Lily had a dream the night after talking to Eve Sage. It was really a memory in the form of a dream. She vaguely saw her father talking to her mother and Eve about something.

"Auntie Eve!" came a small voice.

Lily was vaguely aware that the voice was her. She hugged Eve's leg. Judging from her height Lily couldn't be older than three.

"I thought you were in bed, Lily," Eve said.

"I wuzzunt sweepy," Lily said in her small voice.

"It's past your bedtime, Lily," her mother instructed her.

"I not tired," Lily protested.

Eve grabbed her hand.

"Come on Lily, if you come up Auntie Eve will read you a bedtime story," she said.

Lily looked up at the woman expectantly.

"Pwomise?" she asked.

"Pinky promise," Eve said intertwining pinkies with the young girl.

The dream started to get hazy and soon Lily was being pulled awake by Jane.

"Wake up, Lily. We're going to be late for breakfast," said Jane.

Over breakfast Lily explained what she had learned from her conversation with Eve Sage.

"That's the exact words she used, your aunt," Jane asked.

"Yes," Lily said in between mouthfuls of waffle.

"That's kind of a generous way to describe yourself when she was just a family friend," said Jane.

Lily thought back to her dream.

"I think that's what I called her," Lily explained.

"Also why was she so fixated on you and not your brothers?" Jane asked.

Lily shrugged. "Maybe she's a girl person," she suggested.

"I can't blame her for that," said Jane. "By the way has Seth come to his senses yet?" she asked.

"No, as far as I know he's still living it up with Hugo," she said.

"Are you going to be at your grandparents' place for Christmas again?" Jane asked.

"No, I'll be at home, with just my immediate family," said Lily.

Lily's uncle Charlie was inviting the family to Romania to celebrate twenty five years as the Head of the Department for Protection and Regulation of Magical Creatures there. Since her Grandparents and some of her cousins were going the family had decided to celebrate Christmas separately. In truth Lily was happy about it. She wasn't particularly keen on seeing Hugo this holiday season.

After breakfast Lily went to a laid back Transfiguration class, in which they had only to perform four kinds of badgering spells and then they had free time for the rest of the period. Like last year the classes were very easy right before the Christmas holidays. In some classes like Potions the professors didn't even teach. Professor Krum was finally answering some questions about his Quidditch career.

"How many Galleons did you make when you played for Wimbourne Wasps?"

"Why did you catch the Snitch when your team was losing in the 1994 World Cup Final?"

"How did you know Tony Silva was Feinting in the 2014 final?"

Vun at a time please," said Krum. "Now Silva vould put his feet back ven accelerating and vas not doing zis ven he feinted," Krum explained.

Lily was mildly interested by Krum's Quidditch exploits but she couldn't help thinking about Eve Sage. She obviously deeply cared about Lily. Her father must know that. What could Eve have done that was so bad that she was cut off from Lily and the rest of the family? She simply couldn't comprehend what it might be.

Lily went back to Sage's office later in the day. She mentioned her dream/memory to Sage but the conversation mostly became friendly not unlike a visit with Hagrid.

"So what did you study at Mahoutokoro, DADA?" Lily inquired.

"No I was a Ghoul Studies girl," Sage said. "It's really a fascinating subject, too bad it's not as popular in Britain," she mused.

"So what have you uncovered about what's going on at Hogwarts?" Lily asked.

"Not as much as I'd hoped for, just that whoever it is is powerful enough to get through the castle's enchantments," she said.

"So maybe a teacher?" Lily asked.

"I've looked into all their backgrounds and nothing jumps out at me, maybe a disgruntled house elf or other creature," said Sage.

Lily remembered what she had heard in Diagon Alley. She had keyed in on the Dark Lady part but there had been more.

"Yes they're intelligent genetically engineered."

"Ms. Sage do you know anything about genetic engineering?" she asked.

"Not much, I think it's something Muggles do to make animals have desired traits," she answered.

"Do you think someone could do that to magical creatures?" Lily asked.

"I don't know, I'd have to ask someone who knows more about muggles," said Sage. "Do you think it will help me find out what's going on at Hogwarts?"

"I do," Lily answered truthfully.

"Then I'll look into it," she said.

The rest of the month passed quickly with few assignments being given. Before she knew it Lily was saying goodbye to Jane at Platform 9 ¾. Lily's parents picked up her and her brothers. The ride went quickly, mostly comprised of "How were your teachers/classes" kind of questions. When they got home Al stopped her before she went to her room.

"Lily, can I talk to you for a second," said Albus.

"Uh yeah sure," said Lily.

"Well I know you haven't been on good terms with Seth lately," he started.

Lily groaned. "I don't want to be bothered with this right now," she said.

"I just wanted to know if you'd reach out to him," said Albus.

"I did and he snubbed me!" Lily yelled angrily.

"I know," Albus said. "And Rose was talking to him and he said he felt bad about that," Albus said.

Lily stopped in surprise. "Really?" she asked.

"Yeah, I swear," Albus said.

"Well all right then I'll talk to him when classes start again," said Lily.

The Christmas holidays that year was a welcome change from the fun but overwhelming gathering at the Burrow the year before. Most of the time was spent at the park having snowball fights. The fights started with set rules but degenerated into a free-for- all with everything (including magic) being used. One time a Squib boy named Zeke who had just moved nearby asked to join in. Lily couldn't help noticing he had nice, wavy black hair that fell over his eyes. After the snowball fight ended they all sat down at two benches.

"You have a nice arm," said James. "How old are you?"

"I'm 13," he answered. "I'd be in third year if I was at Hogwarts," he said.

He went on to explain how he had pranked his art teacher who he described as having the looks of somewhere between a goblin and a troll.

"That's awesome, and with no magic," James said. "You're like the little brother I never had," he finished.

"Hey!" Albus said.

Zeke shook hands with them before they went their separate ways. When he held his hand out to Lily her heart quickened and she kept hold of his hand for a moment longer than she needed to. But this experience didn't trouble Lily for long. What was really bothering her was Eve Sage. She already deeply liked the woman and it still bothered her that her father had never mentioned her. At dinner, Christmas Eve she barely spoke a word.

"Are you feeling well Lily?" her father asked concernedly.

She nodded. It wasn't until later that night while her father was washing dishes that she worked up the courage to talk to him about Eve Sage.

"So did you here about the Whomping Willow getting poisoned?" Lily asked.

"Of course," Harry said.

"Well the school got someone to look into it, and I've been talking to her," said Lily.

"Why do you need to talk to her?" he said, still scrubbing a dish.

"Because she's my aunt," Lily said.

Harry stopped what he was doing, with a perplexed expression before he understood.

"So you know about Eve," he said.

"Yes I do," she said.

"I would stop talking to her if I were you," he said.

Anger bubbled up inside Lily at this comment.

"Why? She clearly cares about me. She's a good person, so why do you act like she doesn't exist," Lily spat.

Harry sighed. "The reason I cut off from Eve Sage was because you looked up to her and when she broke my trust I couldn't let her break yours, because I care about my family more than anything," he said.

"She saved my life," Lily said. "Is that something a bad person would do?"

"I'm not saying she's a bad person but she's not a good one either," he said. "Can you please promise me you won't talk to her anymore?" he pleaded.

Lily hesitated for a second.

"I promise," she said.

Her dad gave her a hug. As they broke apart Lily realized that this was the first time she had lied to her father.