told me what?" Harry asked.

"Hermione and Ron weren't sure, she never said-"

"Said what?"

"Harry…"

"Remus, what is it? Just tell me!" Harry bellowed, unable to keep his voice down. Things seemed to be slowly falling from his grasp. Just last night he was thinking of how great life was. Last night as Ginny was being tortured, he was celebrating his latest victory.

Ron walked into the room his arms holding something in a pink blanket. Harry turned around sharply at the footsteps and stared helplessly at the baby in Ron's arms. It took a full minute for it to sink in before Harry felt himself break down.

"No," he whispered to himself, thinking of the baby who was now left to him, the depressed mess on the couch.

"Harry, this is Lily," Ron said, offering the baby to Harry who was now sobbing uncontrollably into his hands. "Your daughter."

"No!" Harry cried, hopping up and pacing back and forth. He grabbed his hair in tufts and let out a wail before knocking a vase into the wall, hearing the smash. "How could she d-do this to me?" he bellowed sinking down to his knees, still sobbing. "How could she think I could go on without her? How could she expect me to d-do this?"

Hermione rushed over and hugged him fiercely, breaking down for the first time all day. They rocked back and forth, trying to take each other's pain off, just to make it easier to live.

"Harry," Hermione said, pulling him onto his knees. "Look at me." He looked up at her, his eyes filled with sad tears. "You are all this baby has now, don't you dare back out on her. You are her only family. Ginny left her to you."

"I can't," Harry sobbed. "I can't do this."

"Here," Ron offered, handing him the baby in his arms. Her dark red hair was in small, loose ringlets around her head. She looked at Harry with identical red eyes that shone in the light lamplight.

"No," Harry said weakly.

"Yes, Harry, yes," Ron said and shoved Lily into Harry's arms. "She needs her father now, Harry. She NEEDS you."

Harry finally took the baby and looked into her bright green eyes. He wondered if she knew, if she knew that her mother was gone and that he was her father. He wondered how she could take it. So many thoughts flew in and out of his mind as he looked at the baby.

"I need to get back," Harry mumbled, standing up and handing the baby back to Hermione. His eyes were no longer sad, but a furry that Hermione had never seen him possess. "I'll write to you." He left with a pop, leaving Hermione and Ron standing in the living room, holding Lily.

He came back four years later and told Ron and Hermione that he couldn't take care of Lily, it was too hard what with all the traveling he did. They understood and offered to take her in, saying that he could come and get her whenever he felt he was ready. They had already become attached to her, treating her as their own. It was a simple transition from temporary living to full time living there.

Just before he left, Harry handed Lily something.

"C'mere," he said to her. She slowly edged over to him and glanced at his identical green eyes, registering some familiarity. "Do you know who I am?"

Lily nodded. "Aunt Hermione says you're my dad."

"That's right," Harry agreed. He took out a picture and handed it to Lily. "Do you know who that is?"

Lily nodded again. "That's my mum. She's really sick, that's why she doesn't talk back to me." Harry tried his best not to choke up at the child's words.

"I have to go away again," Harry said to the child in front of him, "do you think you can live here? With your aunt and uncle?" Lily frowned.

"Don't you like me?" she asked in a small voice.

"Of course I do," Harry whispered, now choking up.

"Then why don't you want to stay with me?"

"You wouldn't understand," Harry offered.

"Try me," she replied stubbornly.

"Because, it hurts. It hurts too much. You look too much like your mother and it really hurts me because I miss her so much," Harry whispered, pulling her in for a hug. "Can you be good and stay with your aunt and uncle?"

She nodded once again, trying not to pout. "Will you come back for my birthday?"

"You bet," Harry said and left again. "Here, have this. It was your mother's." Lily glanced down at the small locket with a G inscribed in it. "She wanted you to have it."

Lily wouldn't see him again for another year.

Hermione sighed and walked back to the kitchen.

"Was it awful?" Ron asked.

"Yes, it always is," Hermione said with a sigh. "She needs her father, Ron. It would be so much easier with a father to talk to." She banged her fist onto the table and let out a long sigh, feeling her husband's hands on the back of her neck, kneading the tension out of her.

"He's coming back," Ron offered.
"Well, I'm sure Lily will be so glad her father is making time for her," Hermione said sarcastically. Mrs. Weasley was silent for a moment.

"I think I'm going to go to the hospital before I head back home," she said, gathering up her things and placing them in her hands. "Kiss me." Ron and Hermione pecked her on the cheek and watched her leave. Moments later there was a knock on the floo.

"Who could that be?" Hermione mused, going over to the fireplace and tapping it with her wand. Harry came out, dusting himself off.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

Back at school, Lily headed back to her Common Room, feeling the sense of relief at being back. With the knowledge she wouldn't have to make this trip for another month.

On her way back she passed Colleen Malfoy who, as usual, made a snide comment that made Lily's hands clench around her wheely suitcase. With her temper underway, she continued on, not missing a beat.

She and Colleen had been enemies and always would be. Lily still couldn't put the comment she had made their first day in class away.

They had all been sitting in the Charms classroom waiting for tiny Flitwick to come in first day. Lily had been sitting by herself, trying not to look as nervous as she felt. And that's when she heard it.

"I heard she lives with her aunt and uncle because her parents travel too much," someone whispered to another girl with silvery hair.

"No, I heard her parents died," a brown haired girl said.

"Actually," the silver haired girl said, "she lives with her aunt and uncle because her mother's crazy and her father hates her." Lily clenched her eyes shut, breathing deeply. She didn't even expect that people would talk about her. They had no reason to. They knew Harry Potter better than she did.

"Why don't you crawl up in a hole and die, Colleen?" someone snarled, standing up and facing the three girls. Colleen scoffed.

"Oh, and are YOU going to make me?" she sneered.

"Yes, I am," the girl replied, jutting out her chin. "Don't you have better things to do rather than spread nasty rumors? I happen to personally know Lily, and I know that she does live with her father. I really thought everyone would know better than to believe stupid rumors."

Colleen's cheeks colored. "What ever you shape-shifting mutant." Seeing that nothing else was going to happen, the class went back to their own side conversations. The girl who had stood up for Lily slowly walked over and plopped down and sat next to her.

"You know, you didn't have to stick up for me," Lily started immediately. "I could have done it myself. She just caught me off guard. I have to keep remembering that people actually know my history."

"Oh, please, your 'history?'" the girl said. "Colleen is just angry because no one talks about her family anymore. You know, the evil, self-centered people who tried to kill the entire world. She was picking on me just last week at a party because I sneezed and my hair turned blue."

"I'm Lily," Lily said.

"Annie," the girl replied. "Annie Lupin."

"Oh, a Lupin, eh?" Lily asked. Annie nodded. "Well, just so you know. She was right."

"Who was?"

"Colleen. My father does hate me." Annie was going to protest but saw Lily's smile at thought the better of it. She didn't want to butt in.

Now, current time, Colleen still hated Lily and seemed to hate Annie even more. Not that either of them minded much, they both thought just as badly as Colleen.

"Fureak," Colleen hissed at Lily.

"Thanks, dear," Lily replied sarcastically.

Yup, it was good to be back.

A/N Please read and review.