Disclaimer: As always, I don't own Harry Potter.
Lily Luna Potter turned the knob on the door of her childhood home and frowned as she found it locked. If her mum was still at work late, her dad was usually always home before she was. The perks of being head auror and all that.
It was Lily's first year out of Hogwarts and she was staying with her parents while she was training to be an auror. She was saving tons of money, and she loved living with her parents and relatives always close by. Lily didn't much like living by herself. Likely a result of being a child of a massive family and always having lots of roommates at Hogwarts.
She stood on the stoop for a second more before unlocking the door and walking in.
"Hello?" she called. She decided to check out the rest of the house, in case one of her parents was asleep. Unlikely, but not impossible. Both of her parents were very lively and she had yet to catch them napping.
The house was silent and she cast a quick hominem revelio, to no success. The house was empty. She trailed a finger over the kitchen table. Strange.
She turned to head over to her cousin's when she found a note on the desk in the corner. She walked purposely over to it and lifted it up with her first two fingers.
Dear Harry and Lily,
I've gone to Hermione's for a cuppa. Be back soon.
Love Gin/Mum
Curiouser and curiouser. So then where was her father?
She stood up straight with a sudden gasp, the letter falling to the floor as everything came together in her mind. It was Halloween.
Lily picked up the letter, placed it back on the desk, and rushed back out the door, aiming her wand at the lock on the door, blue scarf streaming behind her.
She reappeared on the street in Godric's Hollow mere seconds later. She paused for a moment to take in her surroundings before striding off in the direction of the graveyard.
Her father stood alone near the back of the cemetery, one hand on a worn tombstone, as unmoving as stone himself.
Lily clambered over the roots laying all over the ground and slowly made her way towards him. He didn't turn as she approached, but he jumped slightly as she slipped her arm around him.
"Hi Daddy," she said quietly.
"Hi," he whispered back.
She leaned her head on his shoulder and stared at the gravestones with him, thinking about her grandparents. She said nothing, just letting her presence comfort him.
"I only have three memories of them, and one of them isn't mine," he said after a while. "Come to think of it, the second one might not be mine either. Well, maybe half mine."
"Half yours?" Lily's mind was spinning as she tried to follow his train of thought.
"Well, it's the memory of their death. Which could be half Voldemort's memory, and not entirely mine. But that's a bad memory of them."
"Not necessarily," Lily said before she could think about it.
He looked at her curiously and she flushed slightly in the cold autumn air, self conscious.
"It is awful that they died and of course it was a bad way to go, but it shows how strong and pure their love of each other and you was."
For a second her dad's expression didn't move, and she worried she'd offended him. But then he smiled at her, and it was genuine and warm.
"Thanks Lily-loo," he said softly.
"What are the other two?" she asked.
"Well, the one is my patronus memory. Just them talking to me and loving me as a baby." Lily smiled. "And the other one is Professor Snape's memory, which I accidentally saw in his pensieve." Lily chuckled and her dad grinned.
"Accidentally, huh?"
"Totally," he said seriously. But his eyes were twinkling. "Your grandma was a spitfire in it. She didn't take crap from anyone, kind of like someone else I know." He jostled Lily with his elbow and then put his arm around her waist. "She also hated your grandfather, at that point, but I'm told she didn't truly hate him. They were foolish teenagers in the memory and it was nice to see them like that."
He was quiet for a moment. "It was nice to see them like anything, to be honest. I would give anything to have had a few more moments with them. Ones that I actually remember."
Lily just smiled at him and they stood in silence again, staring at the stones.
"We'd best get home before your mother wonders where we are," her dad told her, attempting to lead them away from the graves.
"Wait," Lily said, detaching from him. She conjured a bouquet of roses and laid them tenderly on their graves. "Hi Grandmum and Granddad. I hope you get to be here with us when we come in Halloween, and that it makes up for your bad memories of this day."
She stood but didn't turn around, pretending she didn't hear her dad sniff emotionally behind her. After a long while, she turned around and took his hand.
"Thanks for coming Lil," he said softly as they rounded the corner of their street.
"Anytime, Dad."
