02. James's Room

"Alright, so we'll need a plan."

"Well, yeah, of course," said James, looking worried. Lily felt a strange rush of affection towards her brother. Was it possible he was worried about her safety? "I mean, Mum'd kill me if that water-like stuff had stained the carpet..."

Well, that's one caring brother, thought Lily, smirking.

"Oh, honestly, James, get with it! I lost control earlier, I was being -- guided, or something weird like that!"

"Be a bit more vague, won't you?" James looked irritated, but it strangely turned to embarassment, rather abruptly. "Oh, it doesn't matter, I just -- I just thought -- or I, er, heard that, um -- "

And it happened again. Lily was sitting straight up, eyes vacant and mind on overdrive. But this time, she could make out most of the thoughts rolling around her head...

...Been joking... won't... her... Allison... completely took the mickey... all I am to him...

James had, by this time, noticed Lily's vacancy and had run over to where she sat in his desk chair, shaking her. On the way there he knocked into his table. Wincing slightly and swearing loudly, James took no notice of the glass ball crashing to the floor, despite the loud sound it made. Lily's head cleared immediately as the ball crashed onto the floor, crystals that looked as if they were reflecting light shattering everywhere.

A moment later, Ginny was at the door.

"What's going on here?" she asked.

"I don't know, I s'pose we knocked that ball thing over," said James, keeping his cool as he usually did. "No problem."

"All right, if you're sure... I suppose I trust you. Lily?" Ginny turned her attention to her youngest child.

"Mum!" James was indignant.

"I'm only just verifying, James. Lily?" she asked again.

"That's what happened," Lily replied absently, still a bit dazed at the come-and-go thoughts that were not her own.

"OK, now I'll believe it," said Ginny, smiling. "And James, did I hear you swear? You've got to stop hanging around Ron so much... anyway, time for bed soon, OK?"

"Sure," Lily agreed automatically, glad for a chance to be alone and ponder the day's events. She didn't even care about 'bonding' with James anymore. "Good night." She gave her mother a hug and asked, "Where's Dad?"

"Good night, lovely! He's downstairs, you can go on down. But then, bed!" she said firmly, reminding Lily surprisingly of her grandmother.

Obviously Ginny noticed this, because she said, "I know what you're thinking. I swear I get more like her with every day! Bit scary."

As she laughed and left the room, Lily privately agreed -- she loved her grandmother, but did not much like the idea of living with a replica of her... she enjoyed having a laid-back mother, without quite such a tendency to scold!

Entering the main room, she found her father, reading Ginny's latest Daily Prophet article at the table. He looked up and smiled as he heard her approach.

"Hey, Lily," he said, indicating for her to sit next to him.

She did so and said, "Hi, Daddy." Lily secretly enjoyed the feeling of being the baby of the family, even though she hid it around her brothers.

"So what's up? Bedtime soon, right?"

"I've just come to say goodnight," she replied. "Mummy's sending me to bed afterwards."

Harry laughed. "Yeah, she would. So, anything on your mind? You seemed a bit distracted earlier today."

"I wasn't," Lily replied softly, not quite ready to share her problem yet. But there was one thing she had to ask. "Er... Dad? Um, have you ever heard of, uh... well, doing magic early? Like, at my age?" She smiled timidly, awaiting his answer.

"Well, we all demonstrate magic ability early, it makes us sure that we're wizards. But as for concious magic that you know how to do, that's against the law. We'd get fined. And with your aunt at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, that just might look bad." He winked and smiled.

"It is possible, though?" Lily felt immediately brighter at the thought.

"Well, yeah. Of course. If you've got the ability, there's really no starting age. It's the law that makes that official," said Harry, looking curious. "Why did you want to know?"

"No reason," she replied quickly and, she was sure, rather suspiciously. She really wanted to know whether what she was feeling -- the sudden, cloudy discernment of others' thoughts -- could be magic. If it could, she definitely wouldn't mind it in the least. But something told her that her father probably shouldn't know about it. "Just... wondering."

"If you're sure," her dad replied, looking utterly unconvinced. "I mean, I know how much you'd like to do magic, Lily, but you'll be going to Hogwarts soon enough. You've got to be patient, like everyone else. I used to get pretty anxious as well."

"Yeah," said Lily, now entering full-blown excitement. "I've got it. Have a good night, Dad." She gave him a quick hug and jumped off to climb the stairs to her room, nearly skipping the entire way.