That Monday, Lily, Renee, Emily, and Victoria went to San Antonio to pay their respects to Yolanda at her viewing. Her parents were there. They had heard that they had spoken at Mr. Zabini's sentencing, and he had gotten 15 years for what he had done to Yolanda. Mr. Zabini was then sent to England to answer for the crimes committed during the war with Voldemort as he was found to have the mark.

Mrs. Sampson walked over to them and said, "Victoria, Emily, and Renee thank you for coming. You must be Lily. Thank you for what you did for our daughter."

Lily smiled. She said, "I'm sorry for your loss, Mrs. Sampson. I wish I had known her more. The few times I interacted with her in class, she had a bright mind and was very studious."

Mrs. Sampson said, "Mrs. Allen said that also."

Lily stepped away to walk over to the coffin where Yolanda lay in plain view. She was laid out in her Ilvermorny uniform and robes. Lily wanted to cry.

A hand rested on her shoulder. Lily looked up and saw Mrs. Allen standing there.

Mrs. Allen said, "I know dear. Its hard to see someone such as Ms. Sampson loose out on what the rest of us gets. Her dorm mother, Ms. Evans told me how much she loved the library and everything about Ilvermorny."

Lily smiled.

A few days later, Victoria took the girls into Houston to get their school shopping done. Lily wondered where in Houston the magical shopping district was and voiced her question to Renee.

Renee responded, "It's in the old Astrodome. Before they shut the Astrodome down in 2008, the magical population had to go through a special maintenance door to get into the shopping area. After the non-magicals shut it down to the populace, the MACUSA bought it and brought it up to code and turned the rest of it into a magical shopping mall. Over the years, many of the non-magicals have tried to revitalize it with numerous ideas, but due to the agreement that the non-magical government has with MACUSA in Houston, they can't take back control. It is heavily warded, and only magicals or non-magicals with bracelets if they are related to a magical can see it. It looks like it should to other non-magicals like an abandoned Astrodome."

Lily said, "Wow. A magical shopping mall. Wonder what is in it."

Emily laughed. She said, "All sorts of things." And she went into detail about what the shopping center was like.

They took the floo the shopping center. Which amazed Lily. It put them in a public access point near the food court. Out in the food court, Lily looked around in wonder. You could see four levels of the shopping center.

"It's a wonder isn't it."

Lily turned and saw a boy of about their age standing there. Lily said, "It is."

He said, "Oliver Stanton."

Lily wondered how she should introduce herself. She didn't want to be bombarded with questions while doing her shopping. "Lily Evans."

Oliver raised an eyebrow at that. He said, "Nice to meet you Ms. Evans. Here to do your school shopping?"

Lily said, "Of course. My cousin, Renee is helping me out. We don't have these kind of shopping centers back home."

Oliver said, "British huh? This is one of our bigger shopping centers. Some of the outlying cities of Houston have their own, but most people come here for their school shopping. What school do you go to?"

Lily said, "I go to Ilvermorny up in Massachusetts."

Oliver said, "Small world. So do I. Third year, Horned Serpent."

Lily said, "Second year, Horned Serpent."

Lily knew the truth was out of the bag then, but Oliver didn't say anything.

Oliver said, "I must be going. My friends are waiting on me. See you around, Ms. Evans."

Renee said, "Mom told me that I can take you and be off. Where do you want to start?"

Lily said, "I don't know where to start. I'm going to need new uniforms, and underclothes. Then the usual supplies needed for class. I would love to check out the electronics store."

Renee said, "Okay. How about we just start from the top and work our way down."

Lily said, "Sounds good."

By the time they were done, Lily had quite a bit of clothes, her schoolbooks, a new school bag, her own laptop and printer, a music player with country music, a full tennis players set, several new posters for her room, and she was even eying a violin. Their music teacher was going to teach them how to play the violin first thing this year, when they had music, and Lily was really looking forward to that.

Back at the ranch, Renee and Emily watched her unpack her purchases. Lily turned to them and said, "I'm just waiting for my father to call me and berate me for how much I spent today."

Renee laughed. She said, "I think Harry was kind of expecting it."

Lily smiled. Once her clothes and stuff were put away, Lily and Renee went downstairs to for supper.

On July 29th, Lily and the Murphy's took a portkey to England. Lily was going for her father's birthday and the Murphy's were going to visit Mr. Murphy's mother and to attend to other family matters. They were all surprised at how long Belinda had been holding on. Lily had a feeling that she was doing it until Petunia at least came and saw her.

At Potter Manor, her brothers bombarded her. Her mother looked her over and smiled. After supper, Lily was pulled into her father's study. Lily tried to look worried.

Harry said, "Lily, earlier this month you spent quite a bit out of your trust vault. Care to explain?"

Lily said, "We went to the magical shopping mall in Houston. I got some new clothes, my schoolbooks, a new school bag as my old one looked worn and I wanted one in my house colors. I got some electronics that would help me with my homework while I'm here in Britain without having to worry about writing it all out and then having to hurriedly type it when I got to America. I got a music player and music to play."

Harry said, "Okay. I see now. I just never thought it would be that much."

Lily said, "I think we kind of did go overboard on the clothes, but there was too much to choose from. It was hard to decide."

Harry laughed. He said, "I understand."

The party on the 31st was well attended by the Weasley family and friends. Harry had just wanted it left to them, but it still amounted to quite a party. Lily tried to ignore her phone vibrating every five minutes. Thomas was getting annoying on that part. He knew she was in England with her family and that today was her father's birthday.

Professor McGonagall came over and said, "How are you doing, Lily?"

Lily said, "I'm good, Professor."

Professor McGonagall replied, "I was rather upset that you decided not to attend Hogwarts like your brothers, but from what I heard through Sarah, you are doing extremely well at Ilvermorny."

Lily said, "You know Mrs. Allen?"

Professor McGonagall said, "She's my second cousin on my mother's side. Are you happy there?"

Lily said, "Couldn't be even happier, professor. I've made some great friends."

Professor McGonagall nodded and left her at that. Lily took the opportunity to slip away from the party to answer Thomas.

Lily called him. She said, "Thomas, you know I'm at a family function. What is so urgent you are texting me every ten minutes?"

Thomas said, "I thought that wasn't until later."

Lily sighed. She said, "We are five hours ahead of you Thomas. Its almost eight o'clock at night here. Now what do you want?"

Thomas said, "I wanted to talk to you, but if your going to be that way."

And he hung up. Lily sighed. She leaned up against the wall. Thomas was getting rather possessive lately. She so didn't want this drama so early in her schooling. She went back out to the party, but her mood was less than happy.

Ginny picked up on it.

The next day, Lily was repacking her suitcase to for the portkey that night, when Ginny came into her room. Ginny said, "What happened last night? You disappeared for about ten minutes, and when you came back, you were subdued."

Lily said, "Its Thomas. He's gotten rather possessive lately. He knew I had a family function last night, yet he was texting me every five to ten minutes wanting to know what I was doing. I slipped away to let him to see what he wanted, and it was just to talk. He didn't seem to care that I was at my father's birthday party."

Ginny said, "That is disconcerting. I think it might be time to let this one go, Lily. I'm sure Allen and Victoria can put you on their phone plan if you want, or you can get one of those pay as you go phones."

Lily nodded. She needed to talk to Renee, but they weren't going to have a chance to talk until after they arrived back in Houston.