The rest of the school year passed without incident. They took their end of year exams and got the results the morning they were to leave the school. Everyone in Lily's friend group retained their position and grades. Lily was happy. She looked up and saw Audrey smiling with her group of friends. Lily excused herself and walked over to Audrey.

Lily bent down and said, "How did you do?"

Audrey passed her the grade report. Lily took it and read that Audrey had got straight-A's except for one B in History. She was ranked number 3 in her class.

Lily said, "Good job, Audrey. Your parents will be very pleased."

Audrey nodded. She said, "Do you know how my sister did last year?"
Lily said, "She was a very private person when it came to her grades, but from what I gathered, she did really well. Possibly top 20."

Audrey said, "Mom and dad should know. I will ask them. Oh, and just a heads up. There's a boy coming next year that is our cousin."

Lily said, "Okay."

They left and boarded the train. It was a quiet ride back to Boston for the seven friends. James and Lily were being met at the train station by their Uncle Ron. Lily saw him before James did, however James ran to their Uncle when he saw them. Lily was more cautious. As she walked up, Lily said, "What is Aunt Hermione's patronus?"

Uncle Ron said, "An otter. A bit paranoid, Lily?"

Lily said, "I'm sure father has been keeping you and Aunt Hermione up to date with the goings on. No more to say about it."

Ron nodded his head. He shrunk their trunks and pocketed them. They went outside the station after the kids bid their friends good-bye. Ron flagged down a passing taxi, and they rode it to the MACUSA offices in Boston where they were to take a portkey back to Britain.

At MACUSA, Ron produced three passports, one for each of them. Lily wondered when those had been produced. At the beginning of the year, they had to scan their wands.

After being handed their portkey and told where to go, Ron said, "Your father had these issued at the Ministry in London. Everyone is transitioning from wands as identifiers, as wands can be taken and your identity stolen. So now, you present this and your wand upon arriving in the country. When your leaving a country, they just look at your passport and make sure you're not doing anything illegal and let you on your way. Got the idea from the muggles."
Lily frowned. She really hated the word muggles. She liked nonmagical better. At the portkey area, they each took a hold of the rope. Ron had their trunks in his pockets. Five seconds after Ron said activate, they arrived in the Ministry of Magic's portkey office in London. Lily wanted to throw up. She really hated portkey travel. Maybe she could talk to her father about traveling muggle way when they go back to America.

After clearing customs, which Uncle Ron had to unshrink their trunks to have them inspected to make sure they weren't carrying anything illegal, Lily and James flooed to Potter Manor, and right behind them came Uncle Ron.

It was about 7pm in England, but the only person welcoming them was Winky.

Winky took their traveling coats and trunks. She said, "Dinner is on the table in the informal dining room. Master Ron, Mistress Hermione mentioned that she was staying late at the Ministry for work, and to eat whatever you wanted."

Ron said, "Thank you Winky. I think I'll eat with James and Lily. Do you know when Harry and/or Ginny will be home?"

Winky said, "Mistress Ginny is at Quidditch match, and Master Harry is investigating a lead on a very wanted criminal."

Ron nodded his thanks and steered the children to the informal dining room.

After dinner, Lily and James retired to their rooms. Ron said that if they needed anything to send Winky or floo call Grimuald place. In her room, Lily found that Gertrude had already unpacked her suitcase. Lily sighed. She had told Gertrude numerous times that she would unpack her own trunk, but she still wouldn't listen.

Lily took a quick shower and sat down in her window. Belle was on her perch and hooted at her. Lily smiled. She had missed Belle, but there was no point in her going with her to Ilvermorny since they used email to keep in contact with family and such over there.

Lily stood up and walked over to Belle. She said, "I missed your company this year, Belle. I hope you had a good time here."

Belle hooted her response. She leaned into Lily's hand. Lily stroked Belle's head.

Lily sat down on her bed and took out her planner to plan her summer. Their homework this year was relatively light, ironically. Only a couple of classes had assigned summer work. Just a couple of papers to write for potions and transfiguration. She figured she would knock that out quickly enough.

A knock soon came at her door, and Lily stood up to answer it. It was James.

James said, "I need to talk to you."

Lily said, "Okay. Come in and have a seat."

James said, "Its about Jasmine. We're both going into our last year of schooling. I'm in love with her. She's brilliant and so beautiful."

Lily said, "I sense a but coming here."

James said, "After graduation, I'm coming back here, and she plans on staying in the states to go to university to get her political science degree. I want to work in the international department in the ministry. However, I do not see how our relationship will survive the long distance."

Lily said, "It will. I'm sure that once she graduates, she may join you here in Britain. Also, I know for a fact that the Ministry of Magic has an embassy office at the MACUSA office in New York. So, you can get stationed there."

James became thoughtful. He then said, "I heard you tried out for some teams."

Lily said, "Tennis and Quidditch. I made both teams. I'm on the tennis team as a starter, and the Quidditch as a first reserve seeker. I also made reserve for the school tennis team that is optional in taking. I need to think about that one."

James whistled. He had heard about the school teams for the non-magical sports. Most of the time, they only allowed fourth through seventh years on the school teams. James said, "What about your electives?"

Lily explained what electives she was taking.

As she was finishing up her talk, her phone rang. She looked at it and saw it was Renee. James nodded and left the room. Lily picked up the phone and said, "Hey Renee. How's Texas?"

Renee said, "Hot. Makes one miss Ilvermorny's cooler temperatures. How's England?"

Lily said, "Nothing much has changed. Mother and father are still working so its just James and I at the house."

Renee said, "Nice. Wish our parents would allow that, but not anytime soon."

Lily laughed. She replied, "Well, we do have our house-elves if that counts, so we're not really home alone."

Renee said, "True. So, what are the plans for the summer?"

Lily said, "I do not know. Hard to tell at this point with mother working Quidditch games and father tracking down bad guys."

Renee said, "I understand that. I know father plans on taking us to Florida for a month in July. Kind of a nice present for the family along with Julia, Irene and Wanda's adoption present."

Lily said, "Nice. Maybe I can convince father to let me come with you."

Renee said, "That would be splendid!"

Lily and Renee talked for about an hour before Lily said she had to go.

The next morning, Lily went down to the informal dining room and had breakfast which for her consisted of cereal and milk. She wasn't a big breakfast person when she was at home.

Winky said, "Your father is still asleep, Miss Lily. Your mother is yet to come home."

Lily said, "Thank you, Winky. Just go about your normal routines for now until father tells you otherwise."

Winky nodded. Lily went up to her room. She changed into some workout clothes and went outside. She decided to go on a jog around the quidditch pitch that her father had updated. She thought about the school team offer. It would be nice to able to be considered part of the school tennis team in her third year, but to her it seemed like a lot of pressure. Then there was the fact that she was on the house tennis and quidditch team.

After her run, Lily returned to the house, and showered. She then grabbed her book bag, and laptop case and went to the library. As she turned on her laptop, Lily heard her father's voice hollering for James to get up and out of bed. Lily laughed.

Lily logged into her school account. This allowed her to see her school grades along with the teacher comments from the year. Lily already knew her grades from the year.

"Lily!"

Lily stood up and followed the voice. She found her father standing in the study. He saw her and relaxed. Harry said, "There you are. Where were you?"

Lily replied, "After breakfast, I went for a run around the quidditch pitch, came back took a shower, and I've been in the library for the past ten minutes."

Harry said, "Okay. James is getting up. I must go into the ministry this morning. You two are going to the burrow until I can return."

Lily said, "Have you heard from Mother?"

Harry's eyes narrowed at the mention of Ginny. Lily took note of that. Harry said, "As far as I know, she is still at the Quidditch match. She has been gone a lot lately."

Lily sighed. Something was going on and she hoped it wasn't something that would shake up her family too much. Lily went back to the library and gathered up the books that she had gathered there for her homework assignments and put her laptop in the carrying case. With some hope, she would be able to get some work done at the Burrow, but she doubted it.

She went and stood by the fireplace. It was then, that she realized what day it was. May 21st. James 17th birthday. Her eyes widened. How could she forget! She was going to have to make up for that. Harry came up behind her and said, "Go on through. Everyone is waiting. As soon as James is up, I'll bring him along. Your mother is waiting. Leave your things here."

Lily nodded and dropped her things by the fireplace. Gertrude popped in and then popped out with them. Lily was soon at "The Burrow." Grandma Weasley enveloped her in a hug.

Grandma Weasley said, "Lily! Look at you! You're getting so big! I've bet you got boys chasing after you just like your Grandma Lily did. Now, go on out to the garden where everyone is waiting. I'm just finishing up in here.

Lily went out to the garden and sure enough, everyone was gathered including Albus. Lily ran over to her brother and hugged him.

Albus said, "Professor McGonagall gave the permission to come home. After all, it's not every day your big brother turns 17."

Lily laughed. She looked amongst the crowd and saw that the Murphy's was there and so was Jasmine and her family. Lily ran over to Renee and Julia. Lily put a hand on her hip and said, "Renee! Not a word to me about this last night?"
Renee said, "I thought you knew. Seriously, how could you forget your brother's birthday!"

Lily said, "You know what we've been dealing with."

Renee nodded.

About an hour later, the birthday boy arrived. Everyone sang happy birthday to James who was stunned at the turnout. He received many gifts including the customary watch from his father.

Lily hung out with her cousins from both sides of the family. Everyone that were Hogwarts students left first as they had to return to Hogwarts before curfew.