Little Lily: The Second Year

Chapter Two: Practice

"That's it, nicely done!" Two laughed, patting Lily on the top of her head as she dropped her wand back down to her side, heaving a tired sigh. These men had her practicing the Cruciatus Curse almost all day every day this week it felt like, though she wasn't sure what day it was or if it had even been a week. Had she slept six times since that first day that had made her do this Unforgivable Curse? She couldn't remember. "What a good girl, doing as she's told. You've earned yourself a bath."

"A…a bath?" Lily asked, her eyes widening. She turned her head to look up at Two who wasn't nearly as mean as One and Three were. He was still pretty horrid, but when he spoke it wasn't with such cruelty. He did laugh though, when he forced Lily to torture various house elves until they were unconscious. She just about had the Cruciatus Curse perfected to One's orders. One wasn't in the house anymore, from what Lily gathered, or at least, she hadn't seen him, though she wasn't sure as to where he could be.

"Yeah. And if you keep it up maybe we'll let you have a little bed in that room of yours." Two laughed again and held out the wand box. Lily sighed, gripping her wand tighter for a moment before, sadly, placing it back in the box. She knew it was her one chance at escaping, but with the possibility of the house elves being killed should she revolt kept her at bay for now. That, and she was too weak and worn out to get very far even if she had tried.

Her hair was limp, hung with dirt and grime, lifeless as her skin and eyes which used to shine so brightly. Dirt caked beneath her nails uncomfortably. She picked it out in her cell, but it just kept coming back, never fully able to be cleaned out. She was getting more to eat though… Good behavior got her things, and the men weren't just teasing her with the idea of them either. She'd gotten more than just porridge for dinner last night, and this morning, there had actually been breakfast instead of just a cup of water. Sure it had just been an orange, but that was more than just water alone. Perhaps she'd get more for dinner tonight like last night as well? Since she'd been good?

Once her wand was away, Two wandered over to a door near the stairs in the basement living room. "Here. Clean yourself up. You smell putrid."

Lily couldn't believe her ears, but she carefully trod over to the door. Inside was a bathroom. A real bathroom with tile and a tub and a toilet and sink, and none of it was grungy either. She entered the bathroom and then heard the door shut behind her.

She heaved a sigh of relief, turning around to lock it but finding it had no knob. Huh, that was strange, but then, there was no knob inside the door to the room she was kept in most of the time either, so maybe that was just something about this basement, another way to keep her locked up.

Lily started the tub, letting the water flow into it. She plugged it up and added some shampoo to make bubbles and then pondered climbing in in her dirty clothes. Figuring she'd rather put them back on even dirty rather than be in wet clothes in an already chilly basement, she shucked them off. They were so caked with dirt that they were practically stiff. She shook them, getting dirt all over the floor and then climbed into the tub, relishing the way the water felt on her skin. She watched as the dirt fell off her pale legs and then grabbed a bar of soap and began scrubbing at herself, not knowing how much time she was going to have before she had to get out.

Once her skin felt clean, Lily dunked her head under the now murky water. It was gross and grungy now, full of her own filth but she didn't care. Right now water was water and she was going to get as clean as possible while she could.

Grabbing the shampoo, Lily poured some onto her now wet head and began to scrub. Her hair was so gross and matted though that it was hard to really get at it. She could feel grains of sand against her scalp and she just had so much hair… it was going to take a while to get it clean.

While she scrubbed at her hair, the a knocking came upon the door, and Lily jumped slightly, scrubbing more furiously at her hair. "Y-yes?"

"Ain't you done yet?"

"I… my hair is…" Lily began and then let out a yelp as the door opened and Three came in. She sank down in the tub, trying to cover herself with bubbles to keep him from seeing anything. Her face turned red in embarrassment, but Three didn't seem to notice. He stared down at her in the tub and then pulled out his wand. He reached down and grabbed up her hair, pulling. Lily cried out and then, the pressure on her scalp released.

"There. Now you ain't got no problem hurrying up." Three laughed and held up his left hand, holding up something long a black and matted. It dripped on the floor, soapy. Lily's eyes went wide and she gasped in shock, one hand reaching up to feel her head. Three had chopped off most of her hair! There wasn't much left on her head now… at least… it felt like a lot less than she was used to. "Now finish up. Oh and here. Two said you'd be needing this."

Three pulled something dark blue off of his shoulder and dropped it on the counter by the sink. "Five minutes."

After Three had left and closed the door behind him, Lily scrubbed at the remains of her hair and then dunked herself under the water to rinse out most of the soap. She climbed out of the tub and grabbed a towel off of the rack above the toilet and began drying herself off rapidly, not wanting one of the men to come back in when she was so exposed.

She wrapped the towel tightly about herself and then picked up the blue thing Three had left. It was a simple terrycloth dress, probably from a secondhand store by the looks of it, not that it mattered at all to Lily. She was just glad to have something remotely clean to put on. She pulled it on quickly over her head and then retrieved her underwear and the Snapper from her pocket. She put the Snapper in her pocket and then washed the dirt off of her underwear in the sink and then tried to dry them the best she could with a towel before pulling them on. They were wet and uncomfortable, but she'd be able to take them back off and hold onto them until they dried once she was locked back up in her room. Using the time she had left, Lily peered into the mirror over the sink. Her hair was lopsided, cut so that it was just barely touching above one ear and halfway down the other ear. She blinked back tears, knowing there were worse things than having her hair mutilated.

The door opened and Three ushered her out and across the basement living room back to the little room she was kept in. Without a word, Three opened the door and Lily entered, retreating back to her corner and watching as the door was shut once more. She heaved a silent sigh of relief, glad she was at least back to a place she felt safer than out there with those men, being made to do horrid spells on house elves.

…...

"Who is this?" Two held up a photograph in front of Lily. They had been practicing the Imperious Curse all morning so far but in order not t completely wear the child out too soon, they were taking a break. Instead, Lily was given a glass of milk for lunch and Two was showing her pictures of people she recognized from her nightmares, as she sipped at the milk, the feelings of fear got worse and worse.

"Um... Er... I don't remember her name." Lily shook her head no long recognizing the red haired woman in the picture. She could have sworn she'd been able to answer this particular question just the other day but for some reason her brain was getting foggier and foggier when it came to names. The only thing she could recognize now were the faces, though even those appeared quite different than the ones in her dreams. The faces in her nightmares were incredibly frightening. So frightening in fact that when it came time to sleep she would lay there on the dirt covered floor desperately trying to keep her eyes wide open so as not to sleep. She was afraid of sleep. Every night she would wake screaming and crying, sweat pouring down her forehead and chest. It got worse and worse on the days she was shown the photos.

Instead of being angry that she couldn't remember the woman's name, Two smirked quite smugly and then flipped onto yet another photo. This one was of a boy with dark chestnut hair.

Lily bit her lip holding back a whimper. This boy...she had dreamt about him the night before. He had been pegging little round things that spit at her, what were they called? Gobstones. That was the name of the little round marble like things. Lily remembered those, but mainly because she had a similar one she kept in her pocket. It was clear with a golden snitch in the middle. She couldn't quite remember where it had come from, but she knew she had been holding onto it since she had been brought to this wretched place with these horrid men. She kept it safely in her pocket, clinging to it with one hand especially when she was alone, for some reason, it made her feel safe... Not so alone.

"Do you recognize this boy?"

"Yes." Lily nodded. She saw no reason to lie about having seen the boy before, even though she wasn't positive if he was a product of her imagination or a reality she couldn't quite grasp anymore. Every time she tried harder and harder to dig deeper into the depths of her brain to remember anything from before she was with the Number Men that wasn't scary it was like grasping and trying to catch air. She could feel it there, but every time she looked for it or reached for it, she was met with nothing.

"Do you know his name?"

"No." Lily shook her head. She knew the boy's face, but his name escaped her. She could feel it there, right on the tip of her tongue, a word she should remember, but alas, it would not come. It was quite a daunting feeling, not being able to put a name to a face when she knew it was a face she should be able to name even if it was scary.

"Excellent. I think that's it for now. Finish your milk and then we'll get started on more practice."

Lily did as she was told, though rather reluctantly. She didn't want to do any more practicing of the unforgivable curses. It made her heart ache every time she was forced to perform one on the numerous defenseless house elves that were brought down to the basement living room simply for this single purpose. She was a bad person, doing such spells on poor house elves. Once her glass was empty of milk, Lily was offered her wand. She took it with a sigh, her whole being deflating in defeat as she watched Three come downstairs with the house elf called Perry. She was Jiggy's wife and it always pained Lily to do spells on her, but it was better than when she was forced to do spells on the younger house elves who weren't even ten yet. Performing cruel spells on child elves hurt more than performing them on adult elves, though not by much. It broke her heart more and more every time.

"Here." Three dropped a house elf on the floor, having carried her down the stairs. The little elf looked absolutely petrified and Lily felt her hand drop from her side. How could she put an Unforgivable upon this poor little creature?

"Well, you know what to do." Two flopped back in a chair, kicking his feet up onto the coffee table as though ready to enjoy a particularly pleasant show. Three stood by the door which went to the bottom of the stairs, making it harder for the elf to escape.

"No." Lily shook her head, dropping her wand. "She… she's a little kid…"

"Perform the spell or she dies." Three commanded and Lily gulped, bending down and picking her wand back up. She didn't want the little elf to die because of her… and perhaps it wouldn't be so bad. She could just… make her dance or something. At least she wasn't being forced to perform the Cruciatus Curse of the Killing Curse this time.

"Imperio," Lily stated, feeling a little bit of herself tear away from her heart as she did so. She watched as the elf's eyes glazed over. Lily kept her wand pointed at her and bit her lip, thinking things in her head and forcing those thoughts down along her wand to the elf.

The little elf began to dance a jig with ease and then she did a back flip and jumped over the coffee table before doing a hand stand on the back of a chair. Then, Lily retracted the spell, pulling it back in and away, letting the elf come to a gentle rest on the floor. She dropped her wand and rushed forward, falling to her knees and reaching out to the little elf who looked confused.

"I'm sorry I'm sorry!" Lily broke down, tears flowing freely down her cheeks. The elf reached out to her, opening her mouth as though to say something, but Three jerked her away and opened the stairway door. He tossed her up and away and then slammed the door shut again. He turned to look at Lily, glaring angrily.

You don't apologize! You never apologize! You should enjoy doing them. Enjoy torturing and forcing and killing."

"No!" Lily shouted back, rising to her feet and stomping them. "NO! I won't enjoy it because it's wrong! It's wrong! It's wrong!" Her whole body shook with rage and her fists clenched, but there was no way she could have over powered either of the men by herself. She was also spent after performing just one spell, the lack of proper food and sleep taking their toll.

"Oh would you shut up!" Three shouted and then his hand smacked right across Lily's face, knocking her down to the floor. "You're such an annoying pest! I would have killed you by now if we were allowed to! But no, keep the girl alive! Fucking morons! Get to your room!"

Lily blinked in shock. The men had never actually hit her before. They're dragged her and grabbed her by the hair and said cruel things and made her perform crueler spells but they had never physically lashed out on her. Her whole being filled with fear and she retreated, dashing over to the little dank room she was kept in when she wasn't being forced to practice spells. The door slammed behind her and she curled up in her corner, tears falling rapidly from her eyes.

…...

"I can't believe they just keep changing!" Hermione groaned as Kingsley handed her the most recent of codes the Bandits were using to send their messages back and forth. The codes had been changing every two weeks and Hermione was having a horrible time trying to figure each one out with such limited information. This one was written in normal letters, but the words were crazy gibberish. They had discovered what the Bandits' owls looked like and had been swiping their mail for the past three months, with no new developments since July. "And you really couldn't have kept tabs on the owl?"

"No. Harry, Ron, and I stalked it all the way on our brooms to the ocean before it lost us in a storm. We can't be positive, but I think it may have been headed west."

"West… West… Harry and Lily were in the United States for the better part of the past twenty years… and the Bandits are from there. What if they somehow transported her back there or are planning to? It wouldn't be difficult for them to disguise her as someone else and produce a fake passport. But they would most likely have to put Lily under the Imperius curse to do that."

"That's it! That's where the owls must be flying." Kingsley snapped his fingers and ran to the wall where they hung all of the maps. The one in the center showed all of Great Britain, tabs with names stuck into it with differently colored pins. Each color stood for the seriousness of the crime done there, the tab stating what the crime was and who did it. When the person was found, the pin would come out. It was not this map Kingsley went to though, it was the map of the entire world. He fingered his wand, placing it against the part of Wales he and the others had flown to the other night.

"We lost the bird about here… and it was flying, in this general direction…" His wand tip lit up as he drew a line, heading in a south westerly direction. "The States track all international wizarding mail. The owl will have had to land at one of the rest stations after such a long journey, and then his letter would have been examined. I'll Floo the DC office, let them know what's going on."

"Alright. And I'll get started on this." Hermione nodded and took the new coded letter to her cubicle decorated with photos from both her school days and of her family. She'd come back to work for two and a half days a week, not wishing to be away from Nevvy for more than that amount of time. Harry and Luna had been back at school for about a month and a half now, Harry in his fourth year, Luna in her second.

Looking down at the new code, Hermione sighed. This one was impossibly difficult to comprehend out of all the other ones she'd see in the past few months. Wondering if she'd ever figure one out, she grabbed a fresh sheet of parchment and got to work.

…..

"Oh, she was perfect. Weren't you, cupcake?" Wisteria, Percy's wife, bent down to wipe a little smudge of what looked to be marker off of Nevvy's cheek. Mrs. Weasley was feeling a bit under the weather, so, Wisteria had offered to watch Nevvy for the day while Ron and Hermione were at work.

"Yes." Nevvy beamed, her arms wrapped tightly around an impossibly adorable plush strawberry with eyes that Hermione remembered seeing Percy's daughter, Molly, playing with when she was no bigger than Nevvy. "Aunnie gibbed me Seeds. Molly saids ok."

"Oh wow! That was very nice of them, what do you say to Auntie?" Hermione asked, stroking her daughter's hair.

"Fank chu, very much, Aunnie." Nevvy grinned and Wisteria gave her a quick cuddle and kissed her cheek.

"You're very welcome dear. You come visit any time, it's so nice to have a little one running about the house. I miss it… Percy thinks two is enough, but if I get my way, it won't be just two for much longer." Hermione laughed, knowing she was probably right. Percy was still high strung, but Wisteria and his children were the one weakness he had.

"Well, we best be going. See you later, Wisty, and thanks again."

"Not a problem." Wisteria waved as Hermione picked Nevvy up on her hip and carried her into the fireplace. She dropped the Floor powder and they were on their way home.

Upon arrival at home, Hermione stepped out of the fireplace and set Nevvy down on the floor. "What do you say we write Molly a thank you letter for giving you Seeds while we make dinner?"

"Yeah!" Nevvy nodded and ran into the kitchen. She tugged open the drawer where they kept all of the art supplies and pulled out a piece of pink construction paper and her box of crayons. "We write Molly and say fank chu!" She climbed up into her usual chair and set her paper on the table.

"Alright, you tell Mummy what you want to say, and I'll tell you which letters to write. If you can't remember what one of the letters looks like, then let me know."

"ok! I say… Dear Molly, Fank chu for my Seeds. I love you."

"Oh, that sounds like a lovely letter. Let's see… Dear is spelt D…."

"D. Ieka."

"E." Hermione reached into one of the lower cupboards to get out a pan. It was wet and rainy outside and she felt some nice soup for dinner might be a good idea. They could take it over to the Burrow for Mrs. Weasley as well.

"E. Ka." Nevvy scribbled her letters on the piece of pink paper, Hermione glanced at her, smiling. Nevvy was always making funny little sounds after she'd write a letter.

"A."

"A. Poo."

"Don't say 'poo' dear. R."

"R. Shka. Dear. Iekakapooshka!" Hermione laughed and continued to dictate the letters Nevvy needed to write her letter to Molly. Once finished, the soup was simmering nicely on the stove and Nevvy clapped her hands, holding her letter up high in absolute delight.

"Alright! Good job dear." Hermione smiled, looking over Nevvy's letter. It wasn't in the right format for a letter and was all capital letters, but it was readable, which was the best thing. Molly would be pleased. "We'll seal it up and send it off in a bit, love. I've got to get this soup into a container for Gramma. She has a cold."

"Gramma sick." Nevvy pouted and ran to the cupboard ahead of Hermione. She pulled out the big circular Tupperware bowl she knew her mummy put soup in sometimes and undid the lid on it. Hermione beamed. Her littlest was so helpful.

"That's just the one I wanted, thank you! You're such a big help, Nevvy." Hermione took the container and set it on the counter. She poured the contents of the soup into the container and popped the lid back on.

"Daddy will meet us at the Burrow for dinner." Hermione tapped the lid on the container to seal it all the way around and then offered it to Nevvy. If the little girl dropped it, it wouldn't spill now. "Could you take this into the living room while I clean up in here? Set it on the table so it's all ready to go."

"Ok Mummy." Nevvy nodded and took the container, leaving the room. Hermione smiled and placed the pot in the sink. She waved her wand and the water ran, the sponge getting up to scrub and the soap spouting into the pan. She reached to pick of Nevvy's crayons from the table, her arm hitting the manila folder with the most recent Bandit code in it. The folder slipped to the floor, the parchment inside floating out of it.

"Oh!" Hermione bent down to pick it up and glanced at the code for a moment before her eyes widened. The first word in the code. Iekakapooshka. "Nevvy…. Come here a moment…"

"Yes, Mummy?" Nevvy scampered back into the room, hands empty.

"Nevvy, what does iekakapooshka mean?"

"Silly, Mummy. Iekakapooshka! Dear!" She grabbed her letter off the table and pointed to the letter. "D. E. A. R. Dear. Ieka. Ka. Poo. Shka. Iekakapooshka!"

"Where did you learn that love?" Hermione asked, stooping down lower so she was eye level with her daughter.

"On da telly. Aunnie lemme watches da telly sometimes." Hermione nodded. She already knew this. Wisteria was Muggleborn and would let Nevvy watch a bit of television when it was rainy and wet out like it was today.

"What show?"

"Da Oompas. Dey talks Oompy-oomp. And dey shows letters in Oompy-omp." Hermione blinked. Oompas? She had heard of that one, and apparently it was quite a strange show, but educational in it's on way she supposed.

"Do you know the whole Oompy-Oomp alphabet?"

"Yes, Mummy! You want me learn you?"

"Teach, not learn, and yes. I would love you to teach me the whole alphabet. Let's see…" Hermione took the manila folder and one of Nevvy's crayons. She quickly wrote down the entire alphabet, leaving space between and below each letter for the translation. "Alright baby, tell me what the alphabet is."

"Poo…" Hermione wrote it down under the A. "Nah gah ieka ka doo daa loo beda kokoko…"

When Nevvy finished, she was beaming up at Hermione with absolute delight, proud of herself for having remembered all of the letter. "Awesome, Nevvy! Thank you! Mummy is soooo happy you taught her the Oompy-Oomp alphabet. Now, let's get that soup over to Gramma, shall we?"

"Yeah!" Nevvy laughed and ran into the next room.

….

It had taken Hermione a lot of patience to sit through dinner when she knew she might finally have the key to deciphering one of the Bandits' codes sitting in her purse right now. But as soon as Nevvy was tucked safely into bed and Ron was reading her her story (it was actually his turn this time), Hermione retreated into her study and got to work. It took her about two and a half hours to complete the letter, but when she was finished, she was beaming so brightly one might have thought she'd just discovered she was going to have another baby. The contents of the letter though, had her quickly frowning.

Dear Nighthawk,

Though it took longer than anticipated, we have finally gotten the passport for the Sparrow. Apparently the government here puts unduplicatable spells upon the passports, so we had to track down a Muggle (ugh) and convince him to make one for us. We had to go about it as quietly as possible, not wishing for him to inform anyone that he was being harassed. The Ministry of Magic has no idea what's going on, though we have inside information that they are getting closer. Hopefully, they will remain unable to crack our codes, it was brilliant on your part to keep changing them.

The Sparrow is getting closer and closer to cracking properly. She has mastered the Cruciatus Curse and the Imperius Curse. The process of modifying her memories to make her see what we want her to see is going much smoother. She is no longer able to respond to questions about her family or friends with anything but fear, but seems to still have some strong morals buried deep within her. We shall, I think, overcome these shortly.

We shall fly for Australia on the 220 plane out of the London Airport on December 24th after which, we will fly home. We got some hair from some cute little redhead downtown that'll work nicely for disguising the Sparrow. It was Bearclaw's idea to go to Australia first, in case the spell that hides the Sparrow's Trace gets a chance to break. We plan to land in Los Angeles on the 27th.

Sincerely,

Rottweiler

Hermione frowned, letting out a deep sigh. From what she gathered, the 'Sparrow' they were referring to was obviously Lily. And that meant, if what the letter said was correct, she had had her memories tampered with and she would face her friends and family with fear and distrust. But then… the information… they could easily track down every passenger on that flight who was traveling with a little girl and find out whether that girl was Lily or not.

"Rooon?" Hermione hurried up the stairs, parchment in hand. "Ron, I've got it. I've got the code."

Ron looked up from where he was tucking blankets more snugly around the sleeping Nevvy. He tiptoed across the room and turned out the light, leaving the painted stars on the ceiling and the night light glowing. He shut the door. "You've got it?"

"Yes. Nevvy, actually, showed me how. Apparently they ripped this one off from some television show called the Oompas that has it's own way of saying the letters. It took a while, but I've got it." She handed the parchment to Ron who read it, his eyes widening a bit at certain places.

"So.. this Sparrow the writer is referring to must be Lily. And Kingsley was right. The owl was headed for the United States."

"And that's where they're taking Lily." Hermione nodded, taking the parchment back from him. "And we can head them off. We know the flight and that Lily's hair will be red."

"What idiots. They must be either really dumb or think they've pulled one over on us with all of their coding. But alas, they have not yet met my brilliant wife." Ron grinned at her and kissed her cheek. "You've done a good job, 'mione. I'll get this to Kingsley right away, you head into bed. I'll be back before you finish reading."

"Ron… I think I should bring it to…"

"Hermione Jean Granger Weasley, you have done enough today. Go to bed. Read that book you've been wanting to finish but haven't had the time to. It'll take me ten minutes and then I'll be back to be the big spoon." Ron kissed her forehead, her nose, her lips, and took the letter from her hands gently. "I've got try to get Harry to come home anyway."

"Alright." Hermione nodded, hugging him tightly. "I'll see you in a few minutes then." Ron watched her walk down the hallway and into their bedroom. Even if he was gone for two hours, as that happened sometimes when he was only going to work for 'a few minutes', she'd be up and waiting for him.

…..

"Harry, Hermione cracked the code. Or rather, Nevvy cracked it for her, and Hermione just applied it to the letter. But here it is!" Ron brandished the Hermione's version of the letter and Harry took it. He read it over quickly, and then read it once more, slower, letting the information sink into his mind better.

"It doesn't tell us where she is… but it does tell us where she'll be." Harry nodded and reached into his desk drawer. "Flight 220 to Australia on the twenty fourth of December… That's two whole months away, Ron! They could have killed her by then!"

"Harry, they want her alive. And it gives us two months to come up with a plan to rescue her. We'll have to go through every single bit of information the airline can give us about the flight, and we'll have to deal with the Muggle authorities in order to do that, which means Kingsley will have to convince the Muggle Prime Minister to give us a bit of help."

"Convince him to help us with what?" Kingsley peered over the top of Harry's cubicle. Harry stood and thrust the letter at him and Kingsley read it over.

"Ah, I see. Excellent, we have time to form a plan. I think it best that you both are not present when we retrieve Lily, though."

"What? She's my bloody daughter!" Harry rose from his chair but Kingsley put up a hand to silence him.

"It says they've been messing with her memories… any friend or family, she'll face with fear. It'll be better if we have someone she hasn't met before rescue her."

"'We can disguise ourselves easily, Kingsley."

"But if you act as yourself, she might see through that. You are her father after all, Harry. She knows you better than she knows anyone else. One word, one slip up, could cost us everything in getting her back. Sometimes we must do what is right for those we love, as opposed to what is right for us."

"I could do it!" A teal haired young man popped his head over the wall of the cubicle next to Harry's. "She is my god sister after all, but we've never met."

"I don't know, Teddy. You're still…"

"I'll be finished training next month. C'mon Kingsley, I want to get out from behind this desk and do some good. And I won't even need a disguise. I can look like whomever you want me to look like."

"That…. Actually might not be such a bad idea… if we can locate Lily and whomever she's with, Teddy could mimic the appearance of the person she's with. We could separate them, and Teddy could grab her and pretend he's who she was with all along." Ron suggested keenly. He liked Teddy a lot and thought he had quite a bit of potential at becoming a great Auror. This mission would be dangerous, but not nearly as dangerous as it could be if they weren't a step ahead of the Bandits.

"Yeah! I could! See Kingsley?" Teddy beamed brightly, loving this particular plan.

"Well, we'll have a while to fine tune it, but I think it sounds quite promising. Good job men." Kingsley nodded his approval. "Harry, I know you missed your daughter's birthday, but I do hope, that you won't have to miss this Christmas."

"I hope so too, Kingsley. I hope so too."

Hey guys! I really hope you liked this chapter! I wanted to give you more insight into what's going on with Lily than there was previously. Anyway, I always enjoy hearing from you, so if you want and have the time, I always appreciate your input! Reviews help!

Love always,

S.Q.O.