A/N: Did you think I would forget to post today? NEVER! There will always be a new chapter on Mondays!

At Flourish and Blotts

The letters from Hogwarts soon arrived, and the supply list seemed nastily expensive. All the books were from an author called Gilderoy Lockhart, although Violet said she had never heard of such a wizard. Anyway, they decided not to go to Diagon Alley before Remus had turned back into his human shape.

Remus' transformation was easy to deal with. The week passed by as if nothing was happening and the wolf laying on the sofa was just a sleepy dog. They even played with him outside on the rare occasions when he wasn't asleep. Remus seemed to be doing his best to act as a puppy and entertain the children – and Rachel was right, they did manage to make him catch a ball –. Even Plushy, the cat, enjoyed the time of Remus' transformation, as he liked to sleep on the wolf's fur.

Every evening, Violet and the children would sit with Rachel by the fire and teach her about the wizarding world. Every time she learned about some new being, herb or spell, she went more amazed and excited to absorb as much knowledge as she could. Violet said she could buy wizarding books if she wanted, but they would have to remain in the cottage to prevent other muggles from accessing them. It took a long time to make Rachel understand about the statute of secrecy, because she thought it would be much better if magical folk would live in peace with the muggles, and that they could learn from each other. Then Violet told her about the witch burnings during the Medieval Period, and how muggle women would often end up burned at stakes because the muggles couldn't either accept nor identify magic.

Lily and Hector spent their days exploring the forest for magic beings - they managed to spot a few fairies - and talking about Sirius Black. Lily felt so anguished about having her biological father in jail she sometimes found it hard to talk about anything else, even though she knew it was pointless to keep having the very same conversation over and over again. Having to keep that secret was hard for her for many reasons, some of which she couldn't even understand, only feel.

On the last day before the end of Remus' transformation, they were all sitting on a blanket outside the house, enjoying the sunset, and once again Rachel brought the memory of Roger - he loved to paint the fields -. When we go back to Hogwarts, Lily said to herself, I will learn to make magic paintings, and I will paint the Lakeside. But as she finished the thought, she looked at her mother, and saw tears rolling down her face. Violet had never cried for Roger, and Lily thought that maybe releasing the weight of her secret had finally allowed her to mourn her husband. Remus laid his furry head on Violet's lap.

"I miss him too," said Rachel, wiping her eyes.

"I could never love him," Violet said all of a sudden.

"What do you mean?"

"Not in the way I was supposed to. I'm not even sure how he felt."

"Of course he loved you! And he was the best father Lily could have," Rachel continued her attempts to comfort Violet, who was desolate.

"I never gathered the courage to tell him…"

"You were in hiding. How could you tell him? It could be dangerous."

"Not about being a witch. I never told him Lily was someone else's child."

Lily raised her head, stunned, unsure of what would happen next. She had never considered the hypothesis of her mother telling that to Rachel, as close as they were.

She vaguely heard Rachel reacting to it, and she thought she heard shock and then understanding. Then her mother started talking about Sirius Black, and Lily didn't want to stay there anymore. She just wanted to be alone.

The full moon was over. Remus came back to his human shape. He was pale and considerably skinnier than he had been before, but claimed to be feeling much better than what he was used to feeling after his transformations. Plushy seemed terribly disappointed when he found out his favorite pillow was no longer available, but Lily was very happy to have her godfather back in his human shape, so he could tell her stories again.

It finally came the day when they would go to Diagon Alley, and Rachel was glowing in excitement. She had had a little taste of what was a magic store back in the Chocolate Tree when she first went through the Floo network, but an entire street devoted to magical people was way beyond that. Of course it was unnatural for her to walk into a green fire and be dragged through fireplaces until she arrived at the Leaky Cauldron, but the mild discomfort seemed to be a fair price to pay for the journey.

Violet and Rachel decided it would be nice to go early, just before lunch, and eat at the Leaky Cauldron to give Rachel a longer time to process the experience.

They all lined in front of the fireplace and one by one grabbed a bit of floo powder and went on. Lily arrived first and went to say hi to Tom the innkeeper. He was very nice to her, but warned her to be careful with a hag who had just arrived. Afterwards came Hector, and then Remus. Rachel announced her arrival with a gasp as she looked around and saw plates flying towards those who had ordered them. Violet finally arrived, asking if everything had gone right.

At the sight of the whole group, the innkeeper waved his wand at a table, enlarging it, and then waved it again and brought chairs from the other side of the room, making Rachel nearly lose all the air in her lungs. At the sight of her reaction, Tom, as well as a few other customers, stared at her. Although the inn was acknowledged by muggleborns' parents, they weren't really customers to the place. Lily even saw some wizards of rather conservative families twist their noses at the sight of Rachel, and saw Rachel notice it too. But rather than trying to disguise her absence of knowledge of magic, the woman actually made it even more noticeable.

They all sat down to eat, and no one seemed to mind the glances that occasionally crossed the room towards Rachel. The only person who managed to disturb their peace arrived by the time the group was preparing to leave.

"Remus Lupin. A sight I hadn't seen in a while - eleven years, isn't it?" came a dull voice from behind Lily.

"Severus," Remus answered, seemingly annoyed "what a great pleasure."

"Is it?"

"Not really, I was being polite." Remus cut Snape's ironical tone.

"Oh, stop that, you two. Grow up already," Violet impatiently intervened.

Lily finally turned to face Snape.

"Good afternoon, professor Snape."

"Hello, Lily," said the man, "I expected you would already have bought your school supplies."

"It has been a busy month," Lily simply said, but immediately regretted, because Snape's eyes went straight to Remus, and Lily realized Snape knew the truth.

"Oh, yes, I can imagine," said the Potions Master.

"Well… of course you already know Remus, my godfather," Lily highlighted the word godfather as much as she could, to try and stop Snape's mocking attitude.

"Oh, yes." Snape's hatred overflowed his voice.

"And this is my aunt Rachel, Hector's mother," Lily pretended not to notice and proceeded to introduce Rachel.

"Aunt Rachel, this is Severus Snape, Potions Master at Hogwarts."

"Nice to meet you," said Rachel, and reached to shake his hand, which he carefully accepted.

"Well, we were about to leave for Gringotts. I expect you are going to the Apothecary?" said Violet.

"Yes, it seems that my stock of bezoars is finally over."

"Hmm. Unfortunately I have no goats at home. But I've learned that it is cheaper to keep most of your favorite ingredients growing in your backyard."

"Indeed. Especially the expensive ones… but herbology is a tricky business. I haven't yet learned how to grow aconite, for instance," yet again Snape glanced at Remus. Lily knew aconite was another word for wolfsbane, and it meant that Snape had already understood what kind of relation Violet and Remus had established.

"It's a rare herb," said Violet, with a defiant look. "Well, we should get going. Lily, will you go ahead with Hector while we go to Gringotts?" asked Violet, desperately trying to get away from the awkward encounter.

"Okay, mom."

They all went to the back of the Leaky Cauldron and Violet took out her wand and tapped the brick wall on the right spot, making it open - and once again Rachel gasped -. As Lily had expected, entering the Diagon Alley for the second time was just as wonderful as the first one. She didn't expect to get used to magic any time soon, and she perfectly understood what was the feeling that got Rachel wordless for a whole minute.

The group split up, and Lily briefly watched her mother's red hair trembling away in the middle of the crowd.

She prepared to say goodbye to Snape, but before she could do that, the man spoke.

"Well, since you are currently unsupervised, I suppose I will have to postpone my trip to the apothecary."

"Oh, don't worry, I'm sure we won't get lost in the alley," said Lily.

"I see. After all, you have been through worse dangers than whatever may come to you in this place. I wonder what is wrong with Violet, allowing a werewolf in her house, with her child…"

"Remus is not a threat! He took the wolfsbane potion, he behaved like a puppy for the past week," said Hector, "and he is a great person."

"We might disagree about that last bit."

Hector sighed, uninterested, and started to look around the alley, pretending not to be there while Lily's face went red with anger, which was directed at Snape. Eventually the boy went to see the showcase of the Gambol and Japes joke shop.

" I can't believe I will have the same argument with both of you! I have to stand up for you in front of Remus, and I have to stand up for Remus in front of you! And he is my godfather, for Merlin's sake, so leave him alone!"

"I still wonder what gave in your mother to make Remus Lupin your godfather."

"He was her best friend!"

"He is a werewolf!"

"I don't care! He is part of my family."

Snape took a deep breath, and quit discussing the matter any further. They called Hector, and Snape guided them to the apothecary.

As they walked into the alley, Lily noticed two nearly white-headed figures, one taller than the other, walking out from a dark alleyway ahead of them. The shorter one was Draco Malfoy, and Lily presumed the man to be his father. The pair kept looking back, to check for potential stalkers.

"Professor, what is that alleyway over there?" she asked.

"It's Knockturn Alley. It's often populated by dark wizards, and the stores are full of dark magic items," Hector answered, never giving the professor a chance to open his mouth, to which Snape responded with an angry twist of the thin line of his mouth.

"I don't encourage purchasing anything from the stores there, or you might find yourself waking up half swallowed by what seemed like an innocent book," said the man.

"So… why is your precious favorite student just getting away from there?" questined Lily.

"What?"

He looked to see Malfoy and his father, who were already a few yards away from the entrance to Knockturn Alley. But, then, something else surprised Lily. No one less than Harry Potter walked out of the very same alleyway, accompanied by Hagrid, the gamekeeper of Hogwarts.

"Well, well, well. It seems like the Gryffindor's golden boy has yet again been up to some mischief," said Snape.

"I am sure he has some pretty good explanation for that," said Lily in defiance.

"He better have an excuse for Hagrid too," Hector whispered in her ear.

The shock, however, didn't last too long, as Snape spotted Violet's hair in the middle of the crowd and left the children to wait for her, while he once again walked towards the Apothecary. Lily and Hector waved at their mothers, and they regrouped.

Their decision was to start with the Bookstore, Flourish and Blotts, in the hope that they would meet with Molly.

What they didn't expect was that the place would be so crowded. In fact, looking backwards, Lily thought the whole Alley seemed more filled with people than it had been in the previous year.

"Is this place always so full of people?" Rachel asked.

"Not this much, no. I think there must be something going on…" said Remus, looking around for some clue. It was then that they all saw, at the same time, a large poster of a blond man with blue eyes, with an arrogant smile which was supposed to look charming. "Oh. Gilderoy Lockhart will be signing copies of his autobiography today."

"Who's Gilderoy Lockhart, after all?" Asked both Violet and Rachel at the same time.

"A fraud. He writes books about his adventures with magical beings, but fails to perform every single spell he has ever tried. I wonder why Dumbledore allowed his books to be read this year."

"Oh! I had never heard of him, really."

"You've been away for a long time. Lockhart became famous recently, but I think he probably went to Hogwarts only a few years after us."

"Do you know which house he was in?"

"Ravenclaw."

"Oh," said Hector.

"How are the students placed in the houses?" Rachel asked.

"With a hat. You put it in your head and it gets into your mind and talks to you, and then it decides in which house you will fit better."

"This is definitely the strangest thing about the magical world. I can get all the beasts and beings, and even potions and flying objects, but a mind-reading hat… this is really absurd."

"Have you ever played wizarding chess? The pieces talk to you," said Hector.

"Hm. No, you only showed me that Exploding Snap game."

The conversation was interrupted by the arrival of the wavy-haired man who's picture smiled in the poster, Gilderoy Lockhart. He entered the Bookstore through a side entrance and sat at a table surrounded by large pictures of his own face, all winking and giving that same arrogant smile. The wizard was closely followed by a short man, who danced around taking photographs with a large black camera that emitted puffs of purple smoke with every flash. Gilderoy Lockhart didn't seem to mind that bliding like reaching his eyes.

A witch went to the side of the table he was in and placed her wand at her throat, and spoke, projecting her voice with magic.

"From this moment, until 4:30 p.m, Gilderoy Lockhart will be signing his autobiography Magical Me. All interested, please form a line over here."

The witch must have regretted making the announcement, because every witch and wizard in the shop immediately started pushing each other to get in the line. It took three other wizards to organize the whole situation.

More and more people kept pouring through the door into the shop, and it got harder and harder to move around. Lily was squeezed between two witches while she grabbed two copies of Year with the Yeti.

As the books piled on their hands, Hector spotted Ron Weasley's red hair in the crowd, and warned Violet.

"Oh, yes, there they are! It will be hard to get there…" said Violet, pointing towards the group to indicate them to Rachel. "Do you see that group of redheads over there? Those are my sister Molly and her husband Arthur Weasley. The tall twins are Fred and George, that one is Ron, and the girl is Ginny, they are my nephews and niece. Oh! See that young boy right there, at Ron's left side, with the glasses and black hair?"

"Yes, I can see him," confirmed Rachel.

"That is Harry Potter."

Rachel, yet again, gasped, but she was not the only one. Remus had lost his air, and Lily looked up to see her godfather look pale, with eyes glittering more than usual. She saw Violet's hand over his shoulder.

"He… he looks exactly like James at this age. And to think he was just a baby when I last saw him..."

"He has Lily's eyes."

There was no answer for a while.

"I don't feel well, I think I need some air," Remus finally said.

They all squeezed themselves out of the store, just as Gilderoy Lockhart positively shouted "It can't be Harry Potter!"

They all looked back to see the crowd parting to look at the boy, while an excited whisper filled the air inside Flourish and Blotts. Lily could vaguely see Gilderoy Lockhart pulling Harry towards himself for a picture, as if the boy was some kind of trophy.

"I can't believe it! Harry is not an animal at a zoo, he's just a boy!" said Violet.

"He looks so embarrassed over there… poor boy. And the reason for his fame must be devastating for him…" said Rachel.

Remus still looked too shaken to say anything. Lily held his hand for support, but it felt useless.

They went on shopping for the school supplies, all in silence. Remus remained pale for the rest of the day. Even when they bumped again onto Snape, Lily's godfather didn't say a word. Even as they went home, had dinner and played games near the fireplace, he remained silent.

"It must have been really hard on him," said Hector when Lily arrived at her room wearing her pink pajamas, with a towel still wrapped around her hair. "Seeing Harry, I mean, after all he has been through."

"I think so. It must be weird for my mom too - I mean, she has a daughter with a man who may or may not have betrayed Harry's parents."

"I guess. But Remus was there at the time. I bet he feels like he could have stopped it all from happening."

"Yeah," Lily said, letting herself fall onto her bed beside Hector, who was already in his pajamas and beneath the sheet. Lily sat on her bed and began rubbing her hair with the towel, hoping it would dry faster. "I think it's easier for my mom, because she believes in Sirius."

"I suppose so," said Hector. "You know you are going to ruin your hair rubbing it like this, right?"

"I know, I know," Lily sighed, and began to gently crumble her hair with the towel instead. "I mean, I think she feels guilty and all, but at least she doesn't think it was a friend who did it to Harry's parents."

"Sure," a moment went by. Then Hector spoke again, "Lily?"

"Yes?"

"Are you feeling guilty about what happened to Harry's parents?"

"I don't think so. Maybe." It had been a while since the feeling was making its way towards her.

"Look," Hector took the towel from her hands and threw it on the chair. Then, he cupped Lily's face to make her look into his eyes. "You were one year old when it happened. We don't even know whether Sirius did it or not. And if he did, it is still not your fault, neither it was your mom's fault, nor Remus'. You had nothing to do with it, you don't need to make up for anything. Okay?" He said, with his black eyes staring into hers.

"Okay," she said.

He remained looking at her.

"You are lying."

"I'm not! I mean… I'm trying to deal with it."

"Lily, for Merlin's sake, there's nothing to deal with, because it wasn't your fault!"

"I know! I just feel like I'm somewhat responsible."

"Then tell your feelings they are wrong."

Lily couldn't hold back a laugh, and Hector laughed with her, and they kept laughing and telling jokes until they slept.

A/N: So, what did you think?