Lily was going to kill Alice Longbottom. This was probably unfair to poor Alice, who had only been trying to encourage her friend, but Lily needed someone to blame for this situation and she didn't want to admit that really it her own fault.

On the face of it there was nothing particularly bad happening: classes had let out for the day and Lily was waiting, having run up three flights of stairs to get there first, in front of the library, hoping to catch the boy she liked and ask him out. Damon Wells was sixteen, with whitish blonde hair and grey eyes. Although he was in Slytherin, he was a calm, friendly person, kind to first years and loved by all the teachers. Unfortunately, he was also a friend of her oldest brother's and three years older than Lily. The thirteen-year-old was absolutely certain he'd say no; no fifth year would ever want to date a second year, but, as Alice was said, asking couldn't hurt. She hoped.

Lily wished she'd had time to brush her hair. She was growing out her old fringe and it was always getting in her eyes. But at least it was red, like her mother's and both grandmother's. She comforted herself with that thought: she was Lily Luna Potter and if he rejected her it would probably only be due to her age.

Actually, the refusal she got was something completely unexpected.

"I'm sorry," he said gently. "But I'm dating your brother."

She stared at him.

If she'd been asking a girl out, like James's probably-girlfriend Abby Walker or Albus's crush Elaine Abbot, Lily would have been less surprised, but Damon was most definitely male and neither of Lily's brothers had ever told her they liked boys or even showed any indication of finding men attractive.

Admittedly, that wasn't saying much. Al was only just beginning to accept that his family didn't hate him for being in Slytherin and was unlikely to want to admit something else which might alienate his parents (although Lily would have thought him an idiot if he actually believed their parents would care), and James had decided that he no longer had time for his little sister after starting Hogwarts. Besides, James and Al had always been closer to each other than they had been to Lily, who had spent more time with her cousin Hugo and Alice, the daughter of one of her parents' friends.

Actually, Lily could see Al being bisexual, even if she would have expected him to be in love with his best friend Scorpius Malfoy (who was definitely straight and in love with Lily's cousin Rose) rather than the boy everyone knew was Scorpius's illegitimate half-brother even if Draco wouldn't admit it.

"Oh," Lily mumbled at last. Then, because Damon was still watching her sympathetically, she asked, "Which one?"

"James," Damon said.

"Oh," Lily said again, weakly. "I thought he was with Abby."

Damon smiled. "No, they've never been together. I don't either of them has ever felt attracted to each other."

"Oh," Lily repeated. Well. That's… that's OK then. Good. You're dating James. That's good. Um. If you'll excuse me…"

She bolted.

James was where she had expected to find him. He was huddled in a corner of the Gryffindor common room with Abby and Emi Kubo, another Muggle-born in his year. The three of them looked up when Lily approached.

"Why didn't you tell me you were gay?" Lily asked.

The humiliation of rejection hadn't had a chance to sting yet, buried under the upset and anger than her older brother hadn't told her that he liked boys. Did he not trust her?

"Come on, Emi," Abby said, standing up. "We'll finish charms up later, Jay."

James nodded and waited for the girls to leave. Lily put her hands on her hips.

Eventually James turned to her.

"Did Al tell you?" he asked.

"Al knows?" Lily asked, feeling hurt. "You told Al but not me?"

Why hadn't he told – why had he thought that their Slytherin brother who had avoided them for years should know and not his little sister. Was that really all James thought of her – his baby sister. Harry Potter's youngest child, his only daughter, James and Albus Potter's little sister, just another red haired Weasley. That's all anyone thought of her. But she'd show them, one day. She just wasn't sure how.

"So he didn't tell you," James said. "Who did?"

"Damon," Lily said. "Because I asked him out but he said he was already dating you."

James's eyebrows rose. "You asked him out? Lily, you're barely thirteen. He's three years older than you! He's sixteen!"

"So?" Lily said. "I'm a teenager I can make my own choices."

James sighed exasperatedly. "What would you even do on a date, Lily? You can't go to Hogsmeade yet, at least not legally, and Mum and Dad would actually kill you if they knew you were sneaking off to see an older boy. You shouldn't even be thinking of boys yet!"

"I bet you didn't think that when you were my age!" Lily cried, then remembered why she was here in the first place. "Why didn't you tell me, James?"

James sighed again and ran a tired hand down his face. He looked at the table in front of him, reaching out to fiddle with a quill that had been left on what looked like half a charms essay.

"I haven't really told anyone in the family," he said, not looking at her. "Only Al, and that was mostly an accident – I forgot he wasn't just one of my friends. I don't want to spoil Mum and Grandma Molly's hopes and I know Dad wants that too, for me to fall in love with someone like Grandmother Lily and give him grandchildren. And I definitely don't want to the newspapers and the rest of the media to find out."

Lily pursed her lips. James made her feel so young sometimes – it was the main reason she'd rarely complained when he stopped talking to her. She hadn't thought of what it would be like for James to tell their family that he wouldn't be following the path they'd set out for him, or for him to tell the rest of the world he wasn't who they thought he was. She knew they wouldn't reject him, but they would be surprised and maybe a bit disappointed he wouldn't increase the size of the Weasley family by more than, possibly, one. As for the wizarding world–

Lily had never understood why her brothers didn't like the attention they got from being Harry Potter's children. She knew they thought less of her because of it, but she didn't mind the legions of people who wanted to know what her favourite colour was and what she ate breakfast. She liked that she could get preferential treatment in a shop, even though she always refused it on the basis that it was unfair, and that everyone knew her name – even if she wished the fame was for something she had done rather than for her parents' sakes.

But James cared. He always had, even if he'd hidden it from his parents and the rest of their family. He became a different person in public, away from their house or his friends' company at school: bolder, brasher, infinitely more Gryffindor, laughing louder, talking more, always cracking jokes and winking at people. Lily knew that he cared and knew that he would be judged – so why hadn't she thought about it?

Sighing, Lily sat down.

"I won't tell anyone," she said. "I just wish you'd told me."

"Thanks," James said. "And I'm sorry."

There was an awkward silence. James seemed determined to look anywhere but at his sister; Lily was trying to find a way to connect to the boy who'd always, even in childhood, felt so distant from her, as if he were from another universe and was only pausing in hers to catch his breath.

"You've got good taste in boys," she said at last, trying to sound flippant.

James snorted and gave her a sideways glance.

"I really don't know how to feel about you asking out my boyfriend."

"Flattered he turned me down?" Lily suggested innocently. "Guilty that you didn't tell me you were dating him so I knew not to ask?"

"Annoyed that my little sister is asking out someone three years older than her?" James countered.

"I'm not a child anymore," Lily complained.

James shook his head and laughed. "If you have to say that it implies you still are, Lils. Do you even have your period yet?"

Lily stared at him.

"How do you know what a period is? You don't even date girls!" she asked.

"My best friend is a girl," James reminded her. "Who do you think had run from outside the girls' bathroom to the girls' dormitory and back when Abby got her first one?"

Lily giggled. The image of her effortlessly cool older brother pelting through the castle to get pads for his friend was much too funny. James glared at her, but he didn't seem angry.

"How did you even get up the staircase? Is that a gay thing, that the enchantments don't work because you're not going to be seducing girls? Do you go up there for girls' nights, too?" she asked, still giggling.

"I have a broom," James said, rolling his eyes and ignoring his little sister's continued laughter. "And no, of course not. Lucy sleeps in that room too. I am not having a girls' night with my cousin." He paused, then added, "Girls' nights are in the Prefect's bathroom. Anyway, I'd hardly call them 'girls' nights', because Damon and Cassius are usually there too."

Lily sank into Abby's vacated chair, put her head down on the table, and laughed. James chuckled.

Lily sat with her brother in the Gryffindor common room, holding her sides at the thought of her distinctly boyish older brother using his Quidditch captain badge to do his nails and hair and complain about boys with his friends. She felt happy again, probably more so than she would have done had Damon actually said yes.

Which reminded her.

"I still need to kill Alice," she said.

James gave her an odd look. "What?"

Lily shook her head and waved her hand at him, indicating that it was nothing concerning him. She rested her head against his shoulder and he wrapped an arm around her.

Anyway, her mother would probably have refused to sign her Hogsmeade permission slip if she'd been caught sneaking out.