A/N: Hello once again! First off, I just wanted to thank you for 23 and 46 favourites and follows respectively! (As of uploading this chapter.) And a huge thank you to the following people who left reviews!
magitech
James Birdsong
triblood
qwe123
Cleddyf
And now that I know it's the norm to actually respond back to reviews, I shall do so! (Previous chapter only though, don't want to clogged this up then it already is!)
magitech: Yeah, but honestly, can't really fault her, when I was twelve I was crushing on Vanessa Hudgens from High School Musical, so we all have our crushes that may or may not come from dubious pieces of media. (Though I will fight anyone who thinks the High School Musical Trilogy is trash.)
qwe123: Thank you for the kind words! Being a part of a weird family certainly helps with the dynamics.
Cleddyf: The romance part is the piece of the story I'm most likely to mess up at times, so I'm relieved that you found it enjoyable!
And now, on with the show!
As Lilith closed the door leading to her father's office, Harry began feeling the sinking anxiety once again as he was left alone with Lilian. Noticing this, Lilian stood up and waved her hand towards the other side of the room, "Come and sit here, Harry. They'll probably take a long time so it'd be best if we make ourselves comfortable."
Harry complied with her request and sat right across from her, she sat with her legs crossed, looking expectantly at him. He felt the soft cushion compressed with his weight and he tried to sit as respectfully as possible.
"Don't be so tense! These chairs were made to be relaxed in, you know." With her words of encouragement, Harry slowly started to loosen up and let the chair envelop him. And she was right, these chairs were comfy.
Right beside Lilian layed a small blue button, and as she pressed it, a tea set appeared out of thin air. She started to pour herself a cup of tea and she also filled another cup, and it floated up and down near a saucer that he hadn't noticed before.
Lilian sported a bright grin as she took a sip of her tea, "No matter how many times I've pressed this button, it's always so fascinating seeing magic in action."
That made Harry once again realise that she was a muggle. Never before had he met anyone who had known the world of magic, and yet not be a witch or wizard themselves. Of course, he had also been ignorant of his heritage, thanks in no small part to the Dursleys, and yet he was a bit curious to see what viewpoint she had to the wizarding world as a whole.
And so, he started with a question that had popped up in his head, "I guess it must have been a shock, when you saw someone performing magic at first."
The cup elicited a slight tinkle as it was brought down by Lilian at his inquiry, "Oh, of course! I was absolutely floored when Gordon had said that he was a wizard. I was pretty sure he was a lunatic, until he transformed a piece of tissue paper into a flower; he never passed a moment to flirt with me, even at that time."
She hovered and pressed another button, and once again another set of items appeared; this time a glass cake stand, layered with dessert and puddings galore. Lilian held a plate and took an assortment of different cakes and scones, and gave it to Harry, who took it with a thankful smile. She started to speak once again as he started to dig in.
"Well, I should probably start with how we even met in the first place. See, we first met in a bar, I was a barkeeper, and he was a bar drinker!" She giggled at her own little joke, and Harry couldn't help but smile as well, "Sorry, just a little joke I always say, Gordon always loves it."
"Anyway, when he first entered, you could immediately tell he didn't belong. His fashion sense was a few decades too late, his stance was as aristocratic as the Queen herself, and his aura was completely drenched with the kind of upper-class air that made everybody in the bar hate him instantly. He walked with the swagger that you would expect from a man like him and he sat down in front of me at the counter. Being a barmaid, I had to take his order, and he asked me for something that tasted like "Firewhiskey." Now I had no bloody idea what that was but I guessed it was a pretty strong whiskey he wanted, so a pretty strong whiskey he got. By the end of the night, everybody had been drunk out of their minds; oh, he started to give everyone a drink by the seventh glass. That got him in the good books of the regulars there."
Harry listened with undivided attention as Lilian told her story, he took a sip of his tea and pondered another question, "If you don't mind me asking Ms. Moon, how did you two begin dating?"
"Curious for some advice?" Harry blushed as her knowing smile flashed upon him, "And I said to call me Lilian, I'd rather not feel as old as I am."
She took a few moments to collect her thoughts, "If I had to say, I guess I started finding him attractive when I noticed how odd he was. In hindsight, he was reacting to everything as if he hadn't experienced it before because he really had not, but back then I just thought that he was some sort of poor sap who was sheltered his whole life. I had to show him how every technology worked and throughout it all, he wiggled his way into my heart."
Her eyes took on a far away look as she reminisced her youth with Gordon, "His reaction to everything was always cute; the dishwasher, the television set. My favourite was his first time listening to muggle music, I don't know how he lived not knowing The Beatles and Queen. He smuggled me to one of the Weird Sisters' concerts and… well, it ain't no Ticket to Ride."
A nod came from Harry as he remembered the Weird Sisters' performance in his Fourth Year. Then he apprehended what she had said.
"Wait, how did you see the Weird Sisters perform?"
A mischievous glint appeared in Lilian's eye at his question, "Oh, that was a good night. Gordon snuck me in a wizard concert; gave me a set of robes and a fake wand, completely fooled everybody there. It's kinda disconcerting how oblivious the majority of wizards are."
"Tell me about it." Harry agreed. The amount of times he was baffled by the idiocy of the British wizarding world has been piling up ever since Second Year, and this year in particular has shown him how some people just don't seem to have a mind of their own.
He shifted his gaze towards the door that Lilith had entered.
'I wonder what they're doing?'
Lilith raised her head away from the pensieve, filled with the memory of her and Harry's excursion to the forest where they tailed Umbridge and Tassler. Her father also replicated her actions, his face contorted into a thoughtful frown.
"So, what do you think, dad?" Her inquiry was met with Gordon's gaze directed at her.
"Yes, it's certainly suspicious." Lilith nodded, feeling the same as her father.
She flipped her hair out of her face and went across to the table to get a pen and paper, "How should we go about this then, dad? Umbridge might be the key to get Tassler right where it hurts."
"Hm? Oh, yes. That's all well and good, but that isn't what I found suspicious." Gordon faced Lilith, his hand caressing his chin.
Confusion filled Lilith's expression as she lowered the pen, and the eccentric man revealed what he had seen.
"There was something weird near the start of the memory."
'Was there? Maybe dad saw something we didn't.' Lilith thought questioningly, as expected, her father really was something else.
"Yes… It was you and Harry sitting on a large piece of fabric and a picnic basket near you two! Since when did you two get close enough to go on a picnic date?!"
…Yep, her father was really something else.
'Probably doing something really important.'
With that last thought about the father and daughter duo, Harry returned his focus to Lilian, who was recounting the experiences he had with Gordon.
"He confessed to me everything about his upbringing, including his family's stance towards people without magic, and that he shared the same viewpoint until he had met a muggleborn that was better at everything than he was. After that, his relationship with his family soured, most of all with his father. Did you know I had dinner with his parents? I thought it would have been rude to not at least introduce myself to them, now I wish I didn't; it was filled with awkwardness and passive-aggressive comments throughout."
Harry recalled Lilith telling him the same thing on one of their stakeouts, "Did Mr. Mo- I mean, did Gordon tell you who the muggleborn was?"
She wracked her brain, trying to remember if he did, "You know, now that you mention it, I don't think he did."
Harry contemplatively nodded along with her, before steering the conversation to another direction. This time about the young P.I. in the other room.
"If you don't mind me saying, I'm surprised that you guys let Lilith be so involved." Lilian flashed a smile at him, mostly because she found it adorable how he wanted to talk and know more about her daughter.
"Yes, however it wasn't what I wanted at first. I wanted Lilith to be as far away from being an investigator as much as possible, but children always try to emulate their parents and once she found out about our job, it was game over from there." She turned her head towards the office door, then stood up and walked over to her desk. She opened a compartment and
searched for something, out of Harry's field of vision. A few seconds later she returned, holding a big book of some sort in her hands.
Lilian winked at him as she revealed the front cover of the now identified picture album, "Lilith Moon" was written with what seemed to be crayon and all around it were big hearts and flowers, "Now, what I'm about to show you is top secret, so this does not leave this room, especially to Lilith, understand?"
As she opened and gave the picture album to Harry, he was then bombarded with several pictures of a little girl; some showed her wearing colourful dresses, one was her posing with a mascot from some amusement park, another depicted her dressing up as a fairy for Halloween. It was when he saw a picture of a younger Lilian and Gordon with the little girl, in what seemed to be the little girl's kindergarten graduation, that he realised that this little girl was Lilith.
And that this was undoubtedly one of the most cutest things he had ever seen.
"All I'm saying is that, as a young couple, boundaries need to be set! You mustn't let your overwhelming hormones control your every action!"
Lilith sat, bored out of her mind as her father continued to rant about her responsibilities as a young woman and the relationship he had with Harry. If she had known this would happen, she would have removed the part of the memory of her and Harry sitting together before she gave it to him.
Out of the blue, she sneezed. Stopping the male P.I. in the middle of his speech.
"Are you alright, honey? Do you need something to warm you up? Should I turn off the A.C. here?"
A roll of the eyes was what Lilith had responded with, before saying, "No, it's fine, dad."
Her father was not convinced however, as he put his hand up to her forehead, "Maybe you might be coming down with a cold or something."
She swatted his hand away from her forehead.
"Look, I'm fine alright-" but right then, she felt a odd tingling sensation, "But for some reason, I have this sudden urge to be angry at mum, but I don't know why."
Gordon solemnly nodded, "Yes, I feel that type of urge as well. Although it's more when your mother is crossed with me and I need to find a place to hide immediately. Now, where was I?"
"You were talking about how to better use the information I gave you to get Umbridge and Tassler in prison?" Lilith said sweetly, hoping her father would go along with her statement.
"Ah yes, I need to teach you the basics of a push and pull relationship!"
Lilith groaned and slammed her head on the desk.
"And here is when she entered middle school, and this one is when she performed for the local theatre in our town, and ooh, this one is when she had her first ever glass of wine; I let her have a taste and she called it, and I quote, "yucky juice."
Harry elicited a snort of mirth. In the past few minutes that have passed, he had been shown several pictures depicting the growth of his girlfriend, as well as hearing accompanying anecdotes from Lilian about each picture. The photo album was filled with magical and non-magical photos, he found the contrast between the different past LIlith's movement and the still, everlasting ones interesting.
As he scanned in advance, he saw a peculiar photo, "What about this one?"
This one had a still image of Lilith being fussed over by Gordon, but it wasn't what was inside the photo that had him curious but the quality of it. The other photos had the quality that seemed like it was taken by a good quality camera, however this photo was grainy, gritty and somewhat taken in a hurried fashion.
"Oh, that photo. Well, that photo might need a longer explanation than the others."
Harry's curiosity peaked at Lilian's words. He sat back and waited for her to start.
She sat back as well and heaved a deep sigh, "Well, you already know that Lilith had taken an interest in being a private investigator since she was young, and you know as well my stance on it at the time. Gordon, however, thought it would be best if she started to be exposed to our line of work early, and so he let her visit the offices sometimes. She was just turning ten when one day we got a magical client, who wanted us to follow his brother who was leaving the house at odd times and acting suspicious, along with coming home with vast amounts of money when he didn't even pass his O.W.L.S… Which is a really stupid name for an official test."
The last comment had Harry trying to hold back a laugh, which made Lilian smile before returning back to her story.
"Anyway, it was just a simple tailing job; follow the brother, take a few pictures, give it to the client, and that would be that. And Gordon thought it was so simple, that he suggested that Lilith came along with him. I, of course, adamantly refused. But Lilith heard our conversation, and it was impossible to stop her, now that Gordon was supporting her and she wanted to do it. Besides, even if I said no again, she would have just sneaked her way into going with Gordon."
Lilian paused to take a sip of her tea, which reminded Harry of his own. He picked it up and took a sip as well, expecting lukewarm liquid, but what entered his mouth was the unexpectedly warm tea. Lilith, seeing his faint surprised expression, winked at him, "Gordon put some sort of spell to keep any liquids in these cups warm."
That made Harry smile, even such simple stuff like this really made him appreciate magic so much more. He returned his focus back to Lilian as she proceeded to resume her tale.
"I let her go, but I wanted to be with them for it. Now I love Gordon with all my heart, but he can be a bit… inattentive at times and I just wanted to make sure that Lilith was kept safe at all times. We were in a building, watching our guy from far away. He was in an alleyway…"
"...And he arrived in a car, so I presume he's at least a half-blood?"
Lilian checked her files again as Gordon kept watch on their suspect.
"Yes Lilith, he is. So it's important that we make sure that we cover our tracks, both the magical and non-magical way." Lilian smiled at Lilith as she nodded her head excitedly and went to the window next to her father and took out her own pair of binoculars, the same ones her father had but smaller.
A contemplative hum arose from Gordon as he looked back at Lilian, "He hasn't left the building in ages, and he hasn't apparated and there isn't a registered floo address anywhere near the surrounding buildings. What is he doing?"
"Maybe he's waiting for someone? It looks like that place has been abandoned for sometime. Last time that building was used was as a storage unit for a shipping company, but it was abandoned due to it being near a fault and is up for demolition in a few months." Lilian looked up from her files, and was met with a pair of large eyes in a pair of binoculars.
She swiped at him and he dodged accordingly, "Can you not act like a weirdo for just one second?"
A teasing smirk was placed on Gordon's face, "Just appreciating beauty, honey."
Lilian frowned at him but it's effect was dimmed by her blushing cheeks, "And what are you even appreciating that up close?"
"Your pores are as pretty as the rest of you, darling."
His comment made Lilian roll her eyes, yet she couldn't stop the smile that had appeared on her face.
Right then, they both hear the engine of a car start. Gordon quickly made his way to the window and watched as his suspect entered a car with another person.
"Lil, he's moving! Quick get the car ready!"
Lilian didn't hesitate as she manoeuvred over to a table and got the keys, "Lilith, let's go to the car!"
But as she scanned the room, Lilith was nowhere to be seen.
Lilith had disappeared.
Panic began to set in Lilian as her worst fears came true, "Honey, where's Lilith!?"
Gordon was worried as well, but quickly tried to calm down his wife, "I don't know. She was just here a second ago."
The calmness that he had said those words with didn't calm her at all, if anything, it angered her, "And now she's not! You'd better have a way of finding her or I swear to God I will do things to you that no spell in this world will undo, if she is hurt!"
Her rage firmly set the fear in Gordon as he quickly tried to explain himself, "I put a tracking charm on Lilith before we had left! I made sure it would be on her at all times and that there was no way of removing it, intentionally or not."
He quickly palmed his wand and gave it a twirl, a floating arrow arose from the tip of his wand and it pointed outside the window, they both looked outside and saw the same car they had seen earlier. They both looked at the arrow and back again at the car.
"Gordon, please tell me your tracking device is bugged."
"Err… it's not electric, honey. Magic can't be bugged."
And as the car drove away, the magic arrow followed the direction it was driving away in.
"We ran like hell to our car and tailed that car as quickly as we could, without arousing any suspicion."
Harry sat, nearing the edge of his seat at Lilian's recounting of the story, "Did you think she got kidnapped?"
"Logically? Of course not. There was no way they would have taken Lilith, regardless of whether or not they would have done anything to begin with if there was a child witness, and the most probable thing was that she had somehow got into the car without them noticing. But I was so afraid of what might have happened that I couldn't even think straight."
It was apparent that even the memory alone of what happened that day still had an effect on Lilian, as she clamped her hands tightly atop of one another, and Harry had took notice of the inherited tics that he had seen from Lilith before; twitching of the ears, tapping of the feet.
Harry, ever the kind soul, attempted to ease her worries, "Whatever may have happened, she's safe and sound now. She's in the room next door, and she's obviously grown into a stronger and smarter witch."
"Yes, yes she really did." Lilian said with a small smile, which turned into a soft frown, "But I still blame myself for losing sight of her, at least Gordon had a backup plan, I was supposed to keep watch on her but I got distracted."
Again, Harry spoke up, "But you realised what had happened and acted accordingly, even Gordon could be blamed a bit for his lack of panic. There's always going to be mistakes that we wish we could take back, but that isn't how life works, so all we can do is learn from it and carry on. Trying our best to not repeat the same mistakes we did in the past."
Lilian was taken-aback at the maturity Harry had shown, but it was clear she had taken the message to heart and smiled a thankful smile at him.
"Thank you Harry, I could definitely see why Lilith has taken a liking to you."
A cough came from Harry, he was a bit bashful from her statement but nonetheless glad that her mood had taken an upturn.
"Now where was I? Ah, yes…"
It didn't take long before their perps car took a turn down an off road path. They silently exited their car and trekked through the foliage, trying their best not to get caught whilst still being close enough to not lose sight of them. The car stopped near a clear patch of grass and
the two occupants exited the car, and as they did they made their way to the back of the car and opened the boot of it.
And there laid Lilith.
Lilian stifled a sigh of relief as she saw her daughter, but the panic again settled in as the two men now began questioning Lilith.
"Oi, what the hell are you doing here, kid?"
A bit of shuffling, before Lilith answered, "Umm… Hide and seek?"
Both mother and father's worries skyrocketed as the two men looked at each other.
"What the hell do we do? If the boss finds out about this, we're dead meat." The unknown male said, whilst their perp was trying to think up of a solution.
"We could just obliviate her."
If her heart had been beating any faster, Lilian was sure she would have gone into cardiac arrest. That was one of the spells Gordon had told her about, the one that made you forget memories. She couldn't bear the thought of her daughter being subjected to that kind of mind alteration, but she didn't want things to get any uglier than it already was.
Luckily, the other man spoke up.
"Are you kidding me? When he finds out you used an obliviation spell on a child, he'll rip you to shreds! Just let the kid go, s'not like she can do anything." The man helped Lilith out the boot of the car and fished out a ten pound bill out of his pocket and gave it to her.
"Keep quiet about this, alright kid? Get a bus or something and buy anything you want with the change." The two men left and entered deeper into the forest, before the tell tale sign of a pop signalled to them of their apparation.
Gordon and Lilian quickly went to their daughter and checked up on her.
"Honey! Are you alright? Did they hurt you? Did you get any wounds from the trunk of the car?"
Lilith shook her head. As Lilian fussed over Lilith, Gordon quickly covered their tracks, spreading leaves all around, using his wand to send leaves and dirt over any footprints they may have left. Afterwards, he took a hold of Lilith and Lilian and portkeyed themselves out of there.
"And then we returned here. Needless to say, both me and my husband were shaking from what just happened, Lilith was all smiles though, and that was when we asked her why she had hid in the trunk. She said, 'Because that's what I saw in a movie once!' It was stupid and we probably should have scolded her but we were just so relieved that everything went okay that we completely forgot to do it."
Harry couldn't help but admire younger Lilith, if he had met her as a First Year, she would have probably been the first one to go into the room Fluffy was in. Maybe even discovered the Chamber of Secrets faster, if she worked together with Hermione.
He tuned back to her, as Lilian was finally nearing the end of her story, "She carried a hidden camera - one that was inside a pen - and pictured the interior of the car and even took a few pictures of the two guys when they opened the trunk. She then gave it to me and I was shaking so much that I pressed the button and took that picture."
Now that he knew the context, the picture became amazing in his eyes. A ten year old Lilith, doing something as crazy as that, it was certainly a spectacle, "So, did the pictures she took help in any way?"
"Oh, it definitely did. That's how we even knew all about Robert Tassler in the first place. We started to investigate more into the two men and found an underground network, a black market of sorts. And it seemed like our perp was the seller while the other guy was the buyer." Lilian eyed the photo he was holding, lost in her thoughts, "We managed to get some of them, but it was only the grunts and the Ministry hasn't done jack about actually preventing anything about it. Hopefully with that Umbridge woman in the picture, they'll actually get off their butts and do something, even if it's damage control to save their own asses."
As if on cue, Lilith and Gordon exited the office, the latter looking energetic whilst the former looked like she was one screw loose away from losing it.
"Hello, dear. Did you think of a plan with Lilith?"
"Hm? Oh yes, yes. Of course I did." Gordon was giving a shining smile, and Lilith was just softly shaking head.
As if it was routine at this point, Lilian took a hold of her husband and led him back to his office, "Come on dear, what about you tell me all about your plan to deal with Umbridge and Tassler."
As the door closed, Lilith sat next to Harry, leaning onto him, "God, it's like my dad still thinks I'm five or something!"
Remembering the story her mother had told him, he didn't doubt that statement for a second.
"Harry…"
Harry looked at Lilith, and her ashen face and small quiver in her voice got him immediately worried.
Until he saw what thing had affected her. Then he was all smiles.
"That isn't my photo album, right Harry?"
Harry responded with two words.
"Yucky juice."
"MOOOOOOOOOOOOM!"
Gordon paused in his explanation as he heard his daughter screaming at Lilian, who had a fiendish smirk on her face.
"Photo album?" He asked knowingly.
"Photo album."
A/N: I meant to upload this on Wednesday, but real life reared it's head and I had to beat it back into it's hole with a newspaper. Anyways, leave a review, it might help me beat back real life into submission!