Author's Note: I know, I know. I promised a Child of Spring update, but I just couldn't resist! I hope you guys like this chapter even though there's not a lot going on in terms of excitement. I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised by your reactions to Lockhart. I personally HATE canon Lockhart, so I'm glad you guys don't mind my tweaking him a bit to give him some more depth. I do plan on trying to have him be in character, just.. maybe.. tone down his annoyingness a bit.

Anywho, reviews!

M.v.j.M.: Thanks! :)

Lady Syndra: I'm glad you're enjoying Lockhart. I figured since Stephen is a guy, he would NOT be one of Lockhart's adoring fans, since I feel most of his fans would be middle-aged women. And yes, poor Stephen. But don't worry, we haven't seen the last of him.

Chipmunk: I think you're being too hard on the Weasley's/wizards there. They do know a lot about magical creatures, but it's obvious Mr. and Mrs. Weasley haven't heard of the Seasonals. Since most people can't normally see them, and the Seasonals don't tend to make appearances in the wizarding community, wizards haven't heard of them. Maybe some wizards have heard of the Guardians, but we'll just have to wait and see about that. Anyway, as to the obliviating, Mr. Weasley thought Lillian was a muggle child and just spouting off nonsense that she made up. As Lillian didn't seem to know about wizards and wasn't showing any magical power at the time, he just went with it. Anyway, it was an integral part of the story so I hope you don't blame Arthur too much.

PoorJasonTodd: Since this is a sort of crossover with my other story Child of Spring, Lillian is around six and half physically. That's the age Lillian was turned into the Spirit of Spring. I think it might be mentioned briefly in the story? Anyway, there you go.

KijoKuroi: I can't wait to get to the "wtf" moments with Snape. As for his wondering about her memories, I SO can't wait for that part, since I have something special planned for that. And thanks for liking Lockhart. I was really hesitant to have him play such a prominent part in the fic, but he just kind of wormed his way in there.

As always, thanks for all the follows and faves. Now on with the fic!

Chapter Four: Hogwarts Bound

The following week passed by like a blur for Lillian. She looked around her room, which had since been completed, very happily. She had a four poster bed fit for a princess. Lockhart's office hadn't been very large, so he had to hire a magical contractor to put the necessary enlargement charms on the room, so that it could accommodate the rather large bed that Lillian had wanted.

It was big and comfy, with a dark pink comforter and lighter pink sheets and pillow cases. There were also a lot of fluffy decorative pillows. The floor remained hardwood, but it had a large rug that covered most of it, so Lillian's feet wouldn't get cold. Instead of a closet, she had a large wardrobe that housed all her various dresses she now owned with a collection of matching shoes (as Lockhart believed in properly accessorizing).

On the walls, she had an unusual theme going. One side of the room had a lovely spring scene of a meadow with the flowers waving in a non-existent wind. There were especially a lot of pink tulips, since Lillian had immediately fallen in love with the flower when she had first seen it. The other half of her walls were the exact opposite however, and featured a beautiful winter scene.

Lillian wasn't sure why, but winter seemed to call out to her in a way. She was amused to see many snow flakes continuously falling in this scene, which featured a frozen lake surrounded by trees. For some reason, Lillian had almost told the magical painter to make the corner of her room dark and spooky, but she had changed her mind at the last second and didn't add it. She was glad, since the thought of anything lurking in the dark kind of gave her the shivers.

She hadn't told Gilderoy of course, but she was a little afraid of the dark. Especially since she had learned that magic was real. Gilderoy had spoken of dragons as though they existed. Did this mean that other monsters could exist? The one thing Lillian didn't like about her bed, was underneath it. She had told herself that she must have had a scary space under her bed before, but she couldn't remember.

She was lucky that Gilderoy read her to sleep every night, or else that scary spot might keep her awake as she wondered what horrors lay underneath her bed, ready to get her.

Instead of anything dark and scary in her room, the corner held her toy chest, which was now quite filled. She also had several shelves on the wall housing other toys and she had a couple paintings that featured spring weather. One was similar to what she had on her wall while the other featured a spring rain. As they both were magical paintings, the pictures moved - the one with the rain, had actual rain falling in it and sometimes lightning would flash.

Lillian now had a trunk open in her room that was half packed. Gilderoy had helped her out by folding several dresses and putting several pairs of shoes in it, and now she was finishing the packing by choosing what toys and books she wanted to take with. Tales of Beedle the Bard was a must, she decided, since Gilderoy was reading her some of the stories in it every night to her. She chose a few more wizarding books for children and then followed it up by the toy potions kit.

With the proper supervision, she could make a potion that filled a room with bubbles and another that changed colors. Lillian's mind was already filled with the possibilities that the two potions could do if she combined them.. Her goal was one day to make color changing bubbles, which would be amazing. She wondered if Gilderoy would have the time to help her figure it out. She heard Hogwarts had a really awesome library, and had vowed to go look up potions books the first chance she got.

Since she wasn't allowed a wand to play with, she figured her potions kit would be the next best thing and she vowed that she would use it to its full extent. She shook her head as she tucked the kit away into her trunk. She was really quite pleased when Gilderoy got her a very special magical trunk. It had two compartments, which might not seem very special, but it was how to get to the second compartment that was amazing. Instead of a keyhole, the front of the trunk had two buttons (one pink and one blue, she got to choose the colors). The first button was pink while the second was blue. When she pressed the blue button and opened the trunk, it would show the second compartment which had all her toys and books in it. When she closed the lid and pressed the pink button and then opened it again, it would magically show the first compartment.

Lockhart had also gotten her a smaller version of her trunk with a decorative wooden box. It would be a way for Lillian to bring a lot of things to keep herself occupied along when Lockhart was teaching, with as little fuss as possible. Feather light charms would make the box very easy for her to carry.

Lillian treasured the box, which had a picture of a fluttering fairy on the front, that really did flutter around. The box which was empty at the moment had already been packed away into her trunk. She looked around and spotted her bear sitting on the bed and grabbed him. He would ride with her and not get locked away in her stuffy trunk.

Lillian looked around her room one last time, a little sad that she was going to be leaving it so soon. But she was also excited, since she was going to go live in a magical castle and she would get a brand new room! Plus Gilderoy had promised her that as soon as they were settled, he would ask Professor Snape about helping her get her memories back.

Eyes shining with happiness, Lillian skipped out of her room and over to Gilderoy's room, where he was finishing up his own packing.

"I'm ready!" Lillian announced in a sing-song voice as she entered with her bear.

Lockhart didn't look so ready as he had several boxes with paintings strewn around and his trunk was overflowing with various robes. He glanced at Lillian to see that they were at least matching. He was wearing a lilac robe and she a lilac dress, with matching hair ribbon and shoes. That had been a battle in itself, since Lillian had wanted to wear her pink dress and Lockhart had wanted to wear his own favorite color and he insisted that they wear matching clothes for effect. He had only managed to get Lillian to wear lilac by promising that she could wear pink tomorrow.

"Oh dear, I don't seem to be, do I?" Lockhart murmured to himself as he looked at his various possessions. He looked at his trunk in consternation as he realized he didn't have any room for his books. Heavens, he should have gotten himself a trunk with multiple compartments!

But they were rather pricey, and if he hadn't already spent so much on Lillian..

Shaking his head, he decided he'd have to pack his books away into some more boxes. So with a wave of his wand, he had two boxes appear on his bed from where they had been stored away and he began to pack away the various books he had on Defense Against the Dark Arts.

Lillian watched him for a moment, hugging her bear as she did so and then tilted her head as she wondered how he was going to get all that to the castle.

"How are we goin' to Hog.. thingy..?" Lillian asked curiously.

Lockhart hid a smile at that. How adorable she was!

"It's called 'Hogwarts,' my dear," he told her with amusement, "and we're going to be using the floo. I know you don't particularly like it ever since my floo call with - "

But he was cut off by a loud exclamation.

"We're using the fireplace?!" Lillian shouted in alarm, her eyes getting wide.

Lockhart sighed at this. Early last week he had floo called Albus Dumbledore to see if it would be alright if he came to Hogwarts a week early to get his charge settled in. He also had to request that an extra bedroom be added to his quarters for Lillian. Unfortunately, while he had his head in the fireplace, Lillian had entered the room and promptly freaked out.

A very embarrassed Lockhart had to end his call early, since Lillian had been crying her eyes out and trying to tug him out of the fireplace, to save him from burning up. He had to explain to a rather hysterical Lillian several times that it was perfectly safe if you used floo powder, but Lillian couldn't seem to get over her fear of the fireplace.

"Now Lillian, we've been over this. There is nothing wrong with talking or traveling by fire," Lockhart said in his most soothing voice.

Lillian hugged her bear closer and took a few steps back.

"I don't wanna go in the fire," she said, her voice a little higher than normal.

"Would you rather apparate?" Lockhart asked with an eyebrow raised.

Lillian blanched at that and shook her head vigorously. They had apparated back home from Diagon Alley and her stomach didn't seem to agree with it.

"It would be the easiest to travel by the floo.." Lockhart said thoughtfully as Lillian's face fell, "but I suppose we could always take the bus."

Lillian's eyes lit up at this, as this sounded like the most normal way to travel to her.

"I wanna take the bus!" she declared as Lockhart gave her a look. Lillian realized she was being rather demanding and rude, so she tacked on a hesitant "Please? Pretty please?"

Lockhart looked around at his various possessions again and gave a big, dramatic sigh.

"I suppose I could shrink the lot of it and put it in my pockets," he said with a wink at Lillian. "But only for my favorite girl."

Lillian got a huge grin on her face at that and she ran over and gave Gilderoy a big hug.

"You're the bestest EVER!" she said happily to him.

Lockhart's expression softened at that and he gave her a hug back.

A few hours later, they were both ready to leave. Lockhart had asked Lillian to go check her room one last time for anything she might want and he made the fastest floo call in history as he hastily informed McGonagall that he and Lillian would be arriving by the Knight Bus instead of flooing. He also inquired briefly about acquiring either a nanny house elf or else someone to look after Lillian for a day, since he had a book signing he had to be at, at Flourish and Blotts before school started.

McGonagall had resisted rolling her eyes at the book signing part and assured Lockhart that someone would be available to watch Lillian for him when he needed it. Lockhart thanked McGonagall and then without further ado ended the call, since the last thing he needed was Lillian freaking out again about him having his head in the fire.

He had just straightened up when Lillian bounded into the room, declaring that she had everything that she wanted.

Lockhart nodded at this and then headed off to her room to shrink the trunk. Once it was properly tiny, he handed it to her and told her to tuck it in her pocket. He'd normally hold onto it himself, but his pockets were already bulging with all his own things that he'd shrunk down and if he tried stuffing her trunk in one of them, the pocket would surely burst.

He'd seriously considered trying an extension charm on his pockets, but they weren't really his forte and he didn't relish having the charm come undone while he was on the Knight Bus - it would be very embarrassing. So he settled on having bulging pockets and trying not to overfill them too much.

He looked around at his rather bare cottage now. He supposed he had everything. He went outside to go summon the Knight Bus, only to turn right around and head in to grab Lillian.

Good grief, he couldn't believe he almost forgot the most important thing!

Once he had Lillian in tow and made sure she had her trunk tucked in her pocket, he carefully held out his wand with his right hand, while he held Lillian's hand in his left.

Lillian gaped as a purple triple decker bus appeared right out of thin air and came to a halt in front of them.

The door opened and a young man appeared.

"Welcome to the Knight Bus," he started off in a very bored tone, but soon stopped when he saw just who was wanting to ride the bus. "Blimey!" he exclaimed. "Yer Gilderoy Lockhart, you is!"

Lockhart gave a strained smile to the young man. Yes, he loved being recognized, but in this instance he just wanted to get Lillian safely to Hogwarts and he most certainly did not want her to get any ideas of butchering English the way this young man was.

"Yes, I am," Lockhart said simply. "My young charge and I would like to go to Hogwarts..?"

"Oh, right! I'm Stan Shunpike by the way. Come right on board!"

He grandly waved Lockhart and Lillian aboard. Lockhart lead Lillian to some seats at the back of the bus, so they could avoid having to talk to Stan.

Lockhart got Lillian settled into a chair next to him and was just telling her to hold on tight, when -

BANG.

Lillian flew off her seat as the bus took off with a loud bang. If she could see out the window, she would be able to see that they were already miles away from where they started. Instead, Lillian was picking herself up off the floor when -

BANG.

By the end of the ride, Lockhart had a very teary Lillian in his lap. He was holding onto her with one hand, and the other hand had a death grip on the candle bracket so he wouldn't fall over himself.

After the fourth time Lillian had been thrown to the ground by the psychotic bus, Lockhart had hastily scooped her up into his arms. He grumbled to himself, in an uncharacteristically bad mood as he threatened to write the to ministry about how hazardous the horrid bus was. Honestly!

Finally their stop came up, and Lockhart carried Lillian off the bus and didn't even bother saying goodbye to Stan as he stormed up to the Hogwarts gates. He was scowling at the gates, and was therefore very surprised to see a professor waiting for them with the same expression.

Professor Snape was currently working on two potions. One was a healing potion while the other was dreamless sleep. He was currently scowling since he had just gotten another blasted letter from that moron Stephen Jorkins and had a few scratches from the ministry owl, not to mention yet another ruined potion.

He was also in a bad mood since he knew that idiot Gilderoy Lockhart would be showing up at the castle any day now. Rumor had it that he was the temporary guardian to a small child, and while Snape normally detested children, he couldn't help but feel the tiniest bit sorry for any child who had to be in that dunderhead's care.

It was as he was carefully stirring one potion while glancing at the other when he heard his floo go off. Thankfully he was at a stage where both potions could be left alone for a few minutes without going wrong or exploding.

McGonagall was there, explaining that Gilderoy Lockhart would be showing up any minute now with his charge and someone had to let them in through the gates and show them to their quarters. She really would do it herself, but she was just so busy and -

With a snarl, Snape had declared that he was currently brewing all the potions he was very behind on, but Minerva wouldn't waver.

So it was after hastily putting a stasis spell on both potions, that Snape had very reluctantly gone outside. It was to his surprise that he saw not a beaming Lockhart, but a scowling one that matched his own expression. He also saw that Lockhart was holding the child who seemed to be crying.

Oh joy.

He let Lockhart in and noticed with disgust that Lockhart and the girl seemed to be wearing matching outfits. He muttered to Lockhart to follow him and without waiting to see if Lockhart actually was following, Snape turned on his heel and lead them into the castle, with his robes billowing dramatically.

Lockhart watched Snape's robes appreciatively and was wondering how he could get his own to do so. The man might be a bit on the grumpy side, but you couldn't deny that he had style.

He tried to school his own expression into something more neutral, since it wouldn't do for everyone's first impression of him to see him in such a horrible mood. He rubbed Lillian's back soothingly and softly promised her that next time they wouldn't take the death trap known as the Knight Bus.

Snape snorted at that, but refrained from commenting as he led them up to the office for the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. The door to Lockhart's quarters would be off of that.

"Here's your room," Snape said shortly to Lockhart once they had reached it.

Lockhart nodded appreciatively, and was about to ask Severus about helping Lillian, when the man suddenly stalked off.

"W-wait!" Lockhart called out, but Snape either didn't hear him or pretended not to and continued on his way.

Lockhart sighed and frowned at the man's back. He just knew that Snape was going to make things difficult. He could feel it. Trying not to dwell on thoughts of Snape, he opened the door to his rather bare office and stepped inside.

He looked around, finding the room to be rather empty. It had a desk and a chair, as well as a bookshelf for his books, but that was about it. The walls were bare and it had no personality of its own. Well, he would soon change that. As he looked around more, he spotted the door that lead to his quarters and hurriedly carried Lillian through it. The sooner they got everything settled, the better.

As he carried Lillian through the door, he found himself in a sitting room of sorts. There was a couch and more bookshelves to make it cozy, as well as a fireplace. His office also had a fireplace as well.

Off the sitting room there were more rooms. Through one doorway, he spotted a small kitchen nook with just enough space to house a stove with a few cupboards and a small table with two chairs. He supposed this was here in case he didn't feel like having meals in the Great Hall.

He walked over to another doorway and opened it to find an empty room. He furrowed his brow as he tried to discover this room's purpose, but a sniffle from poor Lillian reminded him that he could figure it out later. He closed the door on this mysterious room and then went through another doorway to a small hall.

He soon found the bathroom, which looked very cozy with a large bath and ornate tiles on the floor. There were several large fluffy towels on a shelf and he could already see various bath oils and things on another shelf.

That meant that the other two rooms must be their bedrooms. After investigating them, he surmised that the largest was for him, while the smaller one was for Lillian. He was glad that her room would be close by his, just in case she might need him for anything. He could see Lillian already had a large four poster bed, but everything else was rather bare.

He carried her over to the bed and gently set her down. Pulling out his handkerchief, he wiped her tears away.

"Now, now!" he said with a smile. "No need for all these tears when we have a room to decorate! What say we call a house elf and get your room sorted, hm?"

Lillian wiped her eyes and looked around her room. The walls were made of stone and she had no window. She pouted a little at that, since it made her room look a little dark.

"Can I have a window?" she asked Gilderoy hesitantly. She wasn't sure if they could magic up a window or not.

"Why certainly, dear girl! I'm sure it'll be no trouble for you to have a big magical window. Maybe we can see if you can have a view of the lake? That would be lovely." Lockhart replied happily to her.

Lillian smiled at that.

"And.. can my walls look like at home? And my bed?"

Lockhart nodded.

"I don't see why not! Now let me see.. What was the name of that elf that Professor Dumbledore said we could use? Mipsy..? No.. Moppy? Moppet? Muppet?"

Lillian giggled at all the silly names Gilderoy was coming up with. He was so silly!

"Oh yes.. I remember now! Tippy!"

And very suddenly, there was a loud crack and a small house elf was standing near Lockhart. She had big, bat-like ears and large eyes. Instead of clothes, she was wearing a tea towel like a toga that had the Hogwarts crest on it.

Lillian gave a small shriek at the loud noise that Tippy made when she appeared, and Lillian hastily scrambled backwards onto the middle of the bed, staring at the house elf with wide eyes.

"Tippy," Lockhart said jovially as he gestured at Lillian. "This is Lillian, and this is to be her room. However, it seems to be a bit bare and we would require your assistance in decorating?"

Tippy beamed at that and nodded her head happily.

"Tippy is happy to help, sir and miss!" she said in a squeaky little voice that had Lillian giggling.

It seemed to take no time at all to get Lillian's things unpacked with Tippy's help and soon Lillian had a large magical window that did indeed have a view of the lake. Lillian had fun staring out the window, and she could have sworn she saw a large tentacle waving at her from the lake.

She had a brief thought that maybe even the Loch Ness Monster could be in there, before she furrowed her brow and wondered where that thought had come from. She had never heard of that before, right?

At Lockhart's urging, Lillian had taken her trunk out of her pocket which was was promptly placed at the foot of her bed and unshrunk. Tippy had used her powers to place all of Lillian's clothes into a large wardrobe, and with a snap of her fingers, Lillian's toys had found themselves on various shelves around the room while her books had appeared in a small book shelf. Lillian noted with a small pout that her toy potions kit was placed on a high shelf where she wouldn't be able to reach it without help.

Her wooden box wound up on a small table near her bedside and even her bed had changed to be pink just like the one she had back home. While her walls were still bare stone, Lockhart had promised to go home as soon as he could via the floo to fetch her spring pictures, to spruce up her walls a bit. He doubted if they could paint her walls to match her room back home, but he did promise to try and find a wintery painting for her.

As soon as her room was done, he had settled her onto the bed with a book and asked her to read quietly while he did his own unpacking.

So as Lillian was settling back in bed with one of her children's books, Lockhart unpacked the rest of his belongings and went about making their quarters more homey. They both couldn't help but wonder what the rest of their day at the castle would be like.

While the two were getting settled into their quarters, Professor Snape returned to his potions, removing the stasis spell. As he did so, he heard his floo flare into life and couldn't help but sigh as he heard Dumbledore's voice.

"Ah, my dear boy.." Dumbledore said happily as he invaded Snape's quarters, by stepping out of the fireplace. "I needed to speak with you about something of importance."

Snape bit back another sigh as he reluctantly recast the stasis spells. Was everyone going to interrupt his potion brewing?!

Author's Note: Poor Professor Snape! He'll never get all his brewing done. :P Anywho, I hope you guys liked this chapter. Wizards really do need better ways of traveling around for small children, don't they? And even though Lillian was upset, she wasn't upset enough yet to set off her spring powers.

Any guesses on what Dumbledore wanted? (Don't worry, I already know.) Anyway, I forgot that at some point Lockhart had a book signing to get to, so that'll be in the next chapter. Or more like we'll skip the book signing and see what Lillian will be up to. And don't worry, Harry and Ron and Co. will be showing up soon too.