To say that Lily's mind wasn't on the game the day of the Quidditch match against Gryffindor was putting it mildly. She had been planning out how to stop the creatures from renewing the Portus charm for weeks. She knew that if Eve Sage hadn't been able to find them that she wouldn't have any better luck. She had to wait for the next time they would be renewing the Portus charm. With all that was happening Quidditch was the last thing on her mind.

"Lily, are you going to eat anything?" Seth asked her.

"What? Oh, I'm not hungry," Lily answered.

"Come on, eat some eggs, you have to keep your strength up," said Jane.

Lily mumbled a response before swallowing a few forkfuls of egg and a quarter of a bagel.

Soon the Hufflepuff Quidditch team was called to their quarters. After quickly getting her Quidditch robes on, Lily joined the team to listen to Applebee's speech.

"Today, we shouldn't go out on the pitch expecting to see the team we beat last year in the Quidditch Cup. We need to go out with the mentality that we're playing the team that is the toughest challenge we'll face on the road to…"

Lily tuned out after a while. Who did Applebee think he was kidding? They had beaten Gryffindor the year before when her cousin Dominique was on the team. Now she had graduated and they had Robin at Beater. Maybe Robin could help stop the creatures Lily wondered before realizing how ridiculous the idea would be.

The Hufflepuff team entered the pitch where the Gryffindor team already awaited. Lily positioned herself high in the air where she had a bird's eye view. After the captains shook hands, the Snitch was released and the match started. Lily flew around the field but she saw no gold.

The Gryffindor stands were the first to break out into applause as their team scored. However within ten minutes Hufflepuff had scored twice. About half an hour in Lily saw a glint of gold but quickly lost it.

A while later she heard another cheer. She saw that Hufflepuff had scored again. She watched as one Gryffindor Chaser cut through the Hufflepuff defense as the other two attacked the goalposts from opposite directions. The right Chaser threw the Quaffle at Lysander who saved it, but the Chaser who had cut through the Hufflepuff team knocked it back in making the score 70-50 Hufflepuff.

"Come on, grab the deflections," said Applebee. "Lily, get back to looking for the Snitch," he said.

Lily started looking for the tiny, golden, projectile. Then she saw it near the ground. Then after a moment she saw James going for it. In a panic Lily streaked off for it. But she had no chance to make it before her brother. She prayed for a Bludger, and it came from Robin Wood. It shot at James.

It was a half second too late. James grabbed the snitch and the Bludger went right behind him. He held it up gleaming as the Gryffindors burst into raucous cheering.

"Gryffindor takes the game, 200-70. Hufflepuff fought valiantly, but their four match win streak is over," said Ethan Jordan.

Only after hearing the second year commentator's somber announcement did it sink in to Lily that she had lost her first ever Quidditch match.

The tone of the Hufflepuff Common room later that day was disappointed, but true to their nature many people in her house had been supportive. She heard comments like "You gave it your all," and "It was a good game." Applebee told the whole team that they had shown fight but needed to play better. Privately, Lily knew she had let down her team, and had to make up for it next game. But for now she had other things to worry about.

"We need to have an airtight plan for this. We can't go in without knowing what we're doing," said Seth

"How do we plan for this when we don't even know what the creatures are?" Jane asked.

"They're small creatures that possess at least rudimentary magic," said Seth. "That's enough to at least get something of a plan started," he said.

"I have an idea," Lily said.

"What?" Seth and Jane asked in unison.

"How about something that can incapacitate any creature and could alert the whole bloody building if things go downhill?" Lily asked.

Jane just laughed. "Oh that's good," Seth said smiling.

Lily had to admit she was scared. She had an airtight plan and she'd been in more dangerous situations before. She would've thought that the stomach tying fear would be lessened. Apparently that's not the way it worked. She swallowed hard as she heard the voices again.

"When will the island be drowned?" one voice asked.

"Soon, it will be soon, we must finish our job," the other said.

"But it has been so many days," it answered.

Then suddenly they came into view. Lily was standing right outside the entrance to the Great Hall with her wand drawn. They were small, electric blue creatures. They could be no more than a foot tall. They had pointy ears and long spindly limbs. Lily knew them as pixies. It felt silly that the things she thought of as simple pests were the things she had been scared of. But she knew these had to be taken seriously. They had nearly killed her twice.

"Striki, it has found us," said one.

"Stay calm Priki," Striki said. "Little girl shouldn't you be in bed?"

"No thanks I'm good here," she said in what she hoped was a strong confident voice.

"Move aside little girl, we must get in," said Lily.

"Let's talk first," Lily said. "You're both pixies but you can talk, I've never heard that before," she said.

"The Dark Lady, she made us smart," said Striki.

"So by the Dark Lady, who do you mean?" she said.

"The Lady from another time," said Priki.

"Be quiet Priki," the other one screeched.

"So it was Morgan Le Fay, so she made you smarter in exchange for infiltrating Hogwarts?" said Lily.

"We just had to make the thing glow pretty and she would make us smart," Priki said happily.

"Priki, I said be quiet!" Striki yelled again.

"Then the bad lady came and tried to stop us," said Priki.

"You mean Eve?" Lily asked.

"Yes she would've caught us, but then we found the map," said Striki.

"My brother's map! You took it!" Lily exclaimed.

"With the map we could get around the castle without nobody knowing," Striki said.

"So the only thing I don't get. Why poison the tree? And make the room shrink?" said Lily.

"We had so many days. So many days cooped up doing nothing," Striki said.

"Of course, you're pixies so mischief is part of your nature. No amount of "genetic engineering" could change that," said Lily.

"Let us through little girl," Striki said.

There was a moment of silence then a golden colored jet shot from Striki's hand and hit the door next to Lily. Lily cast a knock back jinx that missed them. Then behind them Jane and Seth threw off the invisibility cloak and sprung into action. At first the element of surprise carried them. Seth and Jane barely missed with freezing charms. Lily hit Priki with Verdmillious Duo temporarily putting him out of the duel.

But the pixies' size and speed worked against them. Striki managed to dodge all their spells and hit some of his own. Finally he cast a red jet of light with both hands and they hit Seth and Jane. Before Lily could respond Priki recovered and disarmed her.

"Our mistress said that one called Potter might try to stop us," Striki taunted. "Are you the one called Potter," he asked.

"Yes, I'm Lily Potter," Lily said. "But I'm not just a Potter," she said. "I'm also… a Weasley," she finished.

Lily reached into her pocket, took out three loudmouths and slammed them on the ground with her fist. She covered her ears immediately, but could still hear the sound. The pixies arms couldn't reach their ears with their hands. After a few seconds they fell to the ground unconscious. Lily hit the loudmouths again, turning them off.

Professor Butler was the first one to find her.

"Lily, what's going on?" she asked.

"I can explain everything," said Lily. "But first I need to thank Fred and Roxanne."

But many miles away in the island of Avalon everything was still going according to plan.