Lily Potter was eight years old when she first noticed that something wasn't quite right. That the world she lived in didn't exist as she thought. That her mum and dad, Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron, hadn't made everything good again for everyone.
She had been shopping with her Luna. Lily loved shopping with her Luna because Luna took her to all sorts of fun shops that her mum and dad were never interested in going to. They always said yes to James when he wanted to go to Quidditch Supplies or Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. Albus always got to go to Flourish and Blotts or the Magical Pet Emporium.
But Lily liked creative shops that sold paints and fabrics, beads and sequins. Her Luna would let her delve into the scraps bin and then help her create something when they got home. She also loved to explore muggle shops that sold interesting things called antiques which Luna said were expensive so she would always have to hold her hand. Lily had wanted to get her Grandad loads of gifts from these shops but couldn't afford them with her pocket money.
She was talking excitedly about something new she thought Grandad would like, on their way back to Diagon Alley from their favourite antiques store, when she saw her Luna drop her remaining muggle coins into a man's upside-down hat.
Lily kept looking back at the bearded man who had thanked them, even as Luna carried on walking with Lily holding onto her sleeve.
"Luna," she began curiously. "Why did you drop your money into that man's hat?"
"He needs it more than I do, darling. We'll be able to have food when we get back to Diagon Alley, but he can't afford to buy food without help."
"Oh." Lily thought for a second. "But he can just go home to have food. You don't need to buy the food at home."
Luna pulled her to a stop on the pavement and crouched down to look her in the eye.
"Darling, he won't have a home to go to," she said, running Lily's long, red hair through her fingers. "He's had lots of bad luck which made him homeless, and then he doesn't have an address to apply for jobs with, which means he can't get any money to buy food or things."
"Because of bad luck?" Lily had been unlucky before and she hadn't ended up homeless. "It must have been loads of bad luck."
"Yeah, it probably was." Luna stood up again and held out her hand to Lily. "Come on, darling."
"Wait," Lily dug her hands into her pockets. "I've still got some money left from today too." She ran back and dropped what was left of her pocket money into the man's hat. "Here, mister. I don't need this. Hope you get some dinner."
The next time she noticed someone sat on the pavement with a hat in front of them, her mum had taken her and Al to a Quidditch match she was writing about in the Prophet. Al was rapidly retelling all the moves he'd spotted to their mum as they walked away from the match, which Lily thought was pointless considering their mum will have been paying more attention than him because it's her job.
Tuning her brother out, she started looking around at the part of town they were walking through, and saw a girl sat on the pavement on the other side of the road. Lily fell back behind her mum and Al, determined to find some muggle coins that might have gotten left in her coat. Managing to separate a few from the knuts and sickles, she jogged across the street and stopped in front of the girl, who didn't look any older than girls she'd seen hanging around Teddy.
"Hello," she said, and the girl looked up. "I'm sorry it's all I've got, but I don't need it. Here," she handed her the coins and the girl looked shocked. "It's alright, I want you to be able to buy food."
Lily twisted her head around when she heard her mum shouting for her. "That's my mum. Bye." She waved to the girl and smiled before jogging back to join her mum and Al.
"Lily Luna, don't you go running across roads and talking to strange people!" her mum grabbed hold of her hand tightly.
"Ow, mum! I only wanted to give her the muggle money I had so she could eat. Luna told me they've had very bad luck and don't have homes, jobs or money!"
Her mum pinched her nose between her eyes and sighed.
"I'll have to talk with your Luna. Let's just go home now."
When her dad got a promotion to Head Auror, the whole family went to stand on stage with him at the Ministry. They dressed up in their best clothes because of the photographers but afterwards, everyone went to get ice cream including Grandma and Grandad, Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron, Teddy, and her Luna.
"Daddy, look." Lily pointed out a wizard sitting on the ground at the edge of Diagon Alley where it met Knockturn. "Luna, is that wizard homeless too? Daddy, you can help them now. You can help anyone."
"Luna," her mum said, "I thought you were going to talk to her."
"It's not a bad thing for her to be curious about, Ginny. What harm does it do if she wants to help?"
"She's eight years old, Luna!" Lily had never heard her dad talk like that to her Luna before.
"I have my pocket money, Daddy."
Her dad sighed. "Well I suppose it is your money, Lils, and you can do what you want with it, but me and your mum won't be giving you any more money if you start wanting other things like one of Uncle George's Pygmy Puffs."
"Dad," she looked at him as sternly as she could. "Why would I want a Pygmy Puff when people don't have homes or food?"
"I… I don't know Lils. I guess you wouldn't."
That night, when she went to kiss her mum and dad goodnight, she stopped outside the door when she heard them whispering to each other.
"She's got a point, Gin. I know how horrible it is to go hungry. We shouldn't be angry with her for wanting to help."
"No. I know. She's making me feel so guilty, though."
Lily headed back up the stairs and went to bed without bothering to get a goodnight kiss from her parents.
"Morning, sleepyhead." Lily woke to a sing-song voice by her ear.
"Luna!" she jumped up onto her knees and flung her arms around her Luna's neck. "Why are you here?"
"Your mum and dad called me. They wanted us to go somewhere today so let's get you dressed."
Luna apparated Lily and her parents to an alley somewhere in muggle London, then walked them past shuttered shopfronts for about 10 minutes until they came to a building with big red doors.
"Luna," a woman wearing denim dungarees with her brown hair wrapped in a colourful scarf greeted them. "I see you've brought friends! Hello, all. I'm Suzy."
"I'm Lily, and these are my mum and dad and that's my Luna," Lily grinned at the new, friendly woman called Suzy.
"Well hello, Lily. Your Luna has told me a lot about you. Did she tell you what you'll be doing today?"
Lily shook her head, then looked between Luna and her dad whose hand she was holding. It was her mum though that crouched down in front of her.
"We're going to be helping people get some food that don't have any way of buying any."
"Really?" Lily's eyes went wide, and she grinned at her mum.
"Really," said Suzy. "We have people that come here for fun conversation as well as food, though. I think you'll really enjoy talking to some of them. You're going to help some of the women that come in here with your mum, but your dad will have to help Luna with the men. Is that alright?"
Lily nodded enthusiastically and hugged her parents.
"Thank you. Thank you!"
"It's good that you want to help people, Lils," her dad said, placing his hands on her shoulders. "We should never have tried to stop you and you make us so proud. Now, come on."