A/N: So here's the next chapter, complete with a little more Remus/Tonks fun and some exploration.

The After Dinner Visit

After a quick dinner, Lily and her friends made their way up toward the faculty residences. Professor Lupin hadn't really said where to meet, so Lily assumed that she would just go to his office and hope for the best.

However, as they walked down the hallway, a most unwelcome sight met them. Mrs. Norris gave the four of them a glare. Lily gave the other girls an odd look at Megan smacked a hand on her forehead.

"Ugh, this means..."

The hunched form of Mr. Filch bumbled into view, holding a lantern in one hand and using a cane to hobble along in his other hand.

"Ah... what have we here then? Some first years out of dinner and wandering the halls?"

"We were invited," Lily tried to explain. "Professor Lupin said that we could see him!"

"Professor Lupin is dead," spat Filch. "Methinks you were trying to stick some pudding to the ceiling and create a mess for me to clean up!"

"That's a great idea," whispered Rachel to Theresa before getting jabbed in the ribs.

"Now... if you can't think up a better excuse than conjuring the name of a ghost, perhaps hanging from the stocks will do you all some good.

And of course, for you, boy," Filch pointed a bony finger at Lily. "Escorting three ladies into areas unknown? That's an expellable offense."

Lily glared. After all she'd been through, her American attitude was starting to bleed through. "Really, dude? Come on. I'm not forcing them to be with me, and you know it. I'm not holding them against their will."

Filch reached his hand back, but then quickly realized that if he dropped the lantern to strike the student, he would lose his light and if he dropped his cane, he would fall over. Then the realization that striking a student was a dismissable offense, he just growled.

"I've had about enough of your cheek, boy... I don't care what McGonagall says about you. I been telling Mrs. Norris that I think it's a bit funny a boy would wanna be a girl. Reminds me of that Sirius Black fellow, before we went all loony. Did anything he could to get into girls' knickers... You ladies best watch this boy. He could be trouble."

Lily frowned and looked over to her friends, who had suddenly taken a step back. "Oh come on, really?!"

"All four of you will be coming with me now," Filch spat in almost a sing-song voice. The girls began to shuffle toward the dungeons when a firm voice called out.

"I don't think that will be necessary, Argus."

Lily spun around to see Professor Lupin floating in the hallway. A clearly agitated Filch turned around.

"Lupin? Thought you were dead!"

"As you can see, I am quite dead. I am no more. I have ceased to be," mused Lupin.

"That's enough, lad. I get the picture," growled Filch.

"I've expired and gone to meet my maker. I am a late werewolf."

"That's enough, Lupin!"

Lily and the other girls turned to gawk at the professor.

"Well, I can't change anymore! I'm a stiff! Berift of life, I rest in peace! I... am an ex-werewolf! And yet... here I am."

At this point, Filch was so sick of Lupin's ramblings that he growled and made his way back to the dungeons without the girls following. Lupin grinned to them and shrugged his shoulders.

"I thought I heard a commotion out here. Glad I popped out to see what was going on! It seems that Filch's sense of humor is quite lacking. Please, do come in. You'll have to open the door yourself, I'm afraid. Haven't quite gotten the knack of that yet."

Rachel, Megan, and Lily made their way to the door, but were suspiciously missing Theresa. A cursory glance revealed that the blonde girl was on the floor, rolling in laughter. At last she cried out.

"If it wasn't nailed to its perch, it'd be pushing up daisies!"

Lupin stuck his head out of the wall and beamed at her. "Quite so!"

After Theresa finally recovered from her laughing fit, Rachel wrenched open the door and the girls were greeted by the sounds of a loud alternative band playing... quite good, actually! Lily looked around for the source of the music, but found an old phonograph blasting the music.

"The Weird Sisters! Aren't they rad?" The happy voice of Tonks called out to them.

Megan nodded along with the beat. "Yeah! They're awesome! I've got all their albums back home!"

Tonks quickly made her way over to the girl and wrapped her in a bone-chilling hug. Megan froze to the spot. Lupin smiled and gently tugged at his wife, easing her off the poor girl.

"Right then. As I told Tonks before Filch so rudely interrupted our night, Lily was given quite the hard time by Peeves today. Are you aware?"

Rachel kicked at the dust on the floor. "Yeah. But Filch said that this could all be a ruse. Trying to get into our pants and whatever."

Megan looked over to Rachel, and instead of jabbing her side, she just sighed. "He does have a point, though. As much as I hate acknowledging that Filch could be right about something, it could be true, right?"

Lily's heart sank.

"Forgive me, Megan, but I really thought that you had thought this one through. I know the Grey Lady really wanted you for a Ravenclaw, but I'm afraid I'll have to avoid telling her about this.

If you read your sister's copy of Hogwarts, A History, you would know that the castle has quite powerful magic around it. Magic that, for instance, prevents boys from entering into girls' dormitories? If your friend Lily here was a Lothario, don't you think the castle would have recognized that?"

Theresa hummed thoughtfully and nodded. "That's true! It's just that Filch is really intimidating!"

The ghost turned and acknowledged the blonde girl. "That's true, but just remember that Filch is only here to care for the castle, not discipline students. Now, if you'd all like to have a seat, I've had the house elves bring up some tea."

The girls took a seat at the long table, joined by Lupin and a quite depressed looking Tonks.

"I miss eating," she pouted. Remus patted her hand gently.

"So," asked Rachel. "How'd you get all ghosty and stuff?"

Tonks chuckled. "All ghosty and stuff? Well, quite simple actually. We died. Right here at Hogwarts. Now, don't give me that look! Dying isn't so bad. It's living that sucks, with all the aches and pains and such!"

Theresa then raised her hand toward the pink-haired woman. "Umm... so why did you come back as a ghost? I read that people only come back as ghosts if they have unfinished business here?"

Remus fielded this question. "It is true. You see, before we died in the war, we were lucky enough to raise a child for a few blissful, glorious months. We had the option of, well, moving on. But we both chose to stick around here so that we could see our son grow up when he arrived at Hogwarts."

Tonks sighed and drummed her fingers on the table. "Yes, that's all true. But stop being so cheery, Remus. You'll bloody kill us all from the giggles. So! Are you girls still afraid that Lily here is playing you all for fools?"

All three shook their heads, washing the transgender girl with relief.

"Good. And besides, I'll have you know that she came to me and asked if I could use my abilities to show what she'd look like as a girl!"

Lily glared at the ghost. "Yeah, I didn't really want people to know that..."

As a ghost, Tonks couldn't blush, but it seemed that her entire head turned from the spectral white to a wispy red. "Right, sorry."

Megan smiled and hugged Lily. "Oh come on! Stop being so worried about how we'd react. If we didn't like you, we would have kicked you out of our compartment in the train, remember? Sorry we let Filch get to us..."

Lily smiled and grasped Megan's hugging arms, giving them a light squeeze. "It's okay. Just remember that I would never lie to you. It doesn't do me any good in the short term or the long term!"

Megan's hug was quickly joined by Theresa, who wrapped her arms around the other side of the girl. Rachel got up and rushed over, nearly knocking everyone to the ground with her massive bear hug.

Tonks decided to get in on the fun as well and drenched everyone in freezing cold temperatures. With a sigh, Lupin tugged her off once more and pulled her into a kiss, as he thought the girls weren't looking. But of course, Theresa happened to look in that direction at the perfect moment and giggled. "Oooooh, ghost love! So romantic!"

Lupin rolled his eyes. "Right then. Note to self, there is absolutely no privacy in a group of teenage girls."

That prompted a giggle from Tonks. "I could have told you that, but who am I to decline a righteous snog from my sexy professor?"

"Tonks," growled Lupin. "Teenage girls. Right here."

"Oh get the stick out your arse, darling! But fine, if we can't snog, I'll just spend some time with my lovely ladies!"

Tonks floated back over to her seat and waited for the girls to resume their seats as well. As Lily settled back in, a thoughtful look crossed over Tonks, and in an instant, her heart shaped face began to morph, jawline becoming slightly more hardened, nose getting longer, until she finally looked like a carbon copy of Lily's current look. Tonks looked into an enchanted mirror. "I'd say that's close enough! Now then..."

Still looking into the mirror, the short hair grew longer and longer, styled straight down with bangs crossed over one of her eyes. Lips slightly fuller, jaw softer, cheeks a little bit puffier. At last she turned around to face the girls, who applauded the new look.

"You're gonna be quite the babe, Lily," exclaimed Rachel.

"Very pretty," agreed Megan.

"What they said! I'd love to help you out if you ever want to make this real," said an excited Theresa.

Tonks grinned at the appreciation of her handiwork. "You see, this is just an inspiration for you, but if you want to make this happen, you've gotta do it for yourself. I'm here and I'm sure everyone else is here to help you out, but you're the one that has to put in the hard work, you know?"

Lily nodded and sipped her tea, gagging a little. "Sorry... never been a fan of tea."

Megan looked legitimately affronted. "Typical American, then. Probably a coffee drinker then?"

Lily shook her head. "Heck no. That's even nastier. I like juices better."

"Quite odd," giggled Theresa. "But to each their own, I guess."

Rachel just made loud slurping noises in protest of Lily's statement, but Lupin quickly came to the rescue to break the ice.

"As I said when we met earlier, Lily, I've never had the pleasure of knowing a transgender person. Could you tell us a little more?"

Lily felt everyone's attention shift to her. She was thankful that McGonagall didn't bring up the issue at the Start of Term feast, but she wasn't used to being the center of attention.

"Um, sure," she began as everyone seemed to adjust their chairs in order to face her. "I've always thought it pretty simple. I'm a girl and that's all there is to it. It's just that I wasn't exactly given the body to show that I'm a girl. So I suppose it's an issue of just being dealt with a challenge. The other girls here have it a bit easy because they look on the outside how they feel on the inside. I wasn't quite that lucky.

I've known ever since I was little. I watched The Little Mermaid... oh, it's a film that I watched back at home. I don't come from a wizarding family, so I guess that makes my parents... Muggles? Yeah. So, I saw this movie and it was just an eye-opener for me. I wanted to be the beautiful lead character so badly. I saw myself more as her than the charming prince.

But I've always known that it's not 'normal', so I've kept it to myself for so long. But it seems that in learning that I'm a witch, I also learned that some people know more about me than I was willing to admit to myself.

So, I think I'd like to transition at some point, but I want to take it slowly. I think I can grow my hair out and things like that, but I don't think that I can go through with big changes just yet."

Her audience nodded in genuine interest. Theresa flashed a smile.

"I know exactly what you're talking about, Lil'! It's an awesome movie, but you definitely aren't Prince Eric. Though I've always thought of myself as Ariel, so you can be one of her sisters."

Theresa stuck her tongue out, but Lily shook her head. "Nope. I'm Ariel forever. I called it a loooong time ago."

The girls just giggled, leaving the others completely confused. Lily shrugged and smiled and went back to the biscuits and finger foods that the house elves had splayed out. After the girls were loaded up on enough tea and biscuits to keep them up for two days, Lupin stretched and looked over at the clock.

"Well, I think it's time for you girls to get some sleep. You have my class bright and early tomorrow, and it seems that my loving wife wants to sit in on class with you, so I'm going to expect you all to be on your best behaviour."

He gave a playful glare at Tonks, who stuck her tongue out at him.

"Tonks," asked Megan. "Why do you want to hang around with us? I mean, I'm so happy that you are, but what about the older girls?"

Tonks let out a laugh. "Psh. Those girls are fun and everything, but there's nothing like being able to corrupt... err, influence young minds. And besides, it seems like you four girls are closer than any of the other classes of Hufflepuff girls. So it's just fun to be around you! And any time I can make dear Remus' head spin when he's trying to concentrate on his class is a win for me!"

The girls rose from their seats and Lily opened the large oak door. "Thank you for everything, Remus and Tonks. The company was wonderful and I'm so glad we had the chance to talk. Hope we can do this again soon!"

Remus smiled and nodded while Tonks followed them out. "I figure I'll escort you back to the dormitories, just in case Filch decides to give you trouble again."

With Tonks by their side, the walk back to their dormitory was uneventful. The ghost bade everyone a goodnight with the promise that they would see each other in class and that she wouldn't distract them too much.

As Lily made her way in the bathroom to change, Rachel stopped her. "Hey. We're all girls here. As long as you're not actively staring or anything like that, you can get changed out here with us."

Lily smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. While it was okay to change in the bathroom, it was nice to be able to just stay in the bedroom and change there. She pulled off her robe and her button-down shirt and slacks along with her socks. Being in just her underwear felt very strange, but she didn't feel the burning stares of any of the girls.

She pulled her nightgown over her, which was the one bit of female clothing she did accept from Theresa. It covered her down to her knees and it felt so nice on her, despite the fact that it was simple a long shirt that went down most of her body.

Taking her stuffed animal into her arms and laying down, Lily turned off her light and said goodnight to the girls. It was a momentous first day for her, and she fell asleep wondering what the next day would bring.

Postscript: I had a great time writing this one, as I really wanted to write about what it's like to be transgender. I did the best I could to make the questions seem authentic rather than forced.

I only received one review to the last chapter and it wasn't really positive, but in response to a reader's comment, I try to write about the things I have passion for, and while sometimes passions may wane for certain stories, I write about things I care about. Since this story is something I care very deeply about, I don't see my passion waning any time soon, even if chapters may take a while to churn out.

Thank you all for your continued support, and if you'd like a shout out in the next chapter's postscript, please review!