Author's Note

Please forgive any spelling and/or grammar errors. I hope you enjoy it, please let me know what you think!

PS I'm not JK Rowling, so I don't own anything :(

Ch 2: Explanations

All at once, Lily was ushered inside Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes and behind the counter where the stairs leading to the upstairs apartment were located. She followed behind her father and grandfather with her aunt and apparently several of her uncles behind her. Possibly her mother too.

Lily stumbled along in the progression in a daze, overwhelmed and uncertain. No one spoke, but they moved with such deliberation that people hastily darted out of their way, pressing their backs against the shelves to make room for them to pass. On the fifth step, her shoe slipped, and she tripped, falling forward.

Automatically, she reached out to Harry. He caught her hand, gripping it hard enough to keep her upright. Large, round eyes, clear as a man-made emerald stared disbelievingly at her, their faces only inches apart. It was easy to see where her ears came from.

Pictures didn't really convey how different he'd looked when he'd been her age. In her time, he was strong, muscular from years of working as an Auror and playing Quidditch with her mum when he was helping her train. But this version in front of her? He was practically scrawny. Not at all what one would expect the savior of the wizarding world to look like.

"Thanks, Dad," she said, smiling awkwardly.

His eyes widened comically, and his jaw fell open. He was saved from replying by her grandfather saying, "Come along. We need to get back to the Burrow and get this sorted."

"Er, do you need help?" Harry asked once they were standing in front of the fireplace in Uncle George's living room. He shifted, looking to Hermione then Mr. Weasley for help while flattening his messy bangs over his lightning bolt scar.

"This won't be my first time going to the Burrow," Lily said gently.

"Right," he replied, nodding.

"Best you go first and warn Professor Dumbledore, Molly," Mr. Weasley suggested, waving his wife forward. Once she was gone in a flash of green, whooshing away like a spinning missile, he nodded to Ron. "You next, Ron."

Lily shuffled back to let him pass, the movement reminding her painfully of the glass still embedded in her back. "Ahh," she gasped, wincing as the fireplace lit once more.

"Dad, she's hurt," Ginny said quickly.

"Oh, um, yes. Let me just -" Mr. Weasley stuttered, waving his wand. Lily jerked, gritting her teeth to bit back a cry of alarm. Every piece of glass felt like it was janked out of her at once, but with a little flick and another wave, the pain vanished. "There now. That's better," he said with a nod.

Obviously he was more used to caring for his boy's cuts and scrapes. Never had she known him to be as abrupt with any of his many grandkids. Guess she'd been lucky to come along later - after he'd had time to practice and perfect his healing spells.

Turning to thank him, Lily came face-to-face with her mum for the first time. "Mum," she gasped, startled by the similarities she'd never before noticed. Funny how age had a tendency to mask them.

The witch before her was a little shorter than her, but they were built similarly. Guess all her mum's curves had developed after having three kids. But their eyes were the same shape. As were their noses and chins. She'd never given it much thought, but her mum was beautiful.

"What did you just call me?" Ginny demanded, glancing about at the others. Shock making her paler than normal. The array of freckles on her face like a dusting of cinnamon.

She'd been dragged from the display of Pygmy Puffs in her brothers' shop, letting her mum guide her upstairs with the rest of the family, but this was the first she was really hearing about what had happened outside - or more particularly, her role in everything.

"Yes, what's this about, Harry?" one of the twins interjected, looking pointedly between him and Ginny. "Hmm?"

"Don't look at me! I'm as lost as the rest of you," Harry yelled, raising his hands defensively. His head whipped around looking a little panicked as he took in the assembled group of Weasleys.

"Kids! The Floo, now, please," Mr. Weasley called, though he appeared just as thrown by the unexpected situation. "Boys are you staying -"

"No way," the one on the left said. Lily blinked, seeing them side-by-side for the first time. It took a moment before she guessed the speaker to be Fred.

"This is too good to miss," George added, grinning widely and nodding to his twin.

"Verity can handle things here for a bit. See you there!" Fred announced, then as one, they Disapparated with a loud crack!

Lily shuffled forward to fall in with the rest of her family's exodus from the shop. The scent of the roast Mrs. Weasley must have started that morning before their shopping excretion filled the warm home intermixed with apples and laundry detergent and a fragrance completely unique to the Burrow. Memories of a thousand visits filled her head, each filled with love and happiness. Nowhere else was as predictably exciting and eventful - not even Hogwarts.

The sight of the familiar chaos of her grandparent's home brought tears to her eyes. Knitting needles whiled away beside the broken down, faded floral armchair that her gran favored. She could hear chickens clucking outside the open windows, their steady clucking occasionally followed by a longer cry when one of the garden gnomes decided to give chase and startled them just for fun. The individual hands on the old family clock were almost all pointing towards home, but there were significantly fewer present to represent her family members than she remembered from the last time she saw it.

Once they were all scattered about the living room of the Burrow, Lily found herself the focus of everyone's scrutiny. At first no one spoke, they simply studied her. A science project on display. It was unnerving. Her skin was crawling from the number of eyes raking over it, and judging by the heat in her cheeks and ears, they'd no doubt turned a glowing scarlet. No wonder her dad hated the zoo and usually refused to take them.

"So who are you?" Ginny asked, breaking the silence.

"How'd you get here?" Fred asked before she had a chance to respond. It was easier to tell them apart now that she'd done it already. There were subtle gestures and body language that she'd grown up seeing George do, that Fred currently wasn't.

"Am I famous?" The last was from Ron, and earned him a snort from multiple directions.

"Quiet!" Harry bellowed, causing a hush to descend at once. He sure knew how to command a room. "Give her a chance to speak - Lily, wasn't it?" Harry asked, smiling slightly as he said her name.

"Yes, that's right," she acknowledged. Swallowing, she finally said, "There was an accident, at the shop. I…"

"Yes?" Mr. Weasley prodded when she didn't continue.

"I'm very good at potions, see, and I thought… well, I hoped… to fix the one Uncle George was having trouble with," she admitted reluctantly.

"What were you thinking? You could have been killed!" Mrs. Weasley hollered, swelling with indignation as she really got into her stride. Rounding on the twins, with her hands on her hips, she continued, "Oh, George, why didn't you have wards up? What were you thinking letting your niece around -"

"Oi! I haven't done anything - yet," George protested, the unfairness of being reprimanded prematurely melting away to a wince and a half shrug.

"It's really not his fault, Gran. My cousin dared me to do it," Lily interjected, defending her uncle. There had been wards, but Roxy knew all her dad's spells and easily bypassed them for her.

"Do you know all of us?" Fred asked, a peculiar look crossing his face. Had he understood what she'd meant by calling the shop George's, and not theirs?

"I… "

"What happened?" he asked quietly, expression so enigmatic a sphinx would envy it.

"There was an explosion, during the final battle and -ahhh!" she cried, bending at the waist to clutch her head. Dual knives had just been shoved through her temples. The explosion of phantom blades attacking her mind was brief, but lingering starbursts decorated the insides of her eyelids in bright whites and deep reds for several seconds afterwards. By the time she stood, everyone was staring at her as though she'd grown a second head. "Wh-what was-s that?" she finally muttered.

Several people looked to Harry for answers, but he appeared as bewildered as her. "I don't know," he said when it became obvious they were waiting for an answer.

"But you get that too, don't you?" Ron said, waving his finger in front of his forehead in little, erratic jerks.

"From my scar, yeah. But that's because of Voldemort. I don't think this is the same thing," Harry replied, the skin around his eyes tight with concern or possibly discomfort. Lily hadn't known that about her father.

"But she's your kid - you don't think you gave it to her, or something, do you?" Ron persisted.

"No?" Harry tried, then annoyed, added, "And how would I know?"

"You were saying you didn't know me because… " Fred interrupted impatiently, returning to the previous topic.

Expect his question didn't make any sense. His daughter was the reason she was there. Hadn't she already told them that? Roxy had the most wicked streak of all her cousins, taking after her father in that regard. Uncle Fred's jokes were always the sharpest, his taunts containing a few more lethal barbs than Uncle George's.

Roxy had used Lily's insecurities to gode her. Each one of her family members had their hangups, same as everyone likely did. Al probably had it the worst of all. Understandably given his carbon copy appearance to their father. And, because she was a Potter, hers were a little better known to the rest of the world.

Lily cared the most about school and her grades, working harder than any of the others, yet Rose was always heralded as the smartest, cleverest, of the bunch - her mother's daughter. Then there was Quidditch. Quidditch ran in her blood. She loved it. Was good at it too. Only, not as good as her cousins. And there were more than enough of them to fill the team. Gryffindor's team lineup had been entirely filled with Weasley's for years now between Bill's three kids, Fred's three, George's two, and Ron's two. Then there was Jamie. The sole Potter to play for Gryffindor. He was unstoppable. So good he'd actually gone pro upon graduating this last year.

So when it came to Potions, Lily actually was the best. She'd gone out of her way to ensure it. Professor Snape's portrait had come to see her during her first year. He'd taken one look at her and stated that he expected her to live up to her namesake's brilliance in the subject or he'd be very disappointed in her. That prodding had been all it took. Well, that and the secret tutoring he'd given a few times during third year when she'd challenged herself to start learning more advanced potions.

It was natural that she'd wanted to show off a bit when Roxy dared her.

"Of course I know you. I know all of you. Uncle Bill too. You're my family," she said, confused as she looked around the room. Hopefully they didn't ask about Uncle Charlie and Uncle Percy. She'd never met them, but gran always cried so much anytime either of them were mentioned.

"Wait, if we're your family, and Harry's your dad, then who's your mum?" Ron asked suddenly, face scrunched up in a way that reminded her of Hugo.

"Really, Ronald," Hermione snapped, rolling her eyes. "Use that thick head of yours."

Ron blinked owlishly. Slowly, he turned first to a flushing Ginny, then Harry. "You've been messing around with Ginny?" he growled.

"What? No! You know I haven't," Harry said, shifting back. His eyes darted around, searching out the best escape route, no doubt.

"I'm with Dean, Ron," Ginny huffed, clearly fed up with her brother butting into her love life.

Wait, had she said Dean? Her mum and dad weren't even together yet? Wonderful. Her presence here, Merlin, her very existence must have been even more a shock to them than she'd first realized.

Lily didn't know when her parents started dating. They'd only ever said while they were at Hogwarts, but that they couldn't be together until after the war. She'd thought that meant they dated for a bit before Harry had gone off to fight Voldemort, but maybe they hadn't.

"But surely you don't plan on staying with him now that," Ron started. His words were interrupted by a knock on the front door, but after a quick glance, Ron waved his hand at Lily, and ended with, "Well - her!"

"That's not really your decision, now is it?" Ginny warned darkly. It was a tone Lily was intimately familiar with. She'd heard her mum use it with Jamie often enough. It meant she was not to be messed with. Not if you didn't want to end up hexed at least.

"Is that what you want?" Harry asked quietly, sounding hurt though he tried to hide it.

"Yeah, Gin, is it?" Fred asked pointedly.

"Can we not talk about this here?" Ginny groaned, silently pleading with Harry. He nodded, letting the subject go. Ron didn't seem to be on board with that plan, but thankfully Mr. Weasley returned with two newcomers trailing behind him.

"Ah, I see we have a visitor. You're a long way from home," Professor Dumbledore said lightly.

Lily stared at him in awe, never expecting to come face-to-face with the great wizard. He was precisely the way Harry and Ron had always described him. To sum it up in a single word, eccentric. Everything from the colorful robes patterned with various astrological nebulas to his absent smile practically screamed that he was full of surprises and deceptively powerful. It was brilliant!

"Yes, Sir," she confirmed, standing up a little straighter. "I'm Lily. Lily Luna Potter, Sir."

"You look just like her," said the second man in a pained whisper.

Lily had been so preoccupied with meeting the extraordinary Albus Dumbledore, that she'd not paid any notice to his companion. But when she did, she was struck by recognition. Remus Lupin.

Teddy was every bit as tall as the rangy man with a very similar bone structure, but he had none of the white scars maring Remus's face. Nor did Teddy look so beaten down and world-wearing. Teddy may be an orphan, but he was extremely well-loved, often spending most of each week at the Potters' home. At least until he'd married Victorie last Christmas, and truly become part of the family at last.

And Remus's eyes were a pale blue, where Teddy favored using his metamorphmagus ability to make his emerald green to match his godfather's.

"And Teddy looks just like you, except - ahh!" she cried out again, nearly dropping to her knees this time when the pain lanced through her mind. A sledgehammer repeatedly bashing her would have hurt less. "Ow," she groaned.

Cautiously blinking against the returned starbursts, Lily recognized the man before her as her cousin, Teddy's, biological father. Lily had never been as close with Teddy as she was with his step-siblings since he was so much older than her.

Harry and he occasionally went to Quidditch games together, and he usually attended family functions at the Burrow, but he'd taken off after graduating to travel with Aunt Luna and work for the Quibbler. Last she heard, he was in Australia and had met a witch there that he planned on marrying.

Teddy really did look like Remus, though. If you ignored the Weasley freckles he usually sported to mimic his step-father's. Teddy's mum, Tonks, had remarried a few years after the war. To Lily's Uncle George, no less. George had officially adopted Teddy. And the couple had had three more children after that. They'd -

"Lily, don't say anymore," Hermione warned in a shrill, piercing voice, interrupting her reverie.

"What have you discovered, Miss Granger?" Professor Dumbledore inquired politely. He smiled indulgently, nodding at her to share what he likely had already guessed himself.

"Whenever she mentions the future, she feels pain… because her memories are changing." Hermione was frowning, a slightly puzzled look on her face. Probably, she was trying to remember something she'd once read in some book or another.

Hermione was half right. Except, they weren't only changing. They were disappearing too. Lily knew her dad had given a talk in her defence class this last spring about the war… only she couldn't recall a single word he'd said. She remembered her other lessons, and she knew he'd spoken specifically about the Battle of Hogwarts, but the content of the talk itself was a blank.

Worse, Lily couldn't remember what those memories had contained prior to their alteration. There was only a slight feeling that something or another had shifted. What else had changed or vanished that she wasn't even aware of yet?

"That would indeed be the case if she were altering the events she was familiar with," Professor Dumbledore agreed, nodding sagely.

"But I haven't tried to change anything," Lily denied. It hadn't even been an hour since she fell out of the window, and she'd not exactly said a whole lot to anyone since it happened.

"Dangerous things happen to those who mess with time," Hermione muttered, offering first Harry then Remus a small, sad smile. "And you've been seen," she added worriedly.

"Can you send me back? Before anything else happens?" Lily asked, her pulse beginning to pound loudly in her ears, a staccato rhythm that drowned out the muted conversations suddenly taking place all around the room.

"I'm afraid time is a complex branch of magical study, and unfortunately it is not one I chose to pursue. I do have friends that are more knowledgeable on the subject that I can contact, but that will have to be secondary to our attempts to defeat Voldemort," Professor Dumbledore said regretfully.

Absently, the wizard moved to touch the witherned, blackened appendage that had once been his arm. Or maybe he'd only meant the gesture to appear absent to the rest of the room, because he was watching her expectantly as he did it. It was a deliberate reminder to her. A silent communication that reminded her he was already dying. It was only a matter of time now, and only one other person knew about it. But she couldn't say anything about it either. Not without further altering the timeline.

Time. He wouldn't have enough left to help her. She was stuck. Stuck in a time where the wizarding war was at war, her entire family targeted. Yet the most dangerous threat to her personally, was her own mind.

"Of course. I understand," she breathed, acknowledging the full truth of her situation.

"Please, try not to mention anything else you know to happen. Not to myself, and certainly not to anyone else. The wrong thing may remove you from the timeline entirely," Professor Dumbledore said, more for the benefit of the others than herself. It was already all she could think about.

"But, Sir, what is she supposed to do here?" Hermione asked loudly. "She can't go to Hogwarts. If the wrong people discovered who she is..."

"They'd use her to get to me," Harry stated flatly. The dull sentence one he already seemed intimately familiar with.

"There will be none of that. Nothing will happen to her, Harry, Dear. I am perfectly capable of protecting and educating my granddaughter right here," Mrs. Weasley said decisively.

The others continued debating what to do with her, but Lily tuned them out. She had nothing helpful to add, and just the thought of speaking made panic claw at her throat and her skull threaten to split open.

"May I be excused? My head… "

It was still hours before dinner, but a steady throbbing behind her eyes was making it difficult to focus. Not to mention she was now petrified of letting anymore slip. One wrong word might very well erase her from existence.

"Of course, Dear. Why don't you stay in Ginny's room. Hermione, you can stay in the twins' old room," Mrs. Weasley suggested. Lily didn't wait for a response before moving to exit the room.

"Lovely," Hermione said dryly, her fingers reaching to brush the faint green smudge under her eye. Lily didn't envy her. They were still finding potential hazards hidden about the Burrow, particularly in that room, and the two hadn't lived there in decades.

A regal eagle owl was perched on the window sill of Ginny's room when she got there. It took two hard shoves to open the stuck window, the paint appearing to have melted and glued the pane shut. Disdain practically radiated from the yellow eyes watching her intently from beneath the pointed dark brown tuffs. They reminded her of horns. How fitting since he had such a devious air about him.

After a moment's hesitation, the owl stuck out his right claw for her to untie the silver ribbon holding the small scroll to its leg. Deep green wax sealed the missive with a family crest etched into it.

She held the mysterious letter gingerly, confusion furrowing her brow. It wasn't as though anyone knew she was here - apart from those gathered below. And if any of them had wanted to contact her, they'd have more than likely just come upstairs.

The owl took off without waiting for a reply, somehow conveying its impatience to be well away from the Weasley's family home and back in familiar territory. She watched the slow, powerful speckled wings beat out a steady rhythm as it departed, noticing two figures in the apple orchard in the process.

Harry and Ginny. To two were facing each other, though Harry's head was ducked, and he was rubbing the back of his neck. It was sweet how shy and bashful he seemed around Ginny. All tongue-tied and flustered. While her parents were extremely private in public, they were in no way so conservative at home. Seeing them like this, Lily was almost grateful she'd get to stick around long enough to watch them fall in love.

Shaking her head, she turned away from the scene playing out below and slid her pinkie under the edge of the wax seal to break it. Unrolling the brief note had her gasping as she saw the identity of the sender first. Neat script, narrow with sharp, spikey flourishes stared up at her, the few words stark against the pale parchment. She read it three times before she was able to process any meaning in the request, her earlier fear returning to make her mind sluggish.

Lily,

If you want me to keep our encounter to myself, meet me behind Ollivander's at midnight. Come alone.

Draco