I wish you all a happy new year 2018! I wish you good health, happiness and success in the new year. Stay safe!

The Great Hall was buzzing with the excited conversations of the Hogwarts students sitting on the long wooden benches at their respective house tables. Lily, sitting at the enlarged teacher's table surveyed the hall. She had accepted Dumbledore's offer in teaching Muggle Studies, but she was still lobbying to make this subject obligatory for every child coming from a wizarding background. But unfortunately, the pureblood lobby still was too strong, but she would make them see sense. She would also take over some Transfiguration classes from Professor McGonagall as the other teacher, teaching under the Gryffindor's head of houses supervision had left her teaching position and Lily would now fill that. When she had met the new Defence against the Dark Arts teacher, she had felt that he had not felt terrified at all. He was afraid of someone else, but radiated absolute darkness. She did not want him anywhere near her son or her daughter, if Dumbledore was indeed correct that she was on the way here to school. He had visited them yesterday evening around dinner time and told them to sit down. Her heat had sunk as she had believed the worst. But her trepidation had turned into absolute happiness when he had informed them that he had found their daughter and that she would even be on the train to Hogwarts. Naturally she had wrung her neck at Kings Cross to spot her, but unfortunately it had been too crowded.

She could not content her excitement as she locked eyes with her husband and his friend Sirius, who were part of the Auror delegation that was stationed in Hogwarts this year. She was excited that she would finally see her daughter again. The daughter, she had believed to have become a Squib. The daughter, she had abandoned. She had no idea how she should approach her, but she hoped that everything would eventually turn for the better. Maybe she could persuade her to move back in with them. They could be a family again. Dumbledore had advised them against taking her back in, because it could prove as a distraction for Harry, but she had enough. She wanted both of her children with her. Maybe she would finally be able to get in contact with her biological father. Maybe he could provide much needed answers.

The large, golden and heavy ornamented doors of the Great Hall opened a bit and Minerva went passed the long house tables carrying the wooden three-legged stool and the iconic sorting hat. She remembered how scared she had been and how hard the hat had worked to sort her as she apparently had equally high potential for three different houses. Were would her two sunshines be placed? James and Sirius betted that Harry would be in Gryffindor and when they had heard that Elizabeth would come to the magical school they had also betted that she also would be sorted into Gryffindor. But Lily wasn't so sure. Yes, Harry was brave, but he had many different qualities too. As she didn't know anything about her daughter's upbringing with her father she could not be sure about where the hat would put her.

She spotted Minerva walking back through the door and her heartbeat accelerated. Her children were about to be placed. Her hand wandered tenderly to her stomach. How many parents would be glad for a chance to be there when their children were placed. She knew that Molly always was in jitters until their letters arrived informing them that they would be placed in Gryffindor. Would her presence in this room be more stressful for Harry than it already was? She had tried to ground him enough before getting to Hogwarts. But had she done enough?

There was the ceremonious knock on the double doors and they opened wide into the Great Hall, which was illuminated by thousands of hovering white candles. Minerva lead the small first years, which were streaming into the Hall after her through the benches towards the three-legged stool. The other pupils were craning their necks and whispering excitedly, and she could spot her son walking next to his best friend Ronald Weasley. Harry winked at her and she locked eyes with him and shot him a proud smile as she could sense his dread. He was afraid where the hat would put him.

As she scanned the crowd she saw two red-haired girls. One was clearly Amelia Bones' niece as she was the spitting image of her. But the other girl drew her attention. Her red hair colour was more pronounced, but as she was currently turning her attention to the ceiling and away from her she could not see her. But this had to be Elizabeth! Her heartbeat accelerated further, and she wanted to reach out to her in any way possible. Her daughter was here. She barely registered the sorting head's song and that Minerva started to call the first students. When a bushy haired girl reluctantly stepped forward she could see that Harry gave her a calming smile, which she mirrored. It seemed that she had raised him right.

When Lucius Malfoy's son was called she observed the most curious thing. He had to walk past her daughter and he hesitated, and Minerva had to call him a second time. He gently touched his throat and hastily sped past Elizabeth. He seemed afraid of her for some reason or was it because of someone next to her? She frowned. Yes, she must have imagined it. To no surprise the hat barely touched the boys head when he shouted "Slytherin!"

After a few more sorted students, she finally heard her daughter's name and curiously all the other remaining students made way for her and Lily could finally see her daughter's unnaturally pale's face as she stepped forward with an unreadable cold expression. She looked to be of normal weight, but something must have been wrong. Had she not received enough sunshine or had been subjected to a wrong diet? But she could see that she was a tad bit taller than Harry. She elegantly took the two steps towards the three-legged stool and sat on it with her head held high. Lily started to fidget nervously as Minerva put the old hat on her daughter's hat and the long wait for a sorting began. She locked eyes with James, who seemed just as tense as her.

"Ah! A Potter!" an old and raspy voice in the dark addressed her.

"I prefer being called a Palpatine!" Elizabeth answered proudly thinking about her dear grandfather. "The potters may have been involved in my biological creation process, but my grandfather was the one who actually raised me."

"Ah, I see." The voice drawled. "Hmm. Difficult. Very difficult. You are even more difficult to place than your mother was. Plenty of courage, I see. A very strong determined mind. There is talent, my goodness yes. What's this? There is an untameable thirst to prove yourself to … your family?"

"Shiraya's word! NOT to my family? You are mistaken" she growled mentally. There was no way that she wanted to prove herself to her family. There was only one person worth proving herself.

"Ah, Yes. The thirst to prove yourself to your grandfather is very strong indeed." The hat concurred.

"You are very loyal and dedicated to him. Ah, yes. You value hard work and … fair play? I did not expect this one. That's fascinating." Elizabeth mentally scoffed at him in impatience and the voice laughed, "…but very inpatient. Very difficult. Where should I put you? The voice mused.

"Not my parent's house! Not my parent's house!" she repeated.

"Not Gryffindor! Hm. That's a pity. You could do well in that house. You are brave I can see, but not foolishly daring and sometimes chivalrous. You have that in common with your parents."

"No!" Elizabeth decided. She did not want to have anything in common with those people.

"No? Hm. You are difficult. Then maybe better Slytherin? You are very ambitious, yes. There is cunning, hm, yes, yes, …" the voice became excited. "Slytherin would be fitting indeed."

"If you put me into the snake pit, that Lord Voldemort has frequented, then I will not hesitate to destroy you in the worst way possible." She pictured the hell of Mustafar, which she had learned about once and she could swear that the hat wavered. Good!

"You can't put me in the same house of that wizard that has made my life a living hell for a time!" she gritted her teeth and clenched her hands into fists.

"Ah, well, that only leaves Rawenclaw. Don't worry, you'll fit in there as you do value intelligence and knowledge, but you definitely have to work on your wit. Well, in that case it's RAVENCLAW!"

Lily's heart was racing. The hat was now sitting on her daughter's head for over twenty minutes and he still had not decided where to place her. What if there had been a mistake and her daughter was indeed without magic now. That would be truly cruel. What if the letter had been written at the day of her birth and nobody had sorted it out. Which was the reason why she would be here now.

Stealing a glance towards James she could see that he was just as tense as her in expectation. Several of the teachers were sitting there with wondering eyes and Dumbledore sat in his ornamented chair leaning forward. Finally, the tip on the sorting hat opened and he shouted loud and clearly: RAVENCLAW and the house table erupted in applause. She got up and placed the hat back on the stool and walked towards her house and sat on one of the benches on the right side, which made it easier for her to see her face, but it scared her. Her daughter showed no emotion. She replied the greetings of her house mates, but still there was no emotion.

The next student to be placed was Harry, who stepped hesitantly towards the hat after his sister and just as she had expected the hat also needed some time to place her son, but the result was the same as he was indeed placed into Gryffindor. She could see his elevation when he stood up and joined his new house, which had erupted into thunderous applause, while the Weasley Twin's chanted: "We have Potter! We have Potter!"

The first day did not go that well. She had not been able to talk to her daughter even once. The heads of houses had handed out the schedules and her daughter, having her nose buried in a thick volume had not acknowledged anyone. Sirius, who had been on morning duty of the protection of the premises had tole them that he had spotted her exploring the Hogwarts grounds while jogging wearing black training clothes. It appeared that she did not have any other colour in her wardrobe.

Thanks to Severus their day had become worse as he had spotted angry bruises on the throat and neck of Lucius Malfoy's son and had accused her daughter of hurting that boy. It had more likely been Lucius, who had hurt his son and they wanted to shift the blame on someone else. Apparently, the boy had been terrified to tell anyone what really happened, and the potions master had used Legilimency to find out the truth.

The boy in question was now squirming in his seat in the hospital wing while Madam Pomfrey had assessed the damage. Normally all children were alphabetically examined to determine their health, but after Snape saw it he fast tracked the boy's examination, who still refused to speak to anyone else. Lily could sense that he was terrified. James could also not comprehend that Snape was accusing Elizabeth and took it as a personal offence.

Dumbledore tried to calm the heated debate between the two men, but it did not accomplish much, and Professor Flitwick also shook his head at the accusation. He conceded that she was not one to socialize, but from what he had seen of her she seemed to be the stereotypical Ravenclaw.

Lily was so focused on following the discussion that she jumped as she suddenly heard a young female voice behind her. She turned and came eye to eye with her daughter. Her eyes were cold and unreadable as she had seen before and now that she was standing right in front of her she could see that she was not just pale. It almost seemed that her face was ghostly pale and devoid of any colour on her cheeks. She looked ill.

"You asked to see me, Professors?" she enquired drawling slightly accented indicating her displeasure in being disturbed.

Her gaze was drawn to the blond boy sitting behind them on a daybed and her eyes narrowed while the other boy had know lost all colour as he was looking at her with wide eyes he gulped nervously and squirmed and looked as if he would rather be anywhere else then in the same room as her.

"Yes. Thank you for coming." Dumbledore answered her in a friendly tone, but Lily could sense that he did not entirely mean it. Yes, she had become better at sensing people's emotions after deciding that she would follow her own gut. Apparently, her daughter could sense it too as her left eyebrow rose challengingly.

"We heard that you had a little dispute with young Mr. Malfoy on the train and where wondering if you could provide us with some more information?" he told her, but her facial expression did not portray any emotion. She crossed her arms and turned her gaze back to the blond boy who seemed to prefer to merge with the bed as he dared not look at her direction.

She turned back towards Dumbledore and addressed him with a small amused grin, which did not reach her eyes. "Is that what he's told you?"

"This is not a laughing matter!" Snape bellowed protectively making everyone flinch while stepping in front of Draco Malfoy, but apparently even he was unable to wipe that now barely visible grin of her face and she only gazed at him unfazed.

"I understand." She told him aloof. "Yes, I remember that, we did have a small misunderstanding as he mistook the compartment I was sitting in as one his father had allegedly reserved for him and his friends. But after some heated discussion he conceded and went looking for the correct one." She explained. "At that time, he did not have those ugly bruises. Whoever gave him those it happened after our little skirmish. Isn't that right?" she addressed the terrified boy in a more pleasant voice, who nodded affirmative without daring to look into her eyes.

"Is that true Draco?" Dumbledore addressed the blond boy again, who looked up at him and nodded again.

"Yes, it is." He whispered, cleared his throat and repeated. "Yes, it's true. Every word." Lily spotted Elizabeth throwing the boy a smile, but she could see that this also did not reach her eyes. She frowned. Did her daughter have any emotions at all? She could feel Severus seething anger, the terror Draco Malfoy emitted at seeing Elizabeth, her husband's and Professor Flitwick's confusion and Dumbledore's caution, but there was absolutely nothing from her daughter and it worried her. Who was her father, that he had raised her daughter to be like his? How had he treated her? What exactly had happened in the train because Draco's reaction made it clear that she was indeed the culprit responsible for the other boy's bruises.

Her first day at this school had been terribly boring and it had not been that easy to block all her emotions and she had gone through the day repeating the Sith Code over and over again. But at least her search in the library had been productive and she had found a way to communicate with her grandfather and written him this in the letter she sent with the owl, hoping that he was still on planet. If he could find these small mirrors, then she could inform him of his progress. And she also could receive much needed guidance from her Sith Master. As she had used basic she was confident, that nobody here would be able to read the correspondence with her grandfather. Unfortunately, she was now ordered to go to the hospital wing. She did not know for sure, but if the Malfoy brat had talked, then he would have to pay dearly.

Later in the evening…

Sirius was sitting on the opposite side of the desk sipping a at his glass of Fire whisky.

"Just to get this straight" he said. "You want me to observe my best friend's daughter, because Lucius' brat clashed with her?"

"Yes." Dumbledore nodded. "We do not know enough about where she's been, who her grandfather is and how he has raised her. We need to know if she is a danger to her brother and this school. Sirius, you saw how Draco reacted and he refuses to talk and as long he does not talk, we can't find our what has happened. Lily and James are too overwhelmed at the moment to think rationally."

"But she is just a girl." Sirius objected. It felt so wrong going behind his best friends' back.

"I used to think that about a certain young boy once too and he is responsible for the worst Wizarding war since Grindelwald." Dumbledore answered gravely. "I will not make that mistake again."

Sirius sighed heavily. He did not want to do it, but he needed to protect Harry. No matter what. Even if it meant that he would go against his second godchild, which had acted so very differently than the bubbly girl he remembered.

"Alright, yes. I will do it." He accepted in defeat. Dumbledore was the Order's head and was generally correct.

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