Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or any of the following characters, locations and stories which they are based on. They all belong to J.K Rowling and I don't make any profit out of this. Now that that's all cleared up, shall we get on with the story?

A/N: Lily sure does seem to be getting into trouble with that mouth of hers. Now, who could Harry's eyes remind her of? Anyone want to take a bet on how long it'll take for her to figure it out…?

Going Forward

Chapter 6 – Lies, Lies, Lies

James was dead!?!?! No! I couldn't believe it. What about all of my other classmates? How many of them would survive to see their children grow up? How many would have the chance to have children? A tear rolled down my cheek, and I turned quickly from Ginny to compose myself before it would inevitably follow by a flood of them.

"Are you… are you crying?" Ginny asked timidly, afraid to upset me more and make matters worse.

I sniffed and shook my head. Ginny pulled me towards her and before I knew what was happening, I was sobbing into the collar of her robe as she comforted me with a motherly hug. We stayed that way for a few minutes, until the sobs gradually subsided. Ginny hadn't said anything for a while, and I was unsure what to say to break the silence. "Sorry. I've really made a mess of things, haven't I?"

Ginny smiled at the girl. "No, it's OK. You didn't know. I was wondering though… well, the thing is, Harry Potter is kind of famous. You must've heard about him if you've heard of his father? About the end of the last war with You-Know-Who?

So this was something everyone should know? She was going to give herself away if she kept acting so clueless about everything. What could she say?

"Well… you see, my Mother moved to America to escape the war. We don't tend to hear much news about what is going on over here. She was at Hogwarts around the same time as Harry and Neville's parents. Probably most of the students' parents, actually. So, I've only heard about everything she's told me about Hogwarts and her classmates. I guess things have changed a lot. I was hoping to write to her to let her know about what her old friends were up to, once I'd learnt a little about them. That's partly the reason I signed up for the student exchange actually. I was hoping for slightly better new to report back to her though." She sighed.

That was a pretty convincing lie, right? She hated to lie to this girl, who had been so kind to her, but she couldn't tell her the truth, could she? Maybe she could, perhaps she could help her find a way back. She had to be certain first that she could trust her though.

Ginny raised an eyebrow. Something about Julia's answer didn't seem right. She didn't question it though. "Ok… Look, why don't we go and get some breakfast. I don't know about you, but I'm starving!"

Julia smiled, happy that she'd accepter her lies for the moment. "Sounds good to me."